U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon insisted Monday that U.N. experts be granted unrestricted access to Syrian sites under investigation for chemical weapons use as they began their mission.

Ban added that "the government and all other entities within Syria must ensure the safety and security of the mission."

Human Rights Watch called on the Egyptian government Monday to stop using live ammunition against protesters, as it challenged the official death toll from day one of the ongoing crisis.

In a statement, the New York-based human rights group said the large-scale use of live ammunition was not only unjustified, but also a failure to abide by international policing standards.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urged Egypt's military rulers to take an "inclusive" approach to governing but said Washington's influence was limited after security forces launched a brutal crackdown.

Hagel reiterated Washington's appeal for dialogue amid ongoing bloodshed in Egypt but acknowledged that the United States could not dictate events there.

Two Canadians have been arrested in Egypt amid spiraling bloodshed in the Mideast nation, a Canadian official said Monday.

"The Government of Canada is very concerned that two Canadian citizens have been arrested in Egypt," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Lynne Yelich said in a statement.

More than 30,000 Syrians have entered Iraq in recent days, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Monday, one of the biggest movements of people fleeing violence since their homeland's conflict began.

Humanitarian workers reported refugees fleeing from as far afield as Damascus and Aleppo, and said the massive influx had left aid agencies scrambling for critical infrastructure and supplies.

A U.S. aircraft carrier and accompanying warships have passed through the Suez Canal en route to the Arabian Sea despite strains in U.S.-Egypt relations, the Navy said Monday.

The USS Harry Truman, along with two guided-missile destroyers and two cruisers, transited the strategic canal on Sunday without incident for a mission designed to promote "stability" in the region and provide air support for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, the Navy said in a statement.

Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur on Monday urged Egypt's military to remain "firm" despite condemnation of a crackdown on Islamist protesters, saying the fate of the country was at stake.

"Jordan's position towards what is happening in Egypt seeks to support the state. The Egyptian state must not melt or erode or turn into a failed country," Nsur told a news conference.

Outside a morgue in Egypt's capital, a woman mediates between her parents. Her mother cannot believe the decomposing body before them is their son. Her father insists that it is.

"What's going on? Why hasn't anyone claimed this body," shouts one man, a surgical mask pulled below his mouth.

Egypt's Coptic Catholic community on Monday offered its support for the armed forces against what it defined as "terrorist" violence by supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

In a message relayed by the Italian episcopal news agency SIR, Catholic Coptic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak said there were no real divisions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt.

Top Russian and U.S. officials will meet in The Hague next week to discuss preparations for a long-delayed international peace conference on Syria, Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Monday.

"This meeting will take place in the middle of next week in The Hague," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.