At least 22 civilians, five regime troops and an army deserter were killed in fresh violence across Syria on Monday, activists and a rights group said, also reporting a string of clashes between deserters and the army.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 23 people -- "including two children, a rebel soldier and two who died under torture."

The International Criminal Court denied Monday that it had agreed that Seif al-Islam, slain Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's most prominent son, be tried in Libya.

"The ICC has made no decision on this matter," court spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah told Agence France Presse in response to a claim by Libya's Justice Minister Ali H'mida Ashur that Seif would be judged by a Libyan court.

The head of the Arab League's observation team to Syria has struck back at critics who say the mission has failed to stop violence between security forces and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi told reporters in Cairo Monday that the mission's job was to never to stop the violence, but to document progress on the League's peace plan.

At least one person was killed in an overnight gunbattle between a former prisoner and ex-rebel fighters in the Libyan capital, a hospital official and local residents said on Monday.

"A man was killed and five others were wounded, including one who is now in a coma," an official at Tripoli's central hospital said.

A newly elected Islamist deputy was scolded on Monday for adding a religious reference to the swearing-in oath at the opening session of Egypt's first post-revolution parliament.

The deputies started to be sworn in one by one, pledging to "preserve the safety of the nation and the interests of people and to respect the constitution and the law."

EU foreign ministers adopted fresh sanctions against Syria's military brass on Monday, targeting a large number of security officials on a new list of people and firms hit by a travel ban and asset freeze.

Ministers targeted 22 people and eight companies in this 11th round of EU sanctions to protest the ongoing repression in Syria, said a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A court in Algeria has sentenced a fugitive leader of al-Qaida's north African wing and three of his followers to death for attacks against the military.

The sentence against Mokhtar Belmokhtar and the three others was handed down in absentia on Sunday night after a day-long trial in Algiers.

Syria has signed a $550 million (425 million euro) contract to purchase 36 Yak-130 advanced training fighter planes from Russia, the Kommersant business daily reported on Monday.

The deal was signed in December with Russia's Rosoboronexport state defense corporation, Kommersant cited a source close to the agency as saying, adding that production of the jets would begin once the advance payment was made.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh was en route to the United States, Yemen's state news agency said on Monday, as mutinous soldiers called for the ouster of the air force commander, his half-brother.

The announcement came a day after Saleh in a televised address apparently marking the end of his rule appealed for forgiveness from the Yemeni people for "any shortcomings" during his 33 years in power.

A new plan by the Arab League to end violence in Syria was "unattainable" and would allow President Bashar Assad's regime more time to pursue its bloody crackdown, an opposition group said on Monday.

"The Syrian people have lost confidence in the Arab League's ability to stop the regime’s ongoing bloodshed," the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which organizes anti-regime protests, said in a statement received in Nicosia.