The U.S. military said Monday it hopes to train 5,000 to 8,000 Libyan army troops as Tripoli struggles to contain violence from heavily armed militias.

The training, requested by Libya's prime minister, would be carried out by the military's Africa Command at a base in Bulgaria, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters.

EU foreign ministers on Monday expressed concern over the "significant deterioration" in Libya as troops deployed and militias were ordered out of the capital following deadly clashes.

"The EU is concerned by the significant deterioration of both the political and security situation in Libya and condemns the violence in Tripoli on 15 November," the European Union ministers said in a joint statement.

A Spanish court refused on Monday to extradite a child rapist who was arrested in Spain having been controversially pardoned by the king of Morocco.

Daniel Galvan, 63, was among 48 Spanish prisoners pardoned by King Mohammed VI and freed from jail following a visit in mid-July to Morocco by Spain's King Juan Carlos.

The head of Russia's state industrial holding company said on Monday that Moscow was on the verge of reaching a landmark agreement to deliver air defense systems to Egypt's army.

Rostec chief Sergey Chemezov's comments came in the wake of a visit to Cairo last week by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu devoted to military and diplomatic ties.

Fifteen women and seven girls who back Egypt's ousted president Mohammed Morsi will stand trial for participating in clashes in Alexandria, the general prosecutor's office said on Monday.

The girls, all under the age of 18, will be prosecuted in a juvenile court, a statement said.

Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers clashed in the northern West Bank on Monday before Israeli troops intervened, with 10 people treated for rubber bullet wounds, medical sources said.

Abdel Hafith Wadi, head of the Qusra village council near the northern city of Nablus, said the confrontation erupted as villagers found that 25 olive trees had been cut down in an act of vandalism allegedly carried out by residents of the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement outpost.

Gunmen ambushed and killed eight policemen on Monday near a gas terminal in southern Yemen, a security official told Agence France Presse.

The attack took place as the officers were driving to a security checkpoint near the Balhaf terminal, in the southern province of Shabwa, the official said.

A granddaughter of Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya has been hospitalized in Israel in critical condition, Palestinian sources said Monday.

Amal Haniya, aged one, suffers from a serious infection of the digestive tract which has affected her nervous system, according to Gaza medical sources.

A Bahraini court on Monday confirmed a travel ban imposed on prominent Shiite opposition figure Khalil Marzooq, on trial for inciting terrorism, a judicial source said.

Marzooq's defense team had requested lifting the travel ban ordered at the first hearing in the trial of the former lawmaker, who was also in court Monday.

Iraqi authorities announced the execution of a dozen "terrorism" convicts on Monday, defying widespread international condemnation of Baghdad's use of the death penalty as violence nationwide has surged.

The latest executions, carried out on Sunday, bring to at least 144 the total number of people put to death by Iraq so far this year, compared to 129 for all of 2012, according to an Agence France Presse tally based on reports from the justice ministry and officials.