Syria on Saturday condemned a U.N. vote on rights violations by the country's security forces as "unjust," and said it was based on false information from the regime's foes.

The U.N. Human Rights Council resolution passed in a vote on Friday was "unjust and "prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.

Eleven civilians were among 23 people killed in Syria on Saturday, a day after the U.N. Human Rights Council urged tougher action against Damascus and condemned its "gross violations" of human rights.

The fresh bloodletting came despite the U.N. resolution which the Syrian foreign ministry dismissed as "unjust" and "politically motivated" by enemies of the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad.

Russia on Friday lambasted the U.N. Human Rights Council's findings of "gross violations" by Syria as "unacceptable" and warned against using them as a pretext for military action.

"The positions (adopted) in the document, which include the veiled hint of the possibility of foreign military intervention under the pretext of defending the Syrian people, are unacceptable to the Russian side," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked judges Friday for an arrest warrant for Sudan's defense minister over crimes committed in Darfur, his office said.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court "to issue an arrest warrant against the current Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur from August 2003 to March 2004," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The U.N.'s human rights chief called Friday for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court over allegations that its crackdown on opposition protesters has led to crimes against humanity.

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said fresh reports from the country — including that 307 children have been killed since March — reinforced the need for the Security Council to submit the situation in Syria to the Hague-based court.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Syria's Bashar Assad to quit, in a Turkish newspaper interview published Friday, adding to growing global pressure on the regime over its crackdown on dissidents.

"The United States' position on Syria is clear. The Syrian regime must end its brutality against its own people and President Assad must step down so a peaceful transition that respects the will of the people can take place," Biden told the Hurriyet daily.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon telephoned PM Najib Miqati congratulating him on his decision to transfer the funds to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the premier’s office said Thursday.

It said in a statement that Ban stressed to Miqati his support to exerted efforts to grantee stability and peace in Lebanon.

Iran's charge d'affaires in Rome, Mehdi Akouchekian, was on Thursday summoned by Italy's foreign ministry following the "intolerable" attack by protesters on Britain's embassy in Tehran.

The Italian government expressed its "strong condemnation" of the "violent and intolerable" attack and stressed its "solidarity with the British government," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Amnesty International and rights activists on Wednesday called on the U.N. Security Council to refer the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests to the International Criminal Court.

A Syrian activist forced into exile by President Bashar Assad's government said there has to be "regime change" in the country, but with no foreign intervention.

The brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad, several ministers and telecom magnate Rami Makhlouf are on a list of 17 senior figures to be targeted by Arab League sanctions, officials said Thursday.

Under the economic measures agreed this week by the 22-member organization, they would be banned from travelling in the region and have any assets in Arab countries frozen, if the list is confirmed at a meeting on Saturday.