Egypt has quashed death sentences against three men convicted of involvement in attacks in the Sinai Peninsula after their trials were deemed unfair, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said on Tuesday.

The three men -- Mohammed Gayez Sabbah, Usama al-Nakhlawi and Younis Abu-Gareer -- had been sentenced to death in connection with 2004 bombings in the Red Sea resorts of Taba and Nuweiba and 2005 bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Israel blamed Iran on Tuesday for a series of blasts in Bangkok, a day after its embassy staff were targeted in India and Georgia, with press commentators fearful they heralded further attacks.

Following Monday's attacks on embassy cars in New Delhi and Tbilisi, which left an Israeli woman diplomat critically injured in the Indian capital, Israel's main newspapers warned it could mark the start of a series of deadly attacks on Israeli targets.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday the EU backs the Arab League's "firm stance" on Syria and will support it through further sanctions, ahead of talks with the head of the pan-Arab body.

The EU supports the Arab League's action to try to end the bloodshed in Syria and will "also support (it) through further sanctions", Merkel told reporters, speaking alongside Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi.

Syria on Tuesday flatly rejected U.N. charges of crimes against humanity and accused the world body of ignoring crimes it said were being committed by foreign-backed "terrorist groups".

"The foreign ministry, in a message sent to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, categorically rejected the new allegations made by the commission," the state news agency SANA said.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah named a new cabinet on Tuesday with 10 new faces, including the oil and defense ministers, and no women, despite objections from the opposition.

Hani Hussein, a former chief executive officer of the national oil conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp, was appointed oil minister, replacing Mohammed al-Baseeri.

A Tunisian court cleared Libyan former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi on Tuesday on a charge he had crossed illegally into Tunisia as he fled Libya last year, his lawyer said.

"The court ... has acquitted al-Mahmoudi and so we are demanding his immediate release," lawyer Mabrouk Kourchid said after the hearing in the southern city of Tozeur. "There is no legal reason to keep him in prison."

China will not protect the regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad, Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday, after Beijing drew international ire for vetoing a UN resolution on the country.

Wen's comments, during an EU-China summit, came after the United Nations' top human rights representative said the world body's inaction had "emboldened" the Syrian government to use overwhelming force against its own civilians.

China -- which drew global ire when it vetoed a resolution on Syria -- said Tuesday one of its diplomats met the Arab League head to discuss the crisis and another envoy would soon go to the Middle East.

China and Russia have faced a barrage of criticism for blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the bloody crackdown on protests in Syria, including from Arab nations with which Beijing normally has good ties.

Yemen's army shelled al-Qaida positions in the southern city of Zinjibar on Tuesday, killing 12 of the extremists, a local government official told Agence France Presse.

"Twelve al-Qaida militants were killed when the army fired artillery shells and Katyusha rockets on their positions across several areas in Zinjibar," said the official in the adjacent town of Jaar, where the militants were buried.

Bahraini police dispersed protesters who made several attempts Tuesday to mark the anniversary of last year's uprising by marching to the site of the protest that was brutally crushed, witnesses said.

Several marches took off from Shiite villages on the outskirts of Manama hoping to reach the capital's Pearl Square, where democracy demonstrators camped out for a month last year before being forcefully driven out.