Five Yemeni protesters were wounded in an overnight attack by masked men on a sit-in in central Sanaa calling for the fall of the regime, witnesses and activists said Thursday.

Witnesses told Agence France Presse that the attack on demonstrators in the square in front of Sanaa University was carried out by men wearing masks, whom anti-government activists said were "thugs" loyal to the regime.

Bahrain arrested six opposition activists Thursday as part of a crackdown on the Shiite pro-democracy movement that has sparked outrage in the Shiite world and criticism from Washington, an MP said.

Five hard-line Shiite activists and one Sunni were rounded up during the night, a parliamentarian from the Shiite opposition alliance told Agence France Presse.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati will launch intense consultations with Lebanese officials on Thursday in an effort to break the impasse on the cabinet formation process, An Nahar daily said.

The newspaper said that talks between Miqati and Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday paved way for a series of meetings that the premier-designate is scheduled to hold with officials involved in the formation of the government.

Iran has launched a rocket into space carrying a test capsule designed to house an animal, the official IRNA news agency said Thursday, amid Western concerns over Tehran's scientific advances.

The Kavoshgar-4 rocket was launched without fanfare on March 15, the report said, citing the president's office.

Four U.S. missiles ploughed into a militant training compound in Pakistan's Taliban and al Qaida-hit northwest on Thursday, killing 24 and wounding several others, security officials said.

It was the seventh drone strike to hit the lawless region in nine days, as the unpopular covert campaign ramps up along the border and fuels widespread anti-American sentiment in the nuclear nation that is a critical U.S. ally.

Unknown assailants tossed overnight a hand grenade at the Beirut building where Tawhid movement leader Wiam Wahab resides, As Safir daily reported Thursday.

The newspaper said the incident caused material damage only.

The official number of dead and missing after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened Japan's northeast coast is approaching 15,000, police said Thursday.

The number of confirmed dead from Friday's twin disasters rose to 5,457 while the official number of missing increased to 9,508, the National Police Agency said in its latest update.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi is “closely following the developments in Lebanon” and would exert all efforts to support the resumption of dialogue among all Lebanese parties, his spokesman Minha Bakhoum said.

Al-Arabi is concerned over the “decline in the possibilities of (holding) dialogue among the parties,” Bakhoum said in a statement on Wednesday.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said his forces would fight a "decisive battle" Thursday, as Washington added its voice to efforts at the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone.

Gadhafi's latest comments came after his forces pressed rebels in the west on Wednesday and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, despite calls from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for an immediate ceasefire.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat is expected to hold talks with the assistant of the Syrian president’s deputy in Damascus on Thursday, As Safir daily reported.

The newspaper said that Jumblat would meet with Maj. Gen. Mohammed Nassif as part of consultations on the situation in Lebanon and the Arab world.