A warning of a possible attack in the part of Yemen's capital where U.N. offices are located has prompted an order for staff to stay home on Thursday, a U.N. source said.

"Staff of the U.N. mission and U.N. agencies have received instructions not to turn up for work on Thursday," the source said.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation called on the international community to recognize the Palestinian Territories as a sovereign state "in the shortest possible time" as it closed its annual conference of foreign ministers on Wednesday.

The ministers welcomed a United Nations decision in November 2012 to elevate the territories to the status of non-member observer state in a declaration adopted at the end of the three-day meeting in the Guinean capital Conakry.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is on the "road to a full recovery" from a stroke he had last December, a statement from his office on Wednesday said.

Talabani, who has played a key role as mediator in Iraq's fractious politics, has been in Germany for treatment for almost a year.

The United Nations Wednesday slammed Israel's demolition of 30 Palestinian properties in the West Bank, saying it displaced some families for the second time in less than two weeks.

"I am concerned about the destruction of Palestinian structures in the Jordan Valley yesterday (Tuesday)," U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator James Rawley said in a statement.

A cousin and former aide of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been released two days after his acquittal in a trial for attempted murder, a security official said Wednesday.

Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, whose extradition Tripoli is demanding, was "freed overnight by police in Cairo following the court decision to acquit him" on Monday, the official said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged all "responsible countries" to act to ensure a Syrian peace conference achieves positive results, in remarks during a visit to Iran on Wednesday.

Iran and Russia back President Bashar Assad's regime in the Syrian conflict, which is estimated to have killed almost 126,000 people since it erupted nearly three years ago.

Syria's government on Wednesday slammed the Gulf Cooperation Council for interfering in the country's conflict and condemned the bloc for what it called "inflammatory rhetoric".

The foreign ministry statement came after the GCC called for the withdrawal of foreign forces taking part in the conflict, and said President Bashar Assad should have no role in Syria's future.

An online forum that frequently features statements from jihadists has called on an al-Qaida-linked militant group to free two Spanish journalists who were kidnapped in September in Syria.

The Honein jihadist forum urged "our brothers the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) militant group to free reporter Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, in a statement accompanied by their photos posted online on Tuesday.

A Bahraini court on Wednesday sentenced 12 Shiite Muslims to 15-year jail terms for attacking a car warehouse during unrest in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, a judicial source said.

The 12 men were found guilty of setting fire to the warehouse in a mostly Shiite area near the capital Manama in February 2012.

The trial of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood chief and his deputies on charges related to protest deaths came to an abrupt end Wednesday when the judges walked out, citing chaos in the dock.

The previous session on October 29 of the trial of Mohamed Badie and 34 co-defendants had also been halted when the three presiding judges withdrew, citing "reasons of conscience".