Iran on Monday ordered the return home of two boats carrying Iranian "activists" to Bahrain to express solidarity with Shiite-led protests there, the English-language Press TV said.

The channel's reporter traveling with the activists said in a live broadcast that the boats had been ordered to return and activists were throwing in the water letters they were carrying as "moral support" to Bahraini Shiites.

Russia was due Tuesday to hold previously unannounced talks with envoys of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi amid efforts by Moscow to help mediate an end to an international campaign it has opposed.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the meetings with the Tripoli government representatives will be followed by talks with rebel envoys from Benghazi at a later date.

NATO on Monday carried out fresh air raids east of Libya's capital, destroying a radar base, residents in the neighborhood and JANA state news agency reported.

A radar station in the heart of a residential area was destroyed in Tajura, residents of the eastern suburb told Agence France Presse, adding they heard three loud explosions and blasts further to the east.

A mass grave was discovered on Monday in the southern Syrian town of Daraa, at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months and virtually shut off from the outside world, an activist told Agence France Presse by telephone.

"The army today allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours a day," said Ammar Qurabi, of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

Insurgents killed and mutilated a Christian construction worker whom they had kidnapped over the weekend and demanded $100,000 in ransom, Iraqi police and medical officials said on Monday.

Ashur Issa Yaqub, a 29-year-old Chaldean Christian, had been snatched on Saturday in the oil-rich ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk, and is survived by his wife and three children.

The U.N. war crimes court's chief prosecutor said Monday he would seek arrest warrants against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence head for crimes against humanity.

"Today, the office of the prosecutor requested the International Criminal Court (issue) arrest warrants," Luis Moreno-Ocampo said at a press conference in The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based.

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Monday the days of Moammer Gadhafi's regime were "numbered" and that some Libyan members of government were looking for a way for their leader to go into exile.

"The Libyan regime's days are numbered," Frattini said in a Channel 5 television interview.

The embattled Syrian regime is pushing ahead with its campaign of repression against political and human rights activists, holding many of them incommunicado and going after their families and friends, Human Rights Watch said.

"Syria’s leaders talk about a war against terrorists, but what we see on the ground is a war against ordinary Syrians -- lawyers, human rights activists, and university students -- who are calling for democratic changes in their country," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of the New York-based organization, said in a statement late Sunday.

Israeli naval forces fired warning shots Monday at a ship carrying aid to Gaza as it approached the shore, forcing it to withdraw to Egyptian waters, the vessel's Malaysian organizer told Agence France Presse.

"The MV Finch, carrying sewage pipes to Gaza, had warning shots fired at it by Israeli forces in the Palestinian security zone this morning at 0654 Jordan time (0354 GMT)," said Shamsul Azhar from the Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

Israel will resume the transfer of Palestinian tax revenue funds that it froze after a unity deal between rival Fatah and Hamas, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said Monday.

"We have unblocked the funds because we have established that the agreement between Fatah and Hamas has had no effect, the security cooperation (between Israel and the Palestinian Authority) continues on the ground," Yaalon told Israeli public radio.