A group of Omani rights activists arrested in early June for demanding political reforms in the country have been charged with defamation and illegal gatherings, their lawyer said on Monday.

Fourteen activists, including bloggers, writers and lawyers, were charged with participating in "illegal gatherings and blocking roads," said Yacoub al-Harithi after the court hearing in the capital Muscat.

Egypt's president-elect Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's winning candidate, benefits from unprecedented electoral legitimacy, but analysts say his leadership will be limited by the entrenched powers of the military.

This situation could lead to alternating periods of compromise and tension between the Brotherhood -- which hopes to loosen the grip of the military -- and the army -- which could exploit future failures by the new president to discredit Islamist rule.

Tunisia's post-revolution political alliance faced its deepest crisis yet Monday after the Islamist prime minister ignored the president's opposition to the extradition of a former top Libyan official.

President Moncef Marzouki was furious that Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali ordered the transfer to Libya of Moammar Gadhafi’s last prime minister, Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, without his consent.

Violence killed 13 people across Syria on Monday, as the army pounded towns and cities in an attempt to regain control of territory lost to rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A rescue plane searching for a Turkish fighter jet that had been shot down over the eastern Mediterranean was itself placed in the crosshairs by the Syrian military, a European diplomat told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The Turkish army Casa CN-235, a twin-propeller transport, was targeted by a Syrian ground-to-air defense system as it looked Friday for the F4 Phantom jet that had been downed earlier with its crew of two, said the diplomat.

The Kuwaiti cabinet submitted its resignation to the oil-rich Gulf state's ruler on Monday, days after the top court nullified legislative elections, the private Al-Rai television channel reported.

"The Kuwaiti cabinet submitted its resignation to the emir," Al-Rai announced, without giving further details.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday congratulated Mohammed Mursi "for winning the people's trust" following his victory in Egypt's presidential election, a palace statement said.

"We congratulate you for winning the people's trust. We wish Egypt all progress and prosperity," the king told Mursi, saying Amman is "keen to enhance relations" with Cairo.

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation's executive committee has recommended suspending Syria's membership in the pan-Muslim grouping, it said in a statement on Monday.

The committee has "recommended to the meeting of the council of foreign ministers to be held in Djibouti the suspension of Syria's membership in the OIC in light of the bloody events taking place in the country," said the statement that followed a meeting in Saudi Arabia late Sunday.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdissi on Monday insisted that a Turkish F-4 Phantom jet its forces shot down on Friday had "violated Syrian sovereignty."

"The Turkish warplane violated Syrian airspace, and in turn Syrian air defenses fired back and the plane crashed inside Syrian territorial waters," he told a news conference that he said would "refute the lies" of Turkish officials.

The European Union imposed fresh sanctions on President Bashar Assad's regime Monday, targeting six government ministries and firms and one individual, while clarifying an existing EU arms embargo.

The measures were approved by foreign ministers of the 27-nation-bloc meeting in Luxembourg, an EU statement said.