At least 19 people died and more than 107 were injured when two railroad passenger cars derailed just south of Cairo after midnight Monday, the health ministry said.

The accident comes less than two weeks after a new transportation minister was appointed to overhaul the rail system, and just two months after a deadly collision between a train and school bus.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are set to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria at a meeting at the end of January, a Russian diplomat said Monday.

Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov, told the Interfax news agency that the meeting is likely to take place as Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.'s peace envoy to Syria, presents a new report on the situation in the country.

The Palestinian Authority on Monday slammed a pre-election visit by hardline Israeli nationalist leader Avigdor Lieberman to a West Bank mosque as a "provocation" and "completely unacceptable."

"This visit is a provocation to Palestinian feeling," government spokeswoman Nour Odeh told Agence France Presse. "Especially by Lieberman, who has declared his aggression against the Palestinian people and who supports settlement."

Iran is on track to be able to produce material for at least one nuclear bomb by mid-2014 as sanctions hit its economy but fail to stop the atomic program, a U.S. think tank said Monday.

The Institute for Science and International Security, a private group opposed to nuclear proliferation, called for tougher U.S. economic sanctions against Iran and pressure on major trading partners to isolate Tehran.

More aid must reach Syrian refugees to meet "expanding needs", the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program said Monday ahead of a visit to camps in Turkey.

"This is a global crisis and we are working together to make sure that we meet the needs of those seeking our support," Ertharin Cousin said in an interview.

A Palestinian man shot by Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday died of his wounds in hospital, a Palestinian medical official told AFP.

Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra earlier identified the man as Mustafa Abu Jirad, a 21-year-old farmer, saying he was shot in the head near Beit Lahiya, in an area near Gaza's border with Israel.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Monday renewed a call for Israel to scrap its plans to build settlements in a controversial West Bank area where police have evicted dozens of Palestinian activists.

Ban is "following with concern" developments around the "E1" area on the outskirts of Jerusalem, said a statement released by his press office.

A Libyan court Monday adjourned to February 11 the trial of Moammar Gadhafi's last premier al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, accused of killing civilians and financial crimes.

Defense lawyers had asked for the delay to allow time to summon witnesses and the judge demanded that all witnesses testify in a single hearing.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi visits on Tuesday Iran, his country's key regional ally, a week after Syrian rebels freed 48 Iranians held hostage for more than five months, the foreign ministry said.

"The Syrian prime minister, leading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, arrives in Tehran tomorrow," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by the ISNA news agency on Monday.

Fifty-seven countries on Monday demanded that the U.N. Security Council refer the Syria conflict to the International Criminal Court for a war crimes investigation.

Switzerland sent a petition demanding the move to the 15-member Security Council, the only body that can refer the case to the ICC but which is bitterly divided over the 22-month-old war.