Iranian lawmakers on Sunday delayed taking action on a proposed bill to immediately cut oil exports to Europe in retaliation for an EU oil embargo, the parliament's energy commission said.

"No bill has been designed nor has it come to the parliament," commission spokesman Emad Hosseini told Mehr news agency.

Thousands of cars filled Moscow's ring road Sunday in a protest demanding free elections and slamming Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's bid to regain his Kremlin job in March polls.

Some 3,000 cars decked with white ribbons and balloons -- the color of the anti-Putin movement -- joined the protest, according to organizers, while police said they numbered only 300.

Jordanian police in the southern city of Tafileh fired tear gas on Sunday to disperse angry stone-throwing demonstrators who called on authorities to make good on their promise of jobs, the governor said.

"Scores of unemployed men blocked the main road in the city, throwing stones at government buildings as well as police," Hashem Sehiem told the state-run Petra news agency.

Candidates contesting a general election in Kuwait this week are calling for sweeping reforms including a new constitution that would turn the oil-rich Gulf state into a full democracy.

Their demands range from the establishment of a Western-style, multi-party system, an elected government and a constitutional monarchy, effectively limiting powers enjoyed by the ruling al-Sabah family.

Four opposition activists were killed and nearly 200 people injured on Sunday when police opened fire at large Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallies in the southeast.

The shootings happened in the towns of Chandpur and Laksmipur after the party held demonstrations to demand that the government resign in a dispute over electoral reforms, police said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in an unusually outspoken declaration Sunday, told African leaders they must respect gay rights, an issue that is controversial in many African states.

"One form of discrimination ignored or even sanctioned by many states for too long has been discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity," Ban said at an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital.

Israel laid out a vision for an "impossible" border during exploratory talks with the Palestinians in Amman this month, a Palestinian official told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli officials presented principles for their policy on future borders during the final round of the discussions organized by Jordan and the peacemaking Quartet.

The office of a Russian regional newspaper published by the Yabloko opposition party has been destroyed in a Molotov cocktail attack, the party said on Sunday.

The attack on the Vecherny Krasnokamsk weekly in the Perm region in the Urals occurred early Saturday, Yabloko said on its website. No one was reported hurt in the pre-dawn incident.

Fierce clashes approached the Syrian capital on Sunday as fresh violence across the country killed at least 59 civilians, 31 regime troops and nine army deserters, according to activists.

Regime forces fired heavy artillery and mortar rounds against the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Saqba, Irbin and Hamouriyeh and were locked in close battle with rebel fighters emboldened by a fresh wave of desertions, activists said.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Sunday he hopes Russia and China will change their stance on Syria and allow the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution backing a League plan to end the crisis.

"I hope these two countries will alter their position concerning the draft U.N. Security Council resolution which would adopt the Arab plan," Arabi said before leaving Cairo for the United Nations in New York.