Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter on Monday proposed three principles as a basis for Syria peace talks in Geneva: free elections, respect for their results and the deployment of peacekeepers.

Syria peace talks are set to begin in Switzerland on January 22, though the full list of participants is still unclear.

A Shiite citizen of mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for violence and protesting against Riyadh's 2011 intervention in neighboring Bahrain, media reported Monday.

The defendant, whose name was not given, was found guilty of taking part in protests in Qatif in Eastern Province and calling for the withdrawal of Saudi forces sent to Bahrain.

Dubai police have made a record drug seizure of some 4.6 million Captagon pills, an amphetamine-like stimulant, worth more than $31 million (23 million euros), the local press reported Monday.

Dubai's police chief, Major General Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina, said the "outstanding operation" codenamed "Nine ball" had dealt a major blow to drug trafficking in the United Arab Emirates, the Khaleej Times newspaper reported.

Egypt said Sunday a panel has been formed to probe the violence that has plagued the country since June 30, when millions demanded the resignation of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt has been rocked by militant attacks and street clashes since the army ousted Morsi on July 3 following massive protests against his year-long rule, leaving the country bitterly polarized.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday that an anti-government sit-in has become a headquarters for al-Qaida, and called for protesters to depart before security forces move in.

If security forces move against the site, where Sunni Arab demonstrators have gathered for almost a year, it would likely inflame widespread discontent among the minority community and could add to the already-rampant violence plaguing the country.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has written to the mother of a British doctor who died in a Syrian jail, saying Damascus must answer for his "sickening" death, the family's lawyer revealed Sunday.

Syria claims Abbas Khan, who was arrested last year after traveling to Aleppo to treat wounded civilians, committed suicide. But a British minister said this week that he was "in effect murdered" by the regime.

A Yemeni court on Sunday sentenced a suspected member of jihadist network al-Qaida to three years in prison for taking part in attacks in the capital Sanaa, state media reported.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a franchise of the global jihadist network, is active in Yemen and is seen by Washington as its most dangerous branch.

French President Francois Hollande on Sunday expressed his "sincere regrets" over a joke he made suggesting Algeria was unsafe, drawing a line under a brief but fiery diplomatic spat with the north African country.

Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra initially called the quip "regrettable" and said it ended the year on a "bad note", but later declared himself satisfied with Hollande's apology.

The body of a British doctor who mysteriously died in a Syrian jail was flown back to London on Sunday, London's Heathrow Airport said.

An airport spokeswoman said the body of Abbas Khan, who Britain claims was "effectively murdered" by the Syrian regime, arrived in London early Sunday after being flown home from Beirut.

An explosion aboard an empty Israeli bus near Tel Aviv on Sunday that did not kill or wound anyone was a "terrorist attack," police said.

"After examining the explosives retrieved from the scene, we have concluded that this was a terrorist attack," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.