The United Nations on Friday will name Major General Robert Mood to head the Syria ceasefire observer mission that is struggling to get monitors into the country, diplomats said.

U.N. member states have so far offered only 100 military officers for the unarmed force given the risky mission of checking a cessation of hostilities that has barely held in Syria since April 12. A total of 300 observers has been proposed, accompanied by about 90 civilian support staff and experts.

Libya's interim prime minister accused the ruling National Transitional Council on Wednesday of hindering his government's efforts to hold elections for a constituent assembly on time.

"In this historic moment, we find ourselves shackled by members of the National Transitional Council (NTC), who continue to attack the government and threaten to cast a no confidence vote," Abdel Rahman al-Kib said.

Detained Syrian human rights activist and journalist Mazen Darwish is suffering from a "worsening health condition," the Syrian Journalists Union said in a statement on Wednesday.

Darwish, who heads the Syrian Center for Media Freedom and Expression, has been held in solitary confinement by Air Force intelligence since his detention on February 16, the statement added.

Kurdish rebels have killed four members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in the country's west, a provincial official told the Mehr news agency on Wednesday.

The attack was carried out by members of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) near the town of Paveh in Iran's Kermanshah province on Tuesday evening, Mehr reported.

Libya's first law on political parties since before the four-decade rule of now slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi drew criticism on Wednesday from Islamists and federalists alike.

The legislation issued by the interim government late on Tuesday, Libya's first since 1964, bans groups based on religious, regional or tribal platforms and outlaws foreign funding.

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday threw out an appeal filed by Libya against the court's demand that Moammar Gadhafi’s jailed son be transferred to The Hague.

The Libyan state had filed an appeal on April 6 against the ICC's request for the immediate transfer of Seif al-Islam, wanted for crimes against humanity and detained in Libya in the aftermath of his father's downfall.

The European Union called on Israel on Wednesday to reverse its decision to legalize three settler outposts in occupied Palestinian territory.

"I am extremely concerned about the decision of the Israeli authorities regarding the status of the settlements of Sansana, Rechelim and Bruchin in the occupied Palestinian territory," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

France warned Wednesday that it may push for a resolution allowing the use of force in Syria and said it wanted U.N. monitors to deploy within a fortnight as the peace plan was "strongly compromised".

"Things are not going well, the (Kofi) Annan plan is strongly compromised but there is still a chance for this mediation, on the condition of the rapid deployment of the 300 monitors," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

Israel's military chief toned down the rhetoric over Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday, describing the Iranian leadership as "very rational" and unlikely to take the decision to build a bomb.

Speaking to Haaretz newspaper, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said Iran was approaching the point at which it would be able to decide on whether to build a bomb, but that Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not yet decided "whether to go the extra mile."

Israel's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a Palestinian prisoner who has been refusing food for more than seven weeks to protest being held without charge, his lawyer told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

Hassan Safdi, 31, was arrested on June 29, 2011 and has been held without charge under a procedure called administrative detention, which means a prisoner can be held for renewable periods of up to six months.