The Saudi foreign ministry on Tuesday urged its citizens to leave Syria and not to travel to the Arab nation that has been hit by months of deadly anti-regime protests.

"Due to the security situation, Saudi Arabia urges its citizens to leave Syria and not travel there," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Hundreds of Palestinian civil servants called Tuesday for the labor minister to be fired after he made disparaging remarks about government workers.

Ahmed Majdalani has been under fire after remarks he made about government workers, calling them "brothers of whores," were accidentally broadcast live on Palestinian local radio on Thursday.

A U.N. expert tasked with investigating alleged human rights abuses in Iran will talk to Iranian activists in France, Germany and Belgium this week after a request to visit the country itself was refused.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed will meet Iranians living in the three countries during a fact-finding mission from November 30 to December 8.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Tuesday named the head of the Islamist party that won last week's election as prime minister to lead talks on the formation of a coalition government, the palace said.

Abdelilah Benkirane, head of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), was summoned to the palace after results showed his party won the biggest block of votes in Friday's ballot.

England manager Fabio Capello has tipped former clubs AC Milan and Juventus to fight for the Serie A title this season.

Speaking to journalists on a trip to Milan for a convention, the 65-year-old put his faith in his former employers, who are separated by a point at the top of Serie A.

Seven Lebanese men on Tuesday denounced Syria's authorities for what they said was false usage of footage filmed in 2008 to prove "terrorist" involvement in unrest rocking Syria.

The seven men at a press conference in Tripoli's impoverished Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood showed what they said was the original video they had shot and posted on Facebook, and identified themselves one by one.

Syria's foreign minister will attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation aimed at finding ways to end the bloodshed in his country, an OIC official said Tuesday.

The meeting to be held on Wednesday comes just days after the Arab League imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Syria, including a ban on travel of Syrian officials to Arab countries.

Iranian pro-regime students stormed the British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The mob surged past riot police into the British Embassy compound — which they pelted with petrol bombs and stones — two days after Iran's parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

Flag carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) was grounded in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday as pilots staged a 48-hour strike over the dismissal of a colleague undergoing treatment for cancer.

"We have grounded 10 out of 15 flights today," said Captain Fadi Khalil, head of the pilots' union.

Japanese police said Tuesday they will be taking on two new recruits -- a pair of toy poodles.

Two-year-old Fuga and one-year-old Karin have passed tests to become police canines for Tottori Prefecture Police, said a spokesman.