The foreign ministers of Venezuela and Cuba are leading a delegation of leftist Latin American countries to Syria to meet Sunday with Syria's President Bashar Assad in a show of support.

The eight-member ALBA bloc's talks aim to "reject invasion and political destabilization attempts of the country by the United States and its allies," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in state news agency AVN.

Jerusalem municipality has given the green light for the construction of 11 new apartments in the Jewish settlement of Pisgat Zeev in the annexed east of the city, a councilor told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"The municipality approved at the beginning of the week the construction of 11 apartments, as part of a project of 300 housing units supposed to be approved section by section," Pepe Alalou of the leftist Meretz party said.

Egypt's military amended a controversial election law on Saturday to allow parties to contest a third of the seats in parliament reserved for independents after a boycott threat, state media reported.

The military decree is a concession to the parties, which also insist on a law banning corrupt politicians from running for office for a decade.

Tunisia has arrested a colonel in the former Libyan intelligence service, hiding out in a rented house in a remote town after Moammar Gadhafi's fall, the official TAP news agency said Saturday.

The officer had crossed the border using false identity papers more than a month ago, according to a security source cited by the agency, who did not name the colonel.

British police said Saturday they had arrested seven protesters outside the Syrian embassy in London, including three men who climbed onto the roof of the building and waved the Kurdish flag.

The trio were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after mounting the roof of the entrance of the embassy, where they waved the red, white and green Kurdish flag with a sun emblem on it, according to television pictures.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, faced with more than eight months of street protests demanding his ouster, said on Saturday he is ready to step down within days but would not hand over to his foes.

"I don't want power and I will give it up in the coming days," the veteran leader said in a televised speech during which he launched a tirade against his opponents.

Syrian dissidents were in Cairo on Saturday to lobby for recognition of an exile opposition council seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

The delegation planned to meet Egyptian activists and party representatives as 90 members of the Syrian National Council-led opposition met in Stockholm to strategies their struggle against Assad.

Forces from Libya's interim regime scored a strategic goal Saturday in their push to capture Sirte, seizing a highway that opens the way to a final assault on a key base of troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

But with thousands of civilians still trapped in the ex-leader's hometown, NTC commanders said they were pacing their advance to evacuate some of those who had not fled and to avoid losses from friendly fire.

The United Nations's new special envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler, a former ambassador to Baghdad for Germany, flew in on Saturday to take up his post, the U.N. mission said.

Kobler, 58, is a former top official at the German foreign ministry experienced in helping countries in conflict and served as Germany's ambassador to Iraq.

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Saturday firmly condemned the murder of a Kurdish opposition leader in Syria, and reiterated concern over Damascus' repression of pro-democracy protests.

"The High Representative condemns in the strongest terms the murder" of 53-year-old Meshaal Tamo, assassinated on Friday by masked gunmen who stormed his house in northern Syria, a statement issued on behalf of Catherine Ashton said.