Some 200 members of Morocco's pro-reform February 20 protest movement gathered outside the justice ministry in Rabat on Wednesday to demand the release of political prisoners, an Agence France Presse journalist reported.

The protesters were joined by hundreds of unemployed graduates, who hold near-daily demonstrations in the capital.

Two Iranian presidential candidates on Wednesday criticized broad restrictions imposed on the press in the Islamic republic, asking for more freedom in this domain where unfavorable reporting against the regime could lead to punishment.

"They ban newspapers, prevent a book from being published or ban a film. These are things that must be corrected," Mohammad Reza Aref, the sole reformist candidate among eight hopefuls seeking to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 14 election, said during a televised debate.

Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said he would announce the composition of his government on Thursday evening and reiterated that his cabinet would govern only for a transitional period.

Hamdallah also said that most ministers in the existing cabinet would retain their posts.

Arab foreign ministers gave their support on Wednesday to Russian and U.S. plans for a Syria peace conference even as organizers said it would now not be held before next month.

The ministers, who met at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, called on the warring parties in Syria to negotiate an end to the 26-month civil war, saying a political solution was the only option.

French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that the world was obligated to act in response to concrete evidence of the deadly nerve agent sarin being used in Syria.

"We have provided the elements of proof that now obligate the international community to act," Hollande told reporters in Paris a day after France revealed that it had firm evidence sarin had been used by the Syrian regime in at least one case.

Rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime will fight "until the whole country is liberated", opposition chief George Sabra said Wednesday, after the army and Hizbullah fighters overran the strategic town of Qusayr.

"We say to the heroes in the Free Syrian Army: this is a small juncture, in which you proved your rare heroism. It will be followed by the liberation of the whole country," Sabra said.

Senior diplomats failed on Wednesday to set a date for a widely anticipated international peace conference for Syria amid continued disagreement over the list of participants.

"It will not be possible to hold this conference in June," U.N. peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Geneva, adding that the talks, which will be hosted by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, could happen "hopefully in July."

Three European women went on trial in Tunis on Wednesday for holding a topless anti-Islamist protest, and their French lawyer said he was confident they would escape prison despite the threat of jail sentences.

Pauline Hillier and Marguerite Stern from France, and Josephine Markmann from Germany arrived in court around 0930 GMT wearing the traditional Tunisian headscarf, or safsari.

Egypt's state prosecutor on Wednesday referred 12 activists to trial, including a prominent dissident, for allegedly inciting violent clashes outside the ruling Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters, their lawyer said.

The activists include Alaa Abdel Fattah, already facing trial for allegedly torching the offices of a candidate in last June's presidential election that brought Islamist Mohamed Morsi to power.

Militants set up a fake checkpoint in western Iraq and ambushed a convoy of 14 border policemen on Wednesday, killing all of them and setting fire to the bodies of two of them, officials said.

The checkpoint was set up along the main highway connecting Iraq to Saudi Arabia, with the attack taking place near the town of Nukhaib.