Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi appointed on Tuesday a new judicial investigator into the disappearance of revered spiritual leader Imam Moussa al-Sadr.

"In response to his request, Judge Samih al-Hajj has been exempted from looking into the case as an investigator at the Judicial Council,” Rifi announced in a released statement.

Italy's navy on Tuesday rescued two boats packed with more than 500 migrants including 133 minors in the latest influx that has brought in more than 36,000 people so far in 2014.

A navy helicopter spotted the boats -- one towing the other following an accident -- south of Sicily on Monday.

Libya's rival armed groups took position Tuesday for or against a renegade general's campaign to rid the country of jihadists as Islamist leaders in parliament vowed not to cede power.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which with its more radical Islamist allies forms the largest bloc in parliament, rejected calls for MPs to go into recess after approving a budget and holding a new vote of confidence in the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Miitig.

Mohammed is openly disdainful towards the hundreds of African migrants now entering Algeria in a bid to reach Europe as worsening violence makes transit through neighboring Libya ever more perilous.

Algeria has long prided itself on its African identity but the mounting influx of migrants from south of the Sahara has sparked a racist backlash, even in sections of the media, that has shocked traditionalists.

Washington is closely monitoring an upsurge of violence in Libya, but has not decided yet whether to order the closure of its embassy in Tripoli, a U.S. official said Monday.

Libyan gunmen stormed parliament in southern Tripoli on Sunday, hot on the heels of an anti-Islamist offensive launched by a rogue general in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Saudi Arabia closed its embassy in Tripoli on Monday and evacuated all its diplomats over "security" concerns in Libya, the SPA state news agency reported.

The Saudi ambassador to Libya Mohammed Mahmud al-Ali told SPA the kingdom also closed its consulate in the North African country "due to the current circumstances and the security situation."

The Libyan government on Monday proposed an initiative aimed at saving the country from plunging into civil war, calling on the disputed parliament to go into recess, a statement said.

The statement on the government website said that the General National Congress, or parliament, should "take a recess after the vote on the 2014 budget and until new parliamentary elections".

Rogue Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, who was readying an offensive against Islamist groups in the country's restive east Sunday, is a former rebel commander accused by Tripoli of staging a coup.

Haftar unleashed his so-called National Army on Friday against groups he called "terrorists" in Benghazi, Libya's second city and the hotbed of an Islamist militancy, killing at least 79 people and wounding 141 others.

Forces loyal to a rogue Libyan general attacked the country's parliament Sunday, expanding his eastern offensive against Islamists into the heart of the country's capital. Gunmen detained some 20 lawmakers and officials, authorities said, as black smoke rose over the parliament.

The violence, three years after the 2011 civil war that toppled strongman Moammar Gadhafi, threatens to further splinter a country dominated by militias.

At least 79 people have been killed and 141 others wounded in fierce clashes in eastern Libya between armed groups loyal to a rogue ex-general and Islamist militias, a health ministry official said Saturday.

Libya's government accused the "outlaw" retired general, Khalifa Haftar, and his irregular forces of trying to carry out a coup as they fight to crush militants in the restive eastern city of Benghazi.