Bahraini authorities have released activist Zainab al-Khawaja after she served a one-month jail sentence for attacking a policewoman at a protest, her lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"Zainab was released on Tuesday after she served her one-month jail term," Jishi told AFP. She also paid a 200 dinars ($530) fine for having insulted a police officer.

Germany sees no grounds to speculate on a possible military intervention in Syria, its foreign minister said Wednesday, a day after France's president said armed force was not ruled out.

"From the federal government's point of view, there is no reason to speculate over military options," Guido Westerwelle was quoted as saying in an interview to appear in Thursday's issue of the Die Welt daily.

Deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak's sons, already on trial for corruption with their father, will face a new separate case for alleged corrupt stock market dealings, state media reported Wednesday.

The official Nile Television reported that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak would go on trial in a criminal court with seven other defendants. They and their father are facing a verdict on June 2 on corruption charges in the first trial.

Syria ordered the Dutch charge d'affaires on Wednesday to leave the country, the foreign ministry said, in an apparent reaction to the expulsion of Syrian diplomats by a slew of Western countries.

"Syria is expelling the charge d'affaires of the Netherlands and gives her 72 hours to leave the country," a statement said.

The U.N. observer mission chief in Syria, Major General Robert Mood, said on Wednesday he was "deeply disturbed" by the killing of 13 people in eastern Deir al-Zour, calling it an "appalling and inexcusable act."

"Thirteen bodies were discovered last night (Tuesday) in the area of Assukar, 50 km east of Deir al-Zour. All the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and some appear to have been shot in the head from a short distance," Mood said in a statement.

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a policeman to five years in prison for killing protesters, in a retrial that overturned an initial death sentence in absentia, judicial sources said.

Mohammed Ibrahim was convicted of shooting at demonstrators and killing 18 of them outside a police station on January 28, 2011, when protesters torched police stations nationwide in a revolt that later forced president Hosni Mubarak from power.

China on Wednesday restated its opposition to military intervention in Syria, as Russia sought to halt fresh U.N. Security Council action after a massacre of civilian’s sparked global fury.

"China opposes military intervention in Syria and opposes regime change by force," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan on Wednesday said the situation in Syria is "complex" and urged an intensification of international efforts to end bloodshed that has killed thousands of people.

"The Syrian issue is complex, and the world is closely following developments there," Annan told Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh during a meeting in Amman.

Yemeni warplanes and ground troops launched a dawn assault on Wednesday on al-Qaida positions in the restive southern Abyan province, killing 10 militants, local officials said.

Seven militants were killed inside Jaar when hit by artillery shells fired by troops from west of the city, a local official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Qatar issued arrest orders for the owner of a fire-ravaged mall and four others as investigations widened Wednesday into possible safety lapses during a blaze that killed 19 people, including 13 children at a daycare center catering to the Gulf nation's large expatriate community.

The official Qatar News Agency said Attorney General Ali bin Feitais al-Marri also ordered the detention of the owner of the child care facility where the children and four workers died in Monday's fire at the Gulf nation's biggest mall. The others facing arrest are mall officials, including the director of security.