U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad on Thursday for talks with Iraqi leaders, state television said, after a visit to Kuwait in which he called for a new era in relations between the two countries.

After his arrival, the U.N. secretary general went into a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, said Iraqiya TV, without providing further details.

Egyptian troops deployed tanks outside the presidential palace on Thursday as the nation awaited President Mohamed Morsi's first address since streets clashes between his supporters and opponents rocked the capital.

The military set up a barbed wire barrier 150 meters (yards) from the palace, after ordering Morsi allies and foes alike to pull back, an AFP correspondent reporter.

Thieves have made off with several US-made engines for F-16 warplanes worth millions of dollars from an airbase in central Israel, army radio reported on Thursday.

Israel's Walla Internet site said preliminary findings after an investigation by military police indicated there may have been collusion between the thieves and personnel, either military or civilian, at the base.

The United States said Wednesday it was aware of informal offers of asylum to Syrian President Bashar Assad by countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner gave no details, referring reporters to others governments after being asked about speculation that the Syrian president was weighing asylum offers from Latin America.

Tunisia's main labor union on Wednesday called for a nationwide general strike next week, as tensions rose in the run-up to the second anniversary of the country's revolution.

"The UGTT (General Union of Tunisian Workers) has decided that a general strike will take place on Thursday, December 13, across Tunisia," it told Agence France Presse.

Five people were killed Wednesday and at least a dozen injured in a moderate earthquake that struck eastern Iran near the Afghan border, a provincial emergency official said.

"Based on the latest reports from the scene, the quake killed five people and injured 12 others," Mohammad Ali Akhoundi, head of South Khorasan province's crisis management service, told Mehr news agency.

Almost 200 Libyan prisoners have escaped from a jail in the southern town of Sabha in unclear circumstances, officials said on Wednesday.

"One hundred and ninety-seven prisoners escaped the prison of Sabha yesterday (Tuesday)," a member of the security services told AFP on condition of anonymity.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on all warring parties in Syria to stop fighting immediately, saying there is no military solution to the conflict.

"The military option cannot be a solution. The violence must stop immediately," Ban told reporters in Kuwait City after talks with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on all warring parties in Syria to stop fighting immediately, saying there is no military solution to the conflict.

"The military option cannot be a solution. The violence must stop immediately," Ban told reporters in Kuwait City after talks with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

A mortar shell fired from war-torn Syria slammed into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Wednesday without causing any casualties or damage, the Israeli army said.

"A shell fired during fighting in Syria landed by mistake on the center of the Golan plateau," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.