Libya's first law on political parties since before the four-decade rule of now slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi drew criticism on Wednesday from Islamists and federalists alike.

The legislation issued by the interim government late on Tuesday, Libya's first since 1964, bans groups based on religious, regional or tribal platforms and outlaws foreign funding.

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday threw out an appeal filed by Libya against the court's demand that Moammar Gadhafi’s jailed son be transferred to The Hague.

The Libyan state had filed an appeal on April 6 against the ICC's request for the immediate transfer of Seif al-Islam, wanted for crimes against humanity and detained in Libya in the aftermath of his father's downfall.

The European Union called on Israel on Wednesday to reverse its decision to legalize three settler outposts in occupied Palestinian territory.

"I am extremely concerned about the decision of the Israeli authorities regarding the status of the settlements of Sansana, Rechelim and Bruchin in the occupied Palestinian territory," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

France warned Wednesday that it may push for a resolution allowing the use of force in Syria and said it wanted U.N. monitors to deploy within a fortnight as the peace plan was "strongly compromised".

"Things are not going well, the (Kofi) Annan plan is strongly compromised but there is still a chance for this mediation, on the condition of the rapid deployment of the 300 monitors," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

Israel's military chief toned down the rhetoric over Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday, describing the Iranian leadership as "very rational" and unlikely to take the decision to build a bomb.

Speaking to Haaretz newspaper, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said Iran was approaching the point at which it would be able to decide on whether to build a bomb, but that Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not yet decided "whether to go the extra mile."

Israel's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a Palestinian prisoner who has been refusing food for more than seven weeks to protest being held without charge, his lawyer told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

Hassan Safdi, 31, was arrested on June 29, 2011 and has been held without charge under a procedure called administrative detention, which means a prisoner can be held for renewable periods of up to six months.

A member of the ruling family of Ras al-Khaimah, one of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates, has been held "without charge" for days, his son said on Wednesday.

Sheikh Sultan al-Qassimi, a first cousin of the emir who heads the local branch of the Islamist group al-Islah, was arrested on Friday by "armed men in civilian clothing," his son Sheikh Abdullah told Agence France Presse by telephone.

Unknown people have attacked the offices of two of Iraq's top four Shiite clerics in the central city of Najaf with sound bombs, a security official there said on Wednesday.

"The office of Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi in central Najaf city was attacked with a sound bomb on Tuesday evening," the official said, adding that "there was an attack with a sound bomb that targeted the office of Grand Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayadh on Sunday evening."

At least 21 civilians and three soldiers were killed on Wednesday in violence across Syria, activists said, 13 days after a tenuous truce came into effect.

Regime forces killed six people in the northwestern province of Idlib, four in the Damascus suburbs of Harasta and Douma, four in the southern province of Daraa, three in the northern province of Aleppo, two in the central province of Hama, a person in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and another in the central province of Homs, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported.

Algeria's Prime Minister, fearing a wide scattering of votes in the May 10 general elections in which 44 parties are running, Wednesday urged voters to support the main ruling coalition partners.

Ahmed Ouyahia, who heads the National Rally for Democracy (RND), belonging to a three party political alliance loyal to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, called for "useful" votes.