U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday demanded an immediate end to the Syrian government's crackdown on civilian protesters that has killed more than 3,000 people since mid-March, according to U.N. figures.

"Killing civilians must stop immediately in Syria," Ban told a news conference in Tripoli on his first visit to Libya since the eruption in February of the uprising which toppled veteran tyrant Moammar Gadhafi.

The U.N. development agency called Wednesday for a currency transaction tax to help the world's poorest countries deal with the effects of climate change.

"In updated analysis prepared for this report, the North-South Institute estimates that a tax of 0.005 percent would yield around $40 billion a year," said the UNDP's annual Human Development Report.

Palestinian leaders reacted angrily after Israel said it would build 2,000 settler homes and freeze the transfer of Palestinian tax funds to punish them for joining UNESCO.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner cabinet decided on Tuesday to speed up construction in east Jerusalem and in nearby settlements, a day after UNESCO's general assembly voted Palestine in as a full member.

Syria will respond Tuesday to an Arab League proposal to end violence between regime forces and protesters, an Arab diplomat said, a day before Arab foreign ministers were due to hold talks on the issue.

The Arab League official said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had asked on Monday for changes to the proposal, which calls on President Bashar Assad to end violence against protesters and begin talks with his opposition.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Tuesday that officials should deal wisely with the funding of the Special Tribunal of Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime minister Rafik Hariri since the timeframe ends at the beginning of March.

“There’s no reason for us to rush with the STL issue,” Berri said in remarks to As Safir newspaper.

The world welcomed its symbolic seven billionth baby Monday amid a stark warning from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon of the need to tackle inequality on a planet where almost a billion people go hungry.

"Our world is one of terrible contradictions," Ban told a press conference to mark the U.N. declaration that the world population has reached seven billion.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out the possibility of a no-fly zone for Syria, in remarks to an Agence France Presse correspondent as he travelled Monday to Tripoli to mark the end of the alliance's air war in Libya.

"It's totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria," Rasmussen said when asked if there was a possibility NATO would now spearhead a no-fly zone in Syria.

Twenty Syrian soldiers were killed on Saturday and 53 wounded in clashes with presumed army deserters, activists said.

"Twenty soldiers perished on Saturday and 53 were wounded in clashes between the regular army and presumed deserters in the Baba Amro district of Homs," said a statement from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received in Nicosia.

Iran on Saturday dismissed a renewed U.S. offer of dialogue by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the "contradictions" of pursuing talks at the same time as threats undermined the proposal.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the comment at a joint media conference in Tehran with the visiting leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in neighboring Iraq, Massud Barzani.

Seventy-five people were killed on Saturday when government forces in the oil-rich South Sudanese Unity state repelled an attack by rebel militia, in which 15 civilians also died, the state's information minister said.

"There was a militia attack at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning (02:00-03:00 GMT) in Mayom county," said Gideon Gatpan Thoar, adding that another 18 were wounded.