Egypt's top court is expected to rule on June 11 in a key case examining the constitutionality of a law barring Mubarak-era officials from running for office, the Al-Ahkbar newspaper reported on Monday.

Citing unnamed judicial sources, the newspaper said "the Supreme Constitutional Court will rule on the constitutional challenge to the political isolation law on June 11."

Italy is ready to support humanitarian corridors as part of any tougher U.N. resolution aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria, its foreign minister said on Monday after a massacre triggered global outrage.

"We cannot stand by and watch dozens of children killed so brutally. We must do something," Giulio Terzi told La Stampa after 108 people, including many children were slaughtered in the central Syrian town of Houla.

Russia said on Monday it did not support the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad but urged world powers to work for the peace plan of U.N. envoy Kofi Annan and not regime change.

"We do not support the Syrian government. We support the plan of Kofi Annan," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint news conference with his British counterpart William Hague.

Egypt's ultra-conservative Salafist al-Nur Party has announced it will back the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi in a presidential election runoff against ex-premier Ahmed Shafiq.

"The High Committee of the al-Nur Party supports Dr. Mohammed Mursi for president of the republic in the runoff," the party said on its official Twitter account.

Kuwait's appeals court on Monday reduced a death sentence on two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to life in prison and upheld a life term on a stateless man on charges of spying for Iran, a judiciary source said.

The court however confirmed the acquittal of a man and a woman, both Iranians, while a Syrian who was sentenced to life by the lower court too was acquitted, the source said.

China on Monday condemned a massacre of more than 100 people in the central Syrian town of Houla and called for an immediate investigation to identify those responsible.

Beijing's comments came as U.N.-Arab envoy Kofi Annan headed to Damascus in a bid to salvage his battered peace plan a day after the United Nations condemned the Syrian regime's use of artillery in Houla.

At least six people have been killed in overnight battles in Yemen's war-torn southern Abyan province as troops inched closer to the al-Qaida stronghold of Jaar, military and local officials said on Monday.

"Five al-Qaida militants...and one civilian was killed," a military official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with top officials, Syria's pro-government al-Ikhbariya television reported.

The former U.N. chief was to meet Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later on Monday ahead of talks with President Bashar Assad on Tuesday, a Syrian official source said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States can deal with al-Qaida's spreading presence in Yemen without US forces on the ground, relying instead on targeted operations, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday.

Panetta, in an interview with ABC television's "This Week," defended the use of drones as "the most precise weapon we have" in the campaign against al-Qaida.

One of the fiercest critics of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was voted back in by lawmakers on Monday as speaker of Iran's new parliament formed from elections held in March and May.

Ali Larijani, a loquacious 55-year-old regime insider whose brothers also hold key posts, fought off a challenge from Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a 67-year-old former speaker who advocated a more moderate approach to Ahmadinejad's government.