A Bahraini court on Monday ordered the disbanding of a Shiite opposition group, the Islamic Action Association, judicial officials told Agence France Presse.

The group was found guilty of "several violations" including following a "religious ideology that calls for violence" and "not holding the association's convention for more than four years," according to the sources.

Egypt's top court on Monday rejected a decree by President Mohammed Morsi to reinstate the parliament it ruled invalid, setting the president on a collision course with the judiciary and the military that enforced the ruling.

"All the rulings and decisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court are final and not subject to appeal... and are binding for all state institutions," the court said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Syria needed dialogue between the regime and opposition rather than foreign intervention to ensure a lasting peace.

Egypt's parliament speaker has invited the lower house to convene on Tuesday, MENA state news agency reported, following a presidential decree to reinstate the assembly dissolved by the military.

Saad al-Katatni "has called on parliament to convene at 2:00 pm (12:00 GMT) on Tuesday," MENA said.

International envoy Kofi Annan said on Monday he had agreed with President Bashar Assad on a new political "approach" to end Syria's nearly 16-month-old conflict that he would put to the rebels.

Stepping up efforts to halt the carnage which monitors say has cost more than 17,000 lives, the U.N.-Arab League envoy then travelled to Iran, Syria's closest regional ally, in his quest to broker a solution.

A Bahraini court on Monday handed leading Shiite activist Nabil Rajab a three month jail sentence after convicting him of posting tweets deemed insulting to Sunnis, one of his lawyer said.

"Nabil Rajab has been sentenced to three months in prison," in the Muharaq case, Mohammed al-Jishi told Agence France Presse, adding that the defense would appeal the verdict.

Saudi authorities arrested four members of the notorious religious police who allegedly caused the death of a man and the injury of his wife and two children in a car chase, local media reported on Monday.

"Security services arrested four members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after they were interrogated (on Sunday) over the chase that killed a man and injured his wife and two children in al-Baha" in the southwest, Okaz daily reported.

A government-appointed committee has recommended that Israel legalize dozens of unsanctioned West Bank settlement outposts, a member of the panel said Monday, in defiance of international opposition to settling on land the Palestinians want for their future state.

The panel of jurists, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, also concluded that the West Bank is not occupied territory and therefore Israel has the legal right to settle it, according to Alan Baker, one of the committee members.

A Jerusalem court on Monday sentenced two Israeli police officers to 30 months in jail for negligence over the death of a Palestinian car thief in 2008, Haaretz newspaper reported.

Omar Abu Jariban died after being left, injured and confused, on the side of a road. He had illegally entered Israel from Gaza and was seriously injured after a car he had stolen rolled over on a highway.

The sons of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak appeared in court to face a new corruption trial on Monday, after the two were acquitted in another case.

Dressed in white prison outfits, Alaa and Gamal -- once the symbols of wealth and power -- faced accusations of insider trading along with seven other defendants.