A Bahraini youth was killed on Wednesday in clashes with police at a Shiite village near the capital Manama, the main Shiite opposition bloc Al-Wefaq said.

"Mahmud Mohsen succumbed to his wounds after being hit by buckshot on Wednesday in Sitra," Al-Wefaq said on Twitter.

Israel has decided to place under house arrest several young Jewish extremists suspected of planning to disrupt Pope Francis' visit to the Holy Land this weekend, police said on Wednesday.

"The police and Shin Bet (security service) have taken out restraining orders against several right-wing activists who, according to information from Shin Bet, are planning to commit provocative acts during the pope's visit," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told Agence France Presse.

Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has picked up 94.5 percent of votes cast abroad in Egypt's presidential election, officials said Wednesday, five days before polling opens in the North African country.

The retired field marshal, riding a wave of popularity after he ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year, is widely expected to win the election that takes place in Egypt on May 26-27.

A year after al-Qaida militants took a South African teacher hostage in Yemen, his wife made an emotional plea Wednesday for his release, after numerous mediation efforts have failed.

Pierre Korkie was taken captive with his wife on May 27 last year and his abductors are demanding a $3 million (2.2 million euros) ransom for his return.

Four U.N. human rights monitors on Wednesday called on Iran to stay the looming execution of two activists from the Islamic republic's Arab minority, saying their trial was fundamentally flawed.

"First and foremost, the Iranian authorities must stop the executions and the accused should be permitted a new, fair trial," the quartet of rights experts said in a joint statement.

Russia will veto a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for bringing Syria before the International Criminal Court, Moscow's ambassador said Wednesday.

Vitaly Churkin dismissed the French initiative, which is to be put to a vote on Thursday, as a "publicity stunt" and said it would undermine efforts to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

A young Tunisian freed in March after two years in prison for posting cartoons deemed insulting to Islam, saw his eight-month sentence on a separate charge confirmed on appeal Wednesday.

Jabeur Mejri received the same sentence handed down by the court of first instance in April for insulting a public official, his lawyer Ahmed Mselmi told Agence France Presse.

Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday heard an appeal by the parents of a U.S. activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003.

The parents of Rachel Corrie asked for a decision clearing the military of any responsibility for her death to be overturned, alleging "negligence" in the treatment of the case by an Israeli court.

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday rejected a final bid by Tripoli's lawyers to try slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam in Libya, meaning he must now be transferred to The Hague.

Seif's transfer to face charges relating to the bloody repression of the 2011 uprising that toppled his father however is a moot point as he is being held by a Libyan militia rather than any central authority in the chaos-wracked country.

Dutch police have arrested a 21-year-old man who fought in Syria as he was allegedly about to commit an armed robbery "to finance jihad", the public prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The man spent six months in Syria last year "taking part in jihad" fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, the prosecutor said in a statement.