Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced Monday that he was leaving his Labor Party and forming a new parliamentary faction inside the governing coalition, completing a split in the iconic party over the handling of peace talks with the Palestinians.

The dramatic and unexpected move did not immediately threaten the stability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary majority. Instead, it appeared to strengthen Netanyahu's hardline coalition by leaving it with a smaller, yet largely like-minded majority.

Hundreds of protesters marched in the Tunisian capital Friday shouting slogans against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the day after he promised not to seek another term, an Agence France Presse reporter said.

"No to Ben Ali, the uprising continues," they cried.

Saudi aviation minister has kicked off the construction work on the new terminal at Jeddah airport which will cost 27.1 billion riyals ($7.2 billion).

Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the minister of defense, late Tuesday laid the cornerstone for the project during a ceremony at King Abdul Aziz airport, whose annual capacity should rise to 30 million passengers when the project is completed in 36 months.

At least 35 people have been killed in the riots that erupted over the weekend in Tunisia, the president of the International Federation for Human Rights said Tuesday.

"We have a list of the names of the 35," Souhayr Belhassen told Agence France Presse. "The total figure is higher. It's somewhere around 50, but that's an estimate."

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Tuesday, causing no injuries, the Israeli military said.

The rocket was the latest in a salvo of projectiles fired from the coastal enclave in Israel, raising tensions along the border with Gaza and fears of a new Israeli incursion into the territory.

Cross-border police agency Interpol issued an alert Tuesday to police worldwide for 47 Saudis with suspected links to al-Qaida wanted on terrorism charges.

"Interpol has published at the request of Saudi Arabia Red Notices for 47 internationally-wanted individuals sought by Saudi authorities in connection with alleged terrorism offences," it said in a statement.

Iran said on Tuesday it has arrested 10 people linked to the Mossad and that the Islamic republic had delivered the Israeli spy agency a "severe blow" after deeply infiltrating it.

Intelligence Minister Heyder Moslehi told reporters the arrests were the result of covert operations successfully carried out by the Iranian secret services.

Saudi Arabia's quest for a fourth Asian Cup lay in tatters on Monday after they sacked beleaguered coach Jose Peseiro in the wake of an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to Syria in their opening game.

The Portuguese, a former assistant to Carlos Queiroz at Real Madrid, had been under intense pressure after he failed to get Saudi Arabia to last year's World Cup.

Israeli warplanes launched twin air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight in response to rocket and mortar fire from the Hamas-controlled territory, an army spokesman said on Monday.

The strikes targeted "centers of terrorist activities, which have been hit", said the spokesman, referring to projectiles fired from Gaza over the weekend.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing," following deadly attacks on churches in the region.

"We cannot accept and thereby facilitate what looks more and more like a particularly wicked program of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," he said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.