One person was killed in clashes between Egyptian police and protesters in central Cairo on Saturday after a court dropped a murder case against ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak, officials said.

More than 1,000 protesters had converged on Tahrir Square in Cairo after the verdict earlier in the day. Police initially fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse them.

Hundreds of leftwing Israelis demonstrated Saturday night in Jerusalem against a controversial draft law enshrining Israel's status as the Jewish national homeland.

The rally was organized by Israel's Peace Now settlement watchdog and held across the street from the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A Canadian citizen was in stable condition at a Saudi Arabian hospital on Saturday after being attacked in a shopping mall in the country's east, police said.

The attack came one week after a Danish citizen was shot and wounded in the kingdom's capital, a rare incident which has not been explained.

Egyptian police fired tear gas Saturday at more than 1,000 protesters in central Cairo who gathered to denounce a court's decision to drop a murder charge against ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

An Agence France-Presse correspondent said police also used water cannons and chased protesters in side streets near Tahrir Square, the hub of the uprising that forced Mubarak to step down in early 2011.

Three French Mirage warplanes have been deployed in Jordan to assist in the fight against the Islamic State group, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

France, which is participating in U.S.-led coalition air strikes in Iraq, said this month it would deploy six jet fighters in Jordan.

Israel's prime minister and defense minister announced on Saturday that the country's next military chief of staff will be Major General Gadi Eisenkot.

Eisenkot, currently deputy chief of staff, will replace Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, whose four-year term ends in February 2015.

The Arab League on Saturday backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' plan to seek U.N. endorsement for a timetable for declaring an independent state, and rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish nation.

But the extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which Abbas attended, did not announce when they would approach the United Nations Security Council.

Iraqi forces battled Islamic State (IS) group fighters Saturday in Ramadi, where a fierce jihadist offensive threatens one of the last pockets in Anbar province still under government control.

"Fierce fighting pitting security forces and tribal units against IS is taking place in the al-Hoz, Muallimin and Bakr neighborhoods," a police major told Agence France-Presse.

U.S.-led strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria have failed to weaken the jihadist organization, according to Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

Speaking on Friday night to two Middle Eastern television stations, Muallem also said "more time" was needed before a dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition could begin.

Bahrainis voted Saturday in the final round of the Gulf kingdom's first legislative elections since the minority Sunni authorities crushed pro-democracy protests led by the Shiite majority in 2011.

Controversy clouded last weekend's first round and its focus on turnout, a key marker of the validity of the election, after the opposition boycotted it, calling it a "farce."