Turkish authorities found no weapons after searching a German-owned vessel docked at a southern port last week on suspicion of smuggling arms to Syria, an official report has disclosed.

"As a result of the investigation, nothing was encountered which can be described as weapons, munitions or military materials inside any of the checked goods," according to the report which was signed by Turkish customs officials.

A 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck western Algeria's Chlef region on Wednesday, but did not cause any injuries or infrastructure damage, the Centre of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics Research said.

Tremors were felt up to 200 kilometers away in the capital Algiers, as well as in the neighboring region of Ain Defla.

A bomb attack carried out by "terrorists" wounded four Bahraini policemen in a Shiite-populated village overnight, the official BNA news agency said on Wednesday.

"A terrorist explosion targeted security forces that were escorting firefighters... on their way to the scene" of a blaze in the village of Diraz, BNA reported, citing a senior police official.

South Africa on Tuesday accused U.N. Security Council powers of "conveniently" ignoring human rights abuses in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The council again rejected growing demands for the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Moroccan-controlled territory to have a permanent rights investigation duty.

Syria is still seeing "unacceptable" levels of violence, international envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, after dozens of people were killed across the country despite a ceasefire.

"The situation in Syria continues to be unacceptable," Annan told a closed-door meeting. He spoke after a car bomb rocked central Damascus, wounding three people, while nearly 60 people were killed across the country a day earlier ahead of the deployment of 300 U.N. peace observers.

Organizers of next month's presidential election on Tuesday formally barred the last prime minister to serve under ousted Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak from standing.

The electoral commission's decision came after the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took power on his overthrow in February last year, approved a bill adopted by the Islamist-dominated parliament earlier this month banning the candidacies of all senior Mubarak-era officials.

Iran has “deployed forces and equipment” in order to “defend” three islands in the Gulf that are claimed by the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s state-run radio station quoted a senior official as saying.

"Various types of offensive and defensive systems, including brigades of IRGC marines, have been deployed in the Iranian islands, especially in Abu Musa, the Lesser Tunb and the Greater Tunb,” Commander of IRGC Naval Forces Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said on Monday, according to the radio station’s English-language website.

A car bomb on Tuesday rocked central Damascus and 56 people were killed in fresh violence across the country, a day after nearly 60 were killed across Syria despite a hard-won ceasefire and the upcoming deployment of 300 U.N peace monitors.

Three people were wounded when the blast went off in the Marjeh district of the capital, Syrian state television reported, blaming "terrorists", the government term for rebels.

Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Saudi embassy in Cairo on Tuesday demanding the release of an Egyptian human rights activist held by Saudi authorities who claim he possessed banned drugs.

The protesters chanted slogans against the Saudi regime as they called for the "immediate" release of Ahmed Mohammed al-Gizawi, arrested on arrival at Jeddah airport last week.

Yemen's President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi held talks with FBI Director Robert Mueller in Sanaa Tuesday on the growing threat from al-Qaida in the country's embattled south, the state news agency reported.

They discussed "efforts in the fight against terrorism, and against al-Qaida in particular," according to SABA, which added that their talks focused on the terror network's expansion in Yemen's southern Abyan province.