At least seven people were killed in clashes Wednesday west of Tripoli between tribesmen and forces loyal to Libya's unrecognized government, an army officer said.

The United Nations and global rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty urged Egypt on Wednesday to drop a renewed investigation of rights activists that has also strained ties with Washington.

U.N envoy Martin Kobler said he was prevented from traveling Wednesday to the Libyan capital for his work on the installation of a new unity government.

Tripoli is under the control of an unrecognized administration backed by a coalition of militias including Islamists that opposes the new government from starting work inside the country.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday swore in 10 new ministers in a cabinet reshuffle, as Egypt struggles to revive an economy battered by falling tourism revenues and foreign investments.

Israel's intelligence minister accused Belgian leaders of laxity Wednesday over the threat posed by homegrown Muslim radicals, the second cabinet member to hit out after the deadly bombings in Brussels.

"If in Belgium they continue to eat chocolate, enjoy life and parade as great liberals and democrats while not taking account of the fact that some of the Muslims who are there are organizing acts of terror, they will not be able to fight against them," Yisrael Katz told public radio.

Syria's government has given a U.N.-backed taskforce permission to deliver aid to more besieged areas, but two opposition strongholds and a city controlled by the Islamic State group remain off limits, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

Jan Egeland, who heads the humanitarian taskforce co-chaired by the United States and Russia, said there has been sustained progress in delivering life-saving supplies.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Wednesday seeking to gauge whether Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss ways to ease Bashar Assad from power in Syria.

American officials see movement on Assad's future as key to giving momentum to the peace talks being led by U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva to end Syria's civil war.

Turkey has detained a Japanese citizen in the south of the country on suspicion of seeking to cross the border into Syria to join Islamic State (IS) jihadists, the Dogan news agency said on Wednesday.

The young man aged 24, named as M.M., was detained late on Tuesday in the Nizip district of the southern city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

The Palestinian government has announced products from five Israeli companies will be prevented from entering the occupied West Bank, calling it a response to a similar decision by the Jewish state.

"In response to the Israeli decision to ban the entry to Jerusalem of products from five Palestinian companies, the government decided to ban the entry of products from five Israeli companies" to the West Bank, a statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday said.

A U.S. air strike on an al-Qaida training camp in Yemen has killed at least 40 fighters in a major blow to the jihadists who have been expanding their territory in the war-torn country.

The extremists have exploited a security vacuum in the Arabian Peninsula nation since Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels seized the capital in September 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee.