Five Saudis accused of belonging to al-Qaida and of plotting attacks went on trial Wednesday in a Yemeni court set up for terrorism cases, the official Saba news agency reported.

The five men face charges of plotting "in association with an armed group belonging to al-Qaida to carry out criminal acts against members of the armed and security forces in Yemen," Saba said.

Islamist rebels in Syria seized an army checkpoint leading into the Christian town of Maalula on Wednesday, a rights watchdog said, as fighting rages on the ground.

"Jihadists from the Al-Nusra Front and Islamist rebels attacked a regime checkpoint on Wednesday morning at the entrance to Maalula, killing eight soldiers," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Israel on Wednesday released a firebrand Arab-Israeli Islamist preacher on bail, a day after arresting him over "incitement" against the Jewish state, a police spokeswoman said.

(Sheikh) Raed Salah was sent home "after accepting the conditions of his release," Luba Samri told Agence France Presse.

Large swathes of Syria were without electricity on Wednesday after a high voltage power line in the center of the war-torn country was sabotaged, the electricity minister said.

"A terrorist attack against a high voltage line in the central region triggered a power cut in most of the Syrian governorates," Imad Khamis said in comments carried on state television.

The Syrian regime has used cluster munitions "extensively" in the second half of last year and first half of this year, causing many civilian casualties, according to a report published Wednesday.

It said at least 165 people were killed or wounded by cluster munitions in Syria last year alone, representing a vast majority of the 190 known casualties from the weapons around the world in 2012.

Syria's parliament speaker on Wednesday urged France "not to hasten" to act against his war-torn country, as French lawmakers prepared to hold a debate on whether punitive strikes against the regime should go ahead.

The French parliament is due to hold the debate from 1400 GMT following President Francois Hollande's pledge to "punish" Damascus for an alleged poison gas attack on August 21 that the West blames on the regime. But it will not vote Wednesday on the issue.

Pope Francis asked for a big turnout at a Vatican vigil on Saturday for peace in Syria and thanked the world's faithful and non-believers for their support.

"May the cry for peace ring out loud around the world," the pope told tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square at his weekly audience on Wednesday.

A German aid worker held for almost four months has escaped his kidnappers in Syria, just like his two colleagues who managed to flee in July, their aid group announced on Wednesday.

Engineer Ziad Nouri "is free" and managed to cross the Syrian border into Turkey on Tuesday, the Gruenhelme non-governmental organization said in a statement.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey's ambassador to Egypt would return to Cairo, three weeks after he was recalled over the bloody crackdown on supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president.

"Do not forget that we recalled the ambassador for consultations," Erdogan told reporters at an Ankara airport before leaving for Saint Petersburg to attend the G20 conference.

Attacks around Baghdad and north Iraq left 31 people dead on Wednesday, including 18 members of a Shiite family killed by militants, the latest in a nationwide surge of violence.

The unrest came a day after a wave of bombings targeting Shiites in Baghdad and shootings and bombings elsewhere killed 54 people, further raising fears Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian bloodshed that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.