A gunfight erupted near Tripoli international airport in which two people were wounded on Saturday, a Libyan army official and a former rebel told Agence France Presse.

Army official Samy Kamuka said the firefight erupted when a group of former rebels of the Zintan brigade clashed with former rebels from Tripoli.

The Palestinian premier on Saturday slammed U.S. presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich for belittling the Palestinians as an "invented" people and demanded an apology.

Gingrich, leading in some national polls for the Republican Party nomination, made the comments in a Friday interview to be aired with the Jewish Channel satellite television.

A group identifying itself as an offshoot of al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) said Saturday it was holding three Westerners kidnapped from a refugee camp in Algeria in October.

"This is the Jamat Tawhid Wal Jihad Fi Garbi Afriqqiya in west Africa. We claim the operation carried out on October 23 at Tindouf when two Spaniards and an Italian were kidnapped," said the audio and written message sent to Agence France Presse's correspondent in Bamako.

Gaza militants fired four rockets at southern Israel early Saturday after Israeli warplanes attacked Gaza, in the latest tit-for-tat attack between the two sides.

A police spokeswoman told Agence France Presse that none of the rockets caused casualties or damage. The Gaza militant group Popular Resistance Committees took responsibility for the Saturday firings.

Weekend clashes in southern Yemen left two government soldiers and 11 suspected members of al-Qaida dead, military and local sources told Agence France Presse Saturday.

Government troops have for months been battling al-Qaida linked fighters in the troubled Abyan province, notably in the areas surrounding the provincial capital Zinjibar, where the latest clashes took place.

A spate of gun and bomb attacks across northern and central Iraq on Saturday killed seven people and left four others wounded, security officials said.

In the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, a Shiite Turkman chemicals specialist for the state-owned North Oil Company was killed by a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to his car.

An Arab League ministerial meeting slated for Saturday to mull a response to Syria which wants the bloc to lift sanctions in return for allowing in observers to monitor its deadly unrest was postponed.

Arab League chief Nabi al-Arabi suggested convening the meeting in mid-December at the bloc's Cairo headquarters, a diplomat said.

World powers piled pressure on Syria to let in observers as activists on Saturday reported at least 14 another civilians killed by security forces on the anniversary of International Human Rights Day.

"The world celebrates human rights as human rights are being violated in Syria," the opposition Syrian Revolution 2011 said in a message posted on its Facebook page.

Yemen's national unity government, led by the opposition, was sworn in on Saturday in the presence of Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, an official statement said.

The statement, carried by the official Saba news agency, said the swearing-in ceremony took place at the Republican Palace in the capital Sanaa.

Libya's new rulers are ready to forgive the forces of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi who battled rebels trying to topple his autocratic regime, National Transition Council chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Saturday.

"In Libya we are able to absorb all. Libya is for all," Abdel Jalil said in Tripoli as he launched a national reconciliation conference organized by the NTC.