The Obama administration added new sanctions on a Syrian bank Wednesday as a top White House official said the U.S. wants to economically throttle the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and cut off salaries of pro-government thugs blamed for the grisly massacre in Houla.

The Treasury Department said the Syria International Islamic Bank has been acting as a front for other Syrian financial institutions seeking to circumvent sanctions. The new penalties will prohibit the SIIB from engaging in financial transactions in the U.S. and will freeze any assets under U.S. jurisdiction.

Western nations on Wednesday demanded increased pressure on Syria amid heightened outrage over two massacres in five days, but Russia maintained its opposition to sanctions.

The United States, France, Britain and Germany all came out of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the worsening crisis urging measures up to sanctions by the 15-nation body.

A Saudi court overturned on Wednesday provisions of a labor ministry circular that allowed saleswomen to work alongside men in shops, a lawyer told Agence France Presse.

The court in Riyadh "abolished part of the decision by the ministry of labor which allowed shop owners to employ men and women in the same place," based on a law suit filed by businessman, lawyer Mohammed al-Zamel told AFP.

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.