Egypt's ultra-conservative Salafist al-Nur Party has announced it will back the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi in a presidential election runoff against ex-premier Ahmed Shafiq.

"The High Committee of the al-Nur Party supports Dr. Mohammed Mursi for president of the republic in the runoff," the party said on its official Twitter account.

Kuwait's appeals court on Monday reduced a death sentence on two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to life in prison and upheld a life term on a stateless man on charges of spying for Iran, a judiciary source said.

The court however confirmed the acquittal of a man and a woman, both Iranians, while a Syrian who was sentenced to life by the lower court too was acquitted, the source said.

China on Monday condemned a massacre of more than 100 people in the central Syrian town of Houla and called for an immediate investigation to identify those responsible.

Beijing's comments came as U.N.-Arab envoy Kofi Annan headed to Damascus in a bid to salvage his battered peace plan a day after the United Nations condemned the Syrian regime's use of artillery in Houla.

At least six people have been killed in overnight battles in Yemen's war-torn southern Abyan province as troops inched closer to the al-Qaida stronghold of Jaar, military and local officials said on Monday.

"Five al-Qaida militants...and one civilian was killed," a military official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with top officials, Syria's pro-government al-Ikhbariya television reported.

The former U.N. chief was to meet Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later on Monday ahead of talks with President Bashar Assad on Tuesday, a Syrian official source said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States can deal with al-Qaida's spreading presence in Yemen without US forces on the ground, relying instead on targeted operations, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday.

Panetta, in an interview with ABC television's "This Week," defended the use of drones as "the most precise weapon we have" in the campaign against al-Qaida.

One of the fiercest critics of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was voted back in by lawmakers on Monday as speaker of Iran's new parliament formed from elections held in March and May.

Ali Larijani, a loquacious 55-year-old regime insider whose brothers also hold key posts, fought off a challenge from Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, a 67-year-old former speaker who advocated a more moderate approach to Ahmadinejad's government.

Amnesty International on Monday urged Saudi Arabia to free Shiite prisoners arrested for taking part in "peaceful" protests and those detained without charge in the kingdom's Eastern province.

In a report called "Dissident Voices Stifled in the Eastern Province," where most of the country's minority Shiites live, the rights group said hundreds of individuals, mainly men, but also children, had been arrested since March 2011.

Iran on Monday condemned killings in the Syrian town of Houla, blaming them on "terrorist actions" rather than its Damascus ally and calling for the perpetrators to be punished.

Iran "condemns the terrorist actions in the Houla area in Homs in Syria. The killing of a number of innocent people in the area has distressed the Islamic nations," the foreign ministry said in a statement relayed by official media.

The U.N. Security Council on Sunday strongly condemned the Syrian government for using artillery in a massacre in which at least 108 people were killed and 300 others injured.

U.N. officials said the slaughter in Houla -- the subject of an emergency Security Council meeting -- claimed the lives of 49 children and 34 women.