Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who faces trial next week accused ordering troops to fire on protesters, will appear in court at the Cairo Police Academy, the appeals court said Saturday.

The trial would open on Wednesday and be held "inside the Police Academy in Masr el-Gedida" in northern Cairo for security reasons, said the court's president, Abdel Aziz Omar.

A Syrian army colonel said on Saturday that he has defected with "hundreds" of soldiers and warned the regime against launching a crackdown on the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zour.

The man, identifying himself as Colonel Riad al-Asaad, said in a telephone call to Agence France Presse in Nicosia that he was speaking from inside Syria "near the Turkish border."

Morocco's King Mohammed VI called Saturday for speedy elections and the reopening of his country's border with Algeria in his first throne speech since a referendum voted to curb some of his prerogatives.

In the July 1 referendum, more than 98 percent of Moroccans approved a set of political reforms backed by the king following a series of youth-led, pro-democracy demonstrations in several cities.

MPs slashed the size of Iraq's national unity cabinet by a third on Saturday after a visit to parliament by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who has called for his bloated government to be slimmed down.

The deal immediately cut 14 junior minister posts.

The United States plans talks with Saudi Arabia on civilian nuclear cooperation, people familiar with the plans said, in a step that has already set off fierce criticism on Capitol Hill.

With the United States hoping to head off an arms race in response to Iran's nuclear program, officials from President Barack Obama's administration plan to head to Riyadh in the coming week for nuclear talks, the sources said.

Syrian troops shot dead three people on Saturday when villagers hurled stones at their convoy as it advanced on the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, an activist told Agence France Presse in Nicosia.

Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a convoy of about 60 military vehicles, including tanks, was moving towards Deir al-Zour when people from Tibneh village attacked them with stones.

At least 42 people have died in violence near Yemen's southern city of Zinjibar, most of which has fallen under the control of spected al-Qaida militants, military and local sources said on Saturday.

Eleven people including top officers were killed in fierce clashes between the army and militants in Dofas, a village 15 kilometers south of Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar, they said.

Egypt's military has arrested five people in connection with clashes in the north Sinai city of El-Arish that left four people dead, the official MENA news agency said on Saturday.

Armed forces arrested four men suspected of involvement in an attack on an El-Arish police station, while another man was arrested driving close to the police station with two machine guns in his possession, MENA said.

Eleven people including top officers have been killed in fierce clashes between Yemen's army and suspected al-Qaida militants in the country's restive south, military and local officials said on Saturday.

"Al-Qaida elements stationed in Dofas (Abyan province) attacked army units there using machine guns on Friday, killing two officers and four soldiers, and wounding nine others," a military official in the village told Agence France Presse.

Amnesty on Friday renewed calls for Iran to release two young U.S. hikers held on spying charges since July 2009, two days ahead of a fresh hearing in their case.

"Iranian authorities have held these men for two years, subjecting them to legal proceedings that fall far short of international fair trial standards," the London-based organization said.