Syria's president has passed a decree legalizing private security firms, faced with a 29-month armed revolt against his rule that has pinned down the police, state news agency SANA reported Tuesday.

President Bashar Assad's decree regulates "licencing for private companies that provide protection and guard duties ... to ensure the safety of individuals, establishments, property and the transport of cash, jewels and precious metals," said SANA.

Syria's main opposition group on Tuesday denounced the killings during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, calling for an end to the "massacres" committed by President Bashar Assad's forces.

"More than 200 people died in 20 massacres committed in July," said Louay Safi, a member of the Syrian National Coalition.

A judge remanded in custody Tuesday a convicted child rapist who was arrested in Spain after a controversial pardon by Morocco's king was revoked in the face of angry protests.

The judge ruled that Daniel Galvan Vina, a Spanish national found guilty of raping 11 children aged between four and 15 in Morocco and sentenced to 30 years in prison there, was a flight risk and would remain in custody while his extradition was being considered, the court said.

The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday it had boosted security in Yemen, as Western nations shut their embassies there following a worldwide terror alert issued by the United States.

"We're there, but we're operating under extreme caution, and certain restrictions," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters, without giving details.

Syrians who flee their war-torn country face recruitment as child soldiers, sexual violence, and exploitation for labor, the U.N. refugee agency warned Tuesday, saying lawlessness in camps was driving exiles home.

In a report on aid efforts for the more than 1.8 million Syrian war refugees, mostly in neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, UNHCR spotlighted the raft of ills they face.

Tunisia's Islamist ruling party chief has said the government will not step down under pressure from the opposition, even as fresh protests were being readied Tuesday to demand just that.

And Prime Minister Ali Larayedh took a swipe at demonstrators, saying they were hampering efforts by security forces to root out gunmen linked to al-Qaida.

Kuwait's emir Tuesday urged MPs and the government to cooperate to achieve political stability in the oil-rich Gulf state that has been rocked by a series of disputes for years.

"Cooperation between parliament and government to achieve stability," is necessary, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah said as he opened the new parliament elected last month.

An Italian Jesuit priest who hoped to negotiate with jihadists in Syria has "apparently been kidnapped by an Islamist group" which is "a local version of al-Qaida,” the foreign ministry in Rome said Tuesday.

"You will all understand the difficulties. We have not given up, we are still hopeful" of recovering activist Paolo Dall'Oglio, Italy's Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told Unomattina television program.

The population in Israel's controversial West Bank settlements has grown twice as much as in Israel itself, military radio said on Tuesday, quoting official statistics.

The figures released by the interior ministry are likely to add to Palestinian misgivings about resuming peace talks in Washington last week with the Israelis. The talks broke down three years ago over the settlement issue.

A plane carrying Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to Tehran at the weekend was blocked from crossing Saudi Arabian airspace because no prior approval had been sought, the kingdom's civil aviation authorities said Tuesday.

This was the only reason the plane was turned back, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement, countering suggestions the move was linked to international arrest warrants out for Bashir.