Algeria Thursday held its first polls since the Arab Spring amid deep voter disaffection, with the ageing ruling party confident of victory and its Islamist allies hoping for a strong showing.

As it does for every election, state television -- the country's only channel -- showed live footage of voters pouring into a polling station as soon as the doors opened and jostling to be the first to cast their ballot.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized Turkey on Thursday for remarks he said did not show "mutual respect", in the latest bout of a weeks-long spat between the two neighbors.

Maliki's comments came as Turkey said it would not extradite fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is accused of running death squads and is the subject of an Interpol international Red Notice.

The European Union sharply condemned Thursday's two powerful blasts in Damascus, describing the attacks as "an act of pure terrorism."

"We strongly condemn the twin bomb attacks," said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

An Egyptian administrative court ruled the illegality of the upcoming presidential elections as the dates have been set by an independent electoral commission instead of the ruling authorities.

However, conflicting reports emerged on the legality of the administrative court itself to issue such a verdict when it lacks the authority to suspend the ballots.

A Kuwaiti special judicial tribunal decided on Thursday to end its inquiry into graft allegations against the former prime minister citing a lack of evidence, a lawyer told AFP.

"I was notified this morning by the ministers' trial court that it closed its investigation into the case," said Nawwaf al-Fuzai, who filed the complaint several weeks ago.

The trial of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was delayed again on Thursday by a row over the venue, this time until May 15, a day after Turkey said it would not extradite the Sunni official.

Hashemi, whose trial was originally due to have started on May 3, and his bodyguards face around 150 charges related to running a death squad, and the vice president is now the subject of an Interpol red notice calling for his arrest.

Voting began across Algeria Thursday in the country's first polls since the Arab Spring swept the region, with the ruling party, its Islamist allies and a boycott movement all hoping for victory.

The first of the more than 48,000 polling stations in Africa's largest country opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT), many under tight police surveillance.

A rocket fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel overnight, causing no damage or casualties, a military spokeswoman said on Thursday.

"A rocket fired from Gaza landed last night in the Shaar Hanegev area. There was no damage or casualties," she told Agence France Presse.

U.S. drone strikes killed eight Al-Qaida militants at a gathering of the jihadists in their southern Yemeni stronghold of Jaar, a local source said on Thursday.

"We heard three explosions rock the town at midnight (2100 GMT)," the source said, adding that a " U.S. drone" carried out the strikes on a residence where they had been meeting.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to try or release hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners after activists denounced his "silence" in a protest outside the U.N.'s West Bank offices.

Dozens of demonstrators calling for action to help the weakening prisoners stopped U.N. employees from entering their offices in Ramallah, waving banners reading: "UNjust" and "UNfair."