A U.S.-Israeli citizen being held in Egypt on espionage charges is not a spy, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli military radio on Tuesday.

"I can say categorically that this student, who may have behaved bizarrely and irresponsibly, has no ties with Israeli, American or even lunar intelligence services," Lieberman said.

Russia and China boycotted U.N. Security Council talks on a draft resolution condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on opposition protests, diplomats said Monday.

European powers stepped up their campaigning meanwhile for the resolution with one top envoy saying the delay in Security Council action has cost hundreds of lives in Syria.

The U.S. House of Representatives vote late Monday to prohibit the use of funds for American military operations in Libya.

Lawmakers adopted the amendment to a military appropriations bill by a vote of 248 to 163.

The trial of ousted Tunisian leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in exile in Saudi Arabia, will start in his absence on June 20, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi told al-Jazeera Monday.

"I am announcing it for the first time, the trial will start on the 20th", Essebsi told the television channel.

The motorcade of Jordan's king came under a rare stoning attack in the south on Monday, a security official said in comments denied by both the palace and government a day after the monarch vowed to enhance reforms.

"(The rear) part of King Abdullah II's motorcade was attacked with stones and empty bottles by a group of men in their 20s and 30s after the king's car entered (the southern city) Tafileh," the official said of Monday's royal visit.

A U.S. man based in Scotland has unmasked himself as the author of the "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog, sparking fears Monday that his hoax could harm real-life opponents of the Syrian regime's crackdown.

Tom MacMaster, a bearded 40-year-old married Edinburgh University masters student, apologized on Sunday and confessed that he was "Amina Abdallah Arraf", supposedly a Syrian lesbian.

Kuwait's deputy premier, Sheikh Ahmed Fahad al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, has submitted his resignation from the cabinet, a minister said on Monday.

"Sheikh Ahmed has submitted his resignation and the cabinet referred it to the ruler," state minister for cabinet affairs and government spokesman Ali al-Rashed told reporters.

Israeli police arrested four Israeli settlers in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on Monday, accusing them of "attacks on public order," a police spokeswoman said.

Among those detained was a minor suspected of setting fire to Palestinian property, she said, adding that police had seized various items including computers when they arrested the suspects.

Israel's military police on Monday opened an inquiry into the theft of airplane parts, a spokeswoman said without confirming press reports that eight fighter-jet engines had been stolen.

"The military police have opened an inquiry into the matter," she told Agence France Presse without giving further detail or confirming reports of the theft from Tel Nof airbase near Tel Aviv.

King Abdullah II on Sunday vowed reforms leading to parliamentary government and a tougher fight against anti-corruption, warning against "chaos" and the media creating a climate of "hatred."

In his first televised address since pro-reform protests began in January, the king pledged a new electoral law that would result in "a parliament with active political party representation... that allows the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority... in the future."