An Egyptian prosecutor ordered Monday the detention of a prominent secular activist for taking part in an unauthorized protest, just a day after he was freed over a similar case, state media reported.

Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 movement which was one of the main groups that spearheaded the revolt against Hosni Mubarak in 2011, had turned himself in on Saturday after an order for his arrest.

A Bahraini court on Monday sentenced 16 Shiites convicted of attacking a police patrol with Molotov cocktails to seven years in prison each, a judicial source said.

They were also found guilty of blocking roads by setting tires on fire in May last year and for taking part in an unauthorized protest during which a police vehicle was attacked, although no one was hurt.

Western nations Monday formally invited Israel into their club within the U.N. Human Rights Council, a key step in renewing cooperation between the Jewish state and the global watchdog.

"Today a letter was sent to Israel, it's an invitation for them to join the Western European countries group," a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse.

Attacks near Baghdad and northern and western Iraq killed 15 people Monday, the latest deadly violence to rock the country amid fears it is slipping back into all-out sectarian war.

Iraq's worst bloodshed since 2008, with more than 6,000 people killed already this year, has forced the authorities to appeal for international help in combating militancy ahead of general elections due to be held in April.

A landmine killed a Tunisian army officer on Monday in the Mount Chaambi border region, where security forces have for months been hunting al-Qaida linked militants, the defense ministry said.

Captain Youssef Dridi, a military engineer, died in the blast, which occurred at the end of an "operational mission" and which lightly injured another soldier, the official TAP news agency quoted the ministry spokesman as saying.

The owner of a Libyan radio station that broadcasts exclusively in English and plays Western music was found dead in his car, his body riddled with bullets, the broadcaster said on Monday.

Tripoli FM, which touts itself as Libya's number one radio station, went off air temporarily to mourn the death of Radwan Ghariani, head of programs Rabii Dahan said.

A least a million Syrians are going hungry, as fighting and checkpoints prevent aid deliveries, the international Red Cross warned on Monday.

"A conservative estimate is a million people without food," said Simon Eccleshall, crisis management chief at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

The top U.N. official charged with destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile on Monday warned that the most difficult part of its mission in the conflict-ridden country still lay ahead.

Speaking at an annual meeting of member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, Sigrid Kaag said although Syria's ability to make chemical weapons "has been rendered inoperable... the most complex and challenging work still lies ahead".

Iran's police chief Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam on Monday criticized officials who "cross red lines" by using banned social media networks, Mehr news agency reported.

Tehran blocks access to popular websites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as part of its efforts to stop Iranians from surfing content seen as immoral or undermining the Islamic regime.

Evidence has been uncovered in Syria that implicates President Bashar Assad and members of his entourage, in war crimes and crimes against humanity, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said Monday

A U.N. commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Syria "has produced massive evidence ... (of) very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity," she said, adding that "the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state."