A Jordanian died of his wounds on Sunday after he was hit by sniper fire last week in the Syrian city of Homs, a hotbed of that county's anti-regime revolt.

"Tareq Mohammed al-Khaldi, 20, died today in King Abdullah I hospital," near the northern city of Irbid, Jordan's state-run Petra news agency reported.

China's chief of staff General Chen Bingde on Sunday met his Israeli counterpart General Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv, the ministry said in a statement.

"The defense minister and the Chinese chief of staff discussed the situation in the region, relations with the Palestinian Authority and the situation in Pakistan and Iran, as well as the fight against global terrorism," it said without elaborating.

Six months after the start of the conflict in Libya, NATO believes that the resistance of Moammar Gadhafi's regime can be overcome and rebels finally get the upper hand.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 authorized the Atlantic Alliance in March to defend Libya's civilian population from attacks by Gadhafi’s regime, which faces a popular revolt after 42 years in power.

Three soldiers and seven alleged al-Qaida militants were killed in clashes in the restive southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar, a military official told Agence France Presse.

"Five al-Qaida fighters and three soldiers were killed in fighting that broke out when al-Qaida gunmen attacked the 25th Mechanized Brigade" late on Saturday that has been besieged by militants since the end of May, he said.

A suicide bomb attack on a police station in eastern Algeria early Sunday injured 29 people, including two Chinese nationals, the on-line edition of the French language daily El Watan reported.

Mohamed Nedir, director of the university hospital in Tizi Ouzou, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the capital, said eight policemen were among the injured.

At least 26 people were killed as the Syrian military opened fire on the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Sunday, with warships and tanks joining the assault, activists said.

But the state-run news agency SANA denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, quoting its correspondent in there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.

Canada said Saturday it had expanded sanctions on Syria, including blacklisting a commercial bank and a mobile phone provider, to protest the government's brutal crackdown on protests.

The new sanctions include travel bans on four officials, including Mohammed Mufleh, head of military security in the flashpoint city of Hama, and Mohammed Makhlouf, an uncle of President Bashar al-Assad.

Egyptian tanks were rolling into a town near Gaza's border on Saturday for an anticipated operation against militants who attacked a gas pipeline to Israel and police stations, security officials said.

The officials said the tanks and more than 1,000 soldiers and policemen, deployed on Friday and Saturday, would try to restore order to a lawless section in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, and then move southwards to a mountainous region where armed outlaws were hiding.

Tens of thousands gathered for fresh demonstrations Saturday outside Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, after leaders of a hugely popular social movement called for rallies across Israel to protest high prices and living conditions.

At 9:00 pm local time (18:00 GMT), some 50,000 people were mobilized throughout the country, police said.

Around 1,000 women's rights supporters rallied in Tunis Saturday to the mark the anniversary of a key equal rights bill amid fears gender equality may suffer if political Islam rises in post-revolution Tunisia.

The Personal Status Code (CSP) passed on August 13, 1956 by the country's first president Habib Bourguiba that helped shape the 1959 constitution, was considered a groundbreaking document in the Arab world.