Human Rights Watch on Sunday urged the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to condemn a Saudi court decision sentencing seven cyber activists to up to 10 years in jail.

HRW's call came ahead of Sunday's meeting in Manama where Ashton is chairing a joint EU-Gulf Cooperation Council on how to boost cooperation between the two bodies.

Syrian air strikes in the central city of Homs on Sunday killed three civilians as regime forces pressed forward with a new bid to retake several rebel-controlled districts, a watchdog said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added that at least 24 members of the regime forces had also been killed in the fighting in Homs that began on Saturday.

U.S. efforts to broker a resumption of peace talks ended on Sunday without a breakthrough, a top Palestinian official said, although Washington's top diplomat hailed "real progress".

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has spent the past four days locked in intensive shuttle diplomacy between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership in a bid to draw the two sides back into direct negotiations after a gap of nearly three years.

Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist who pledged to be a "president for all Egyptians" at his inauguration, faces mass rallies demanding his departure on Sunday's first anniversary of his taking office.

Twelve months after he was feted by cheering crowds in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, Morsi's Egypt is deeply divided and rocked by deadly violence that has killed eight people this week alone.

Israel is poised to approve incentives for buyers of nearly 1,000 new homes in annexed east Jerusalem despite a major U.S. push to revive peace talks, reports said on Sunday.

The plan, which will offer prospective buyers a huge discount on 930 new homes that are about to be built in Har Homa, will be discussed by Jerusalem municipality's finance committee on Monday, army radio and the Maariv newspaper reported.

Egyptians flooded the streets on Sunday determined to oust Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on the anniversary of his turbulent first year in power, in the biggest protests Egypt has seen since the 2011 revolt.

A sea of jubilant protesters converged on Cairo's Tahrir Square and the large avenue outside the presidential palace, as well as in several others squares of the capital as army helicopters circled overhead.

Three members of German aid group Gruenhelme, reported missing for more than six weeks, have been kidnapped in northwest Syria, the organisation said.

"It has been 45 days since three members and employees of Gruenhelme were kidnapped overnight on May 14-15, in the village of Harem" in northwest Idlib province near the Turkish border, the group's founder Rupert Neudeck said in a statement dated Friday.

Gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian police officer during an ambush Saturday in the Sinai peninsula, a security source said, the second attack on police in the restive region this month.

"Colonel Mohammed Hani, a high-ranking officer, was killed by six bullets to the head when unknown gunmen opened fire on him with machine guns," the source said.

Syrian troops launched an offensive on several rebel-held parts of Homs city on Saturday, an NGO said, pounding the districts with air raids and mortar fire.

"Warplanes carried out two consecutive raids against areas under siege in Homs city, as well as carrying out heavy shelling against the same districts," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital on Saturday to protest against a draft law aimed at excluding former regime officials from taking part in future elections, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

The Islamist-led government in power since a 2011 uprising toppled veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been pushing for the controversial law.