Three motorbikes rigged with explosives blew up in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra late on Wednesday, killing at least eight people and wounding at least 22, a doctor and police said.

A doctor at Sadr Hospital in Basra said that at least eight people were killed and 22 wounded in the blasts, while a police lieutenant colonel gave the same toll.

The international war crimes court is still negotiating surrender terms with Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, the court's prosecutor said Wednesday.

The International Criminal Court has "received questions from individuals linked to Seif al-Islam about the legal conditions attaching to his potential surrender," chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the U.N. Security Council.

The White House said Wednesday, after the Arab League revealed Syria had agreed to a plan to end political violence, that it had not changed its position that President Bashar al-Assad should go.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not comment on the details of the Arab League plan or on whether Washington had been informed of the Syrian response.

Two ships carrying medical aid and activists have set sail from Turkey in a new bid to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, pro-Palestinian activists said on Wednesday.

A statement issued by the Freedom Waves group said the mini-flotilla made up of one Irish ship and one Canadian ship had left Fethiye on Turkey's south coast on Wednesday afternoon and planned to arrive in Gaza on Friday.

The White House said Wednesday it was "deeply disappointed" that Israel decided to speed up settlement building after UNESCO decided to admit the Palestinians, boosting their statehood drive.

"We are deeply disappointed by yesterday's announcement about accelerated housing construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Berlin wanted the United Nations to take a firmer line on Syria's attacks on civilians after nearly eight months of deadly violence.

Merkel told reporters after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that they agreed in "condemning the human rights violations occurring in Syria".

Syria accepted Wednesday an Arab League plan to end nearly eight months of bloodshed in the revolt-hit country, as the Arab organization urged Damascus to “seriously” implement the approved roadmap.

The agreement announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo came amid huge pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime, even from traditional allies such as China, to end weeks of prevarication and sign up to the deal drawn up by the pan-Arab bloc.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday demanded an immediate end to the Syrian government's crackdown on civilian protesters that has killed more than 3,000 people since mid-March, according to U.N. figures.

"Killing civilians must stop immediately in Syria," Ban told a news conference in Tripoli on his first visit to Libya since the eruption in February of the uprising which toppled veteran tyrant Moammar Gadhafi.

Egypt's ruling generals have announced the pardon of 334 civilians who were sentenced in military tribunals since the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page Wednesday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the move was to support "the continued communication with the great Egyptian people and the youth of the revolution."

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Israel on Wednesday to backtrack on its decision to accelerate building of new settlements in response to Palestinian accession to UNESCO.

"I am deeply concerned by the latest Israeli decisions to expedite settlement activities in response to Palestinian accession to UNESCO," Ashton said in a statement.