Palestinians are pushing for full representation as a state at the U.N. Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, but the issue will have to be decided by world leaders next week, according to officials.

"We expect full-status participation because we already have it in UNESCO and we have ties with Brazil (the host country which recognizes the Palestinian state) and with more than 130 countries," Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Alzeben told Agence France Presse.

Paraguay replaced two top security officials Saturday after at least 16 people were killed in bloody clashes between police and peasant farmer squatters.

Former attorney general Ruben Candia was sworn in as the new interior minister, and Arnaldo Sanabria became the country's police chief in a ceremony at the government palace headed by President Fernando Lugo.

Egypt's military told parliament on Saturday it has been dissolved and banned its members from entering the house after a court annulled the last legislative poll, official media and a senior MP said.

The Islamist-led parliament received a notice saying that Egypt's ruling generals had decided "to consider parliament dissolved," the official MENA news agency reported.

The White House renewed calls Saturday for Bashar Assad to step down at a "critical juncture" in Syria after U.N. observers suspended their mission, saying it was discussing the way ahead with allies.

The unarmed observers have been targeted almost daily since deploying in mid-April to monitor a U.N.-backed but widely flouted ceasefire brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, and they were likened to "sitting ducks in a shooting gallery" by Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

A Turkish policeman was shot dead and another was wounded after unknown assailants opened fire on the officers in Istanbul, the city's police chief said Saturday.

The attack occurred in the populous neighborhood of Gaziosmanpasa, located on the European side of Istanbul, police chief Huseyin Capkin told the Anatolia news agency.

Iran is ready to make a "positive step" at talks in Moscow on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, adding that he hoped for progress at next week's crucial meeting.

Two days of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany begin Monday under the watchful eye of President Vladimir Putin -- a strongman who expects results.

Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned a radical left victory in Greece would have "unpredictable" consequences for the Eurozone as Greeks fed up with austerity prepared for Sunday's elections.

"If the radical left wins ... the consequences for monetary union are unpredictable," Juncker, who leads Eurozone finance ministers and is also Luxembourg's prime minister, said in an interview with the Austrian daily Kurier.

The former chief of the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) on Saturday urged the United Nations to deploy peacekeepers after U.N. observers suspended their mission in the country.

"We have to send U.N. peacekeepers to Syria on a mission with more people who would be able to protect themselves from the violence of the regime," said Burhan Ghalioun, ex-leader and current political bureau chief of the SNC.

The United States hailed Yemen on Saturday for retaking militant bastions in the south of the country from al-Qaida fighters.

Yemeni troops took control of the city of Shuqra on Friday, the last major stronghold of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Abyan province to fall to government forces, which launched an all-out offensive last month that has already resulted in the recapture of the towns of Jaar and Zinjibar.

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who is serving a life sentence in jail, remains in a "stable" condition, the Egyptian interior minister said on Saturday.

The former leader's health is "stable" and he "is getting progressively better," Mohammed Ibrahim told reporters, adding that a decision to transfer Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal to the same prison had "borne fruit."