A key backer of Algeria's former leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika and one of the country's top businessmen, Ali Haddad, was jailed for six months Monday for holding two passports, state television reported.

Haddad was arrested in late March on the border with Tunisia, in possession of two passports and undeclared currency, days before Bouteflika resigned in the face of mass protests.

Military chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah said Tuesday that those who oppose the army were "enemies of Algeria", as the country's protest movement demands an overhaul of the entire regime.

Egypt accused the United Nations on Wednesday of seeking to "politicise" the death in court of the country's first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi by calling for an "independent inquiry".

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called on Russia and Turkey Tuesday to "stabilize the situation" in the Syrian province of Idlib, rocked by intense fighting between pro-government and jihadist-led forces.

A British lawmaker who led a review last year of the detention of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi said Tuesday there should be an independent international probe into his death.

Thousands joined in prayer in Istanbul on Tuesday for former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi who died a day earlier after collapsing during a Cairo court session.

Clashes between pro-government forces and jihadist-led groups that control Syria's northwest killed at least 45 combatants on Tuesday, a war monitor said.

Russia on Tuesday called for restraint to avoid escalation in the Middle East after the US said it was deploying additional troops due to heightened tensions with Iran.

Egypt's first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi was buried Tuesday as calls mounted for an independent investigation into the causes of his death after he collapsed in a Cairo courtroom.

The Islamist leader, who was overthrown in 2013 after a year of divisive rule and later charged with espionage, was buried at a cemetery in eastern Cairo's Medinat Nasr, one of his lawyers said. 

Saudi forces have intercepted two explosives-laden Yemeni rebel drones, one of which targeted a southern city that has repeatedly come under attack over the past week, a Riyadh-led military coalition said early Tuesday.

One of the drones targeted a civilian area in Abha city and the second was shot down over Yemeni air space after it was launched towards the kingdom, the coalition fighting the Iran-linked Huthi rebels said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency.