Bahrain has denied entry to a member of the European parliament who the opposition said wanted to check on the situation of jailed hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and other political prisoners.

Ana Gomes, who arrived in Bahrain on Sunday, "was denied an upon-arrival visa and was directed to secure a proper visa through official channels," Bahrain's official news agency BNA reported in an English-language statement.

Saudi Arabia beheaded on Tuesday two Bangladeshis convicted of killing and robbing a fellow citizen in the kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

Nujum Abdulshrif and Abdulmajed Hamza killed Mohammed Kabir, also Bangladeshi, the state news agency SPA reported quoting the ministry.

Ten civilians killed by regime mortar fire and 12 troops died in clashes with rebels were among 26 dead in Syria on Tuesday just hours after a new U.N. call for all sides to respect a troubled truce.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said it was vital that government and opposition alike cooperate fully with a hard-won U.N. observer force as it fans out in its mission to shore up the ceasefire agreement that took effect on April 12.

The United States' deployment of cutting-edge F-22 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates "will endanger the region's security," Iran warned on Tuesday.

"We do not in any way approve the presence of foreign forces in the region. We advise the regional countries against providing a basis for their presence," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday he had little confidence that key talks between Iran and world powers would succeed in resolving the standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

While Barak said the barrage of international sanctions imposed on Iran has clearly worked and forced the Islamic Republic to sit down and talk, he was not hopeful that the talks would lead anywhere.

Gunmen in Algeria's restive Kabylie region on Monday shot dead four policemen, less than two weeks ahead of legislative polls, a security official said.

The four were patrolling on the outskirts of Mekla town when another vehicle approached. The attackers "opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles and left them no chance to fire back. Two were killed and two were seriously wounded", the official said on condition of anonymity.

Former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem died by drowning but there was no sign of another party being involved "so far", Vienna police said Monday, a day after Ghanem was found dead in the Danube.

"The death was by drowning... no signs of involvement by another party have been detected so far," police spokesman Roman Hahslinger told journalists, citing preliminary autopsy results.

Syrian anti-regime activist Yara Shammas, who faces the death penalty for "belonging to a secret organization," was bailed on Monday pending trial, said the director of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research.

The judiciary, either "will issue a decision regarding the charges against her and she will be tried before the Criminal Court, or it will issue a declaration of her innocence and drop the charges," said Anwar Bunni, a human rights lawyer.

Campaigning for Egypt's presidential election next month officially began on Monday, with Islamists and liberal secularists expected to dominate.

Official campaigning, during which candidates can display their posters in public and broadcast their messages on television, will last until May 21, 48 hours before polls open for the first round of voting, on May 23 and 24.

More than 7,000 staff of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Jordan observed a one-day strike on Monday to demand better pay and conditions.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency employees, including teachers and medical staff, "demand a $140 salary raise and they do not want their annual bonus cut," UNRWA spokesperson Anwar Abu Sakinah told Agence France Presse.