Tunisian police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters on Friday as tens of thousands joined the funeral of opposition leader Chokri Belaid whose murder plunged the country into new post-revolt turmoil.

Skirmishes erupted on the margins of the funeral procession which turned into a demonstration in Tunis, a city paralyzed by a general strike called in protest at Wednesday's assassination of the leftist leader.

A spate of car bombs in Shiite areas of Iraq, including two blasts minutes apart at a popular bird market, killed 33 people on Friday, the latest spike in violence amid a simmering political crisis.

The bloodshed came as tens of thousands of people in mostly Sunni parts of the country renewed rallies calling for Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to quit, as they railed against the alleged targeting of their community by authorities.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that the Pentagon had backed proposals to arm the Syrian opposition battling to oust President Bashar Assad.

The idea -- ultimately rejected -- was first floated by then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who met privately with David Petraeus, CIA chief at the time, in the summer of 2012 as fighting raged in Syria.

U.N. sanctions experts are investigating the Yemeni government's claims that Iran supplied rockets and explosives seized from a ship last month, diplomats said Thursday.

The case was raised at a U.N. Security Council meeting where U.N. special envoy Jamal Benomar called on the 15-member body to end "acts of obstruction" to the country's democratic transition.

The United States on Thursday urged Tunisian leaders to come together to resolve the tensions wracking the country, warning "there's no place for violence in Tunisia's democracy."

Washington has condemned the assassination of leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid, who was gunned down Wednesday outside his home in Tunis, sparking clashes between police and hundreds of protesters.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday admitted for the first time that the Pentagon had backed proposals to arm the Syrian opposition battling to oust President Bashar Assad.

The idea was first floated by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who met privately with David Petraeus, then CIA chief, in the summer of 2012 as the fighting raged in Syria.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said on Thursday he hoped for a ceasefire "soon" in Syria, where tens of thousands of people have been killed in nearly two years of conflict.

Morsi said a meeting between Egypt, Turkey and Iran on the sidelines of a Cairo summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), discussed "the general framework" to resolve the crisis in Syria.

Egypt's interior minister on Thursday ordered extra security around opposition leaders Mohammed ElBaradei and Hamdeen Sabbahi after a religious edict calling for their deaths, a ministry spokesman said.

Mohammed Ibrahim issued the order to boost protection around the homes of leading dissident and former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief ElBaradei as well as former presidential candidate Sabbahi.

A Palestinian prisoner who last year staged a hunger strike of more than 100 days was freed from an Israeli prison on Thursday and returned to his home in the Gaza Strip.

Akram al-Rikhawi was shown on Palestinian television being welcomed by a large crowd of well-wishers as he crossed into Gaza after close to nine years in jail.

International Criminal Court judges on Thursday demanded that Libya hand over Moammar Gadhafi's former spy chief Abdullah Senussi to face charges of crimes against humanity.

The latest broadside in the legal tug-of-war between The Hague-based ICC and Tripoli over where Senussi and Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam should be tried repeated a demand for Senussi to be handed over.