With fears that women's rights are being eroded in Iraq, prospective female lawmakers are determined to push women's issues to the fore of campaigning for this month's elections.

Despite a constitutional requirement that a quarter of all MPs be women, Iraq lags on key indicators such as female employment and literacy, and there is a bill before parliament that opponents say dramatically curtails women's rights.

Violence in Iraq killed 29 people Saturday, most of them militants who died in a security forces assault that pushed them out of an area west of Baghdad, officials said.

Anti-government fighters have held shifting parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and all of the city of Fallujah, both west of Baghdad, for more than three months, with security forces still struggling to bring parts of the province back under government control.

A little-known jihadist group, Ajnad Misr, claimed responsibility Saturday for a string of bomb attacks targeting Egyptian security forces in Cairo, including one that killed a police officer.

Militants have stepped up attacks on security forces since the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July, while the military-installed authorities have launched a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced an Islamist leader on trial for murder alongside deposed president Mohammed Morsi to a year in jail for insulting a prosecutor, judicial sources said.

Top Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed al-Beltagui and Morsi were both in court Saturday accused of inciting the killing of opposition protesters outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.

A day after Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won a fourth term, many young people in the oil-rich nation wonder if the next generation will ever have a chance to rule.

Results announced on Friday by Interior Minister Tayeb Belaiz showed that Bouteflika, 77, won 81.53 percent of the votes in an election marred by low turnout and opposition claims of fraud.

Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef will stay off the air until after next month's presidential election to avoid influencing voters, his television network said on Saturday.

The May 26-27 vote is widely expected to be won by former army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who is riding a wave of popularity after ousting Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

Two people were killed Saturday when their car exploded in a Shiite village in Bahrain, the interior ministry said, although it was unclear whether the vehicle itself had been targeted.

A third person was wounded in the blast and taken to hospital as civil defense personnel were hurt in a separate explosion, the ministry said.

Several foreign reporters remain captive in Syria, dubbed by a media watchdog as the most dangerous country for journalists, after four French colleagues were freed Saturday after 10 months in captivity.

Thirteen major international news organisations, including the New York Times, BBC News, Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, said in December that more than 30 journalists were being held in the war-ravaged country.

An Iranian woman on death row for the murder of an ex-intelligence official could be forgiven if "she tells the truth", the son of her alleged victim said Saturday.

Interior designer Reyhaneh Jabbari has been sentenced to death for the 2007 slaying of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, which a U.N. human rights monitor claims was done in self-defense against a potential rapist.

Egyptian leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi Saturday submitted the documents required to run in next month's presidential election, in which he is likely to be the only rival to former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Sabbahi is currently Sisi's sole challenger after lawyer Mortada Mansour announced he was withdrawing his candidacy, although there is another day before the expected end of the registration period.