Looking dazed, a thin and pale Gilad Shalit emerged from a pickup truck Tuesday under the escort of his Hamas captors and the Egyptian mediators who helped arrange the Israeli tank crewman's release after more than five years in captivity.

Freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, an ashen-faced Shalit struggled to breathe in an interview with Egyptian TV minutes after his release, saying that he had feared he would remain in captivity for "many more years." He said he was "very excited" to be headed home and that he missed his family and friends.

Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, has resigned, local media reported Tuesday, amid tensions over a graft scandal involving several MPs.

Citing "high ranking" sources, Al-Anbaa newspaper said Sheikh Mohammad, who has been foreign minister in the oil-rich Gulf state since 2003, "submitted his resignation on Monday and did not attend the cabinet meeting."

Syrian troops killed 25 people, 21 of which were shot dead during search operations in the flashpoint central city of Homs on Monday, a human rights watchdog said.

"Twenty-one people, some civilians and others police officers, were killed in Homs during operations by the army and the security services in several neighborhoods of the city," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday pushed ahead with his political reform plans, appointing a new prime minister and intelligence chief after Maaruf Bakhit's government failed to meet growing calls for change.

The king named International Court of Justice judge Awn Khasawneh, 61, as prime minister, telling him that his government's "top priority is political reform."

A deal to release a U.S.-Israeli joint national held in a Cairo prison in exchange for 81 Egyptians held in Israel is imminent, unnamed Israeli officials told public radio on Monday.

Ilan Grapel, who has been in custody since June 12, is accused of being an agent of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and of sowing sectarian strife and chaos in Egypt during the uprising which ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.

Libyan fighters raised the new government's flag over the oasis of Bani Walid Monday and hoped for the swift fall of the other remaining redoubt of Moammar Gadhafi loyalists, Sirte, as relatives of his henchmen fled.

Cries of Allahu Akhbar (God is Greatest) and bursts of celebratory machinegun fire filled the desert air over the centre of Bani Walid, as the new regime troops feted their capture of the loyalist bastion after a six-week siege.

Iran plans to produce the first of its own enriched nuclear fuel within five months, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"We hope to produce the first domestic-made nuclear fuel plate within the next four to five months," Salehi, former head of Iran's atomic energy organization, was quoted as saying.

Tunisia, which launched the "Arab Spring" when its outraged citizens ousted a seemingly entrenched dictator in January, again takes the lead with a historic vote Sunday for the drafters of a new constitution.

"It is a historic turning point. Tunisians do not have the right to make mistakes, the world is watching this first test on the road to democracy," a European diplomat said, amid an election campaign dotted with violent outbursts, some by Islamists.

King Abdullah II on Monday named International Court of Justice judge Awn Khasawneh as prime minister, replacing Maarouf al-Bakhit, whose government has been accused of failing to meet growing demands for reforms, a government official said.

"Khasawneh is currently meeting with the king, who entrusted him to form the new government," said the official who requested anonymity.

Syrian soldiers fought gunmen suspected to be army defectors in the flashpoint central province of Homs on Monday in clashes that left five troops dead, a human rights group said.

"Five soldiers were killed and others wounded as a result of clashes pitting the army and security forces against gunmen believed to be defectors at a checkpoint near the town of Qurayn in Homs province," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Agence France Presse.