EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will open the European Union's new delegation in Libya on Saturday and meet the country's new authorities, she said in a statement.

"Opening a fully-fledged EU Delegation in Tripoli underlines the EU's commitment to our close relationship with the Libyan people, both during the political transition and in the long term," Ashton stated.

At least 33 people were killed in violence in Syria on Friday, most of them in the restive city of Homs, as Human Rights Watch accused the regime of crimes against humanity.

The Local Coordination Committees said that 33 people were killed at the hands of security forces during Friday’s demonstrations.

Libya's former Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi has applied for U.N. political refugee status to try to prevent his extradition from Tunisia, one of his lawyers said Friday.

"If the HCR (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) grants Mr. Mahmoudi refugee status it will no longer be possible to extradite him," said the lawyer, Taufik Wanas.

Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh shelled the country's second largest city Taez early on Friday, killing nine people, among them two women and a child, a medic and witnesses said.

"The bombing killed nine people this morning (Friday), all of them civilians," the medical source said, adding that two women and a nine-year-old child were among those killed and that dozens of other people were wounded.

Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Syrian government forces of "crimes against humanity" based on the systematic nature of abuses against civilians in their eight-month crackdown on dissent.

In a report issued a day before the Arab League holds an extraordinary meeting on the crisis, HRW urged the Cairo-based pan-Arab group to suspend Syria's membership.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a settler and wounded two others when they opened fire on a car at a roadblock in the West Bank on Friday, the army said.

"Soldiers who had been warned of a suspicious vehicle opened fire, killing one Israeli and wounding two others," a military spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem slammed Thursday what he called “the statement of a U.S. State Department source that encourages the Arab countries to join the political and economic boycott against Syria,” in a letter he sent to Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

The aforementioned statement “exceeds the limits of the AL Charter and the bases of the joint Arab action,” Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted Muallem as saying.

Thirty people were killed Thursday in Syria, among them five children and an infant and six regular army soldiers who were shot dead by suspected army defectors, the Local Coordination Committees announced.

Earlier on Thursday, a rights group said a young girl and six soldiers were among 12 Syrians killed during the day as security forces pressed a crackdown on protests and in clashes between troops and army deserters.

Libya's former Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi will get a "fair trial" when he is extradited from Tunisia to face Libyan justice, interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

"First of all we will ensure a secure place for him, then we will guarantee a fair trial, despite the acts he has perpetrated against the Libyan people," said Abdel Jalil, chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council.

One person died and several were hurt in clashes Thursday in the flashpoint city of Taez and the capital Sanaa during protests calling for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's prosecution, medics and witnesses said.

The bloodletting came as U.N. envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar arrived in Sanaa in an attempt to resolve the political crisis that has thrown the country into a spiral of violence in which hundreds have died since January.