Fierce clashes erupted in Yemen's second city Saturday as protesters in the capital Sanaa condemned international silence in the face of a government crackdown that left more than 15 dead the previous day.

"Oh world, the children and women of Taez are being killed...where is your conscience?" chanted tens of thousands of protesters in Sanaa who for 10 months now have been calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

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.

The U.N. human rights chief on Friday condemned a deadly air strike on a refugee camp in South Sudan, saying the attack could amount to an international crime.

"We condemn the bombing. It's an extremely serious matter and could amount to an international crime," spokesman Rupert Colville told journalists.

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.

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.

Iran "will respond with full force" to any attack -- or even any threat of military action -- the country's supreme leader said Thursday, after Israel warned the world must act to prevent Tehran getting nuclear weapons.

Iran "will respond with full force to any aggression or even threats in a way that will demolish the aggressors from within," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told students at a Tehran military college, according to his official website.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati arrived back to Beirut from London on Wednesday evening and immediately contacted Higher Relief Council Chief, Brigadier Ibrahim Bashir, asking him to follow up on the humanitarian situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

“Rumors about the halt of aid to the refugees is untrue and falls under political propaganda” Miqati said in a statement.

Iran stands "ready for useful and positive talks" on its nuclear program as long as they are held on the basis of "equality and respect," the country's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The comment, by spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast to Iran's Arabic channel Al-Alam, came after the U.N. nuclear watchdog released a tough new report saying it had evidence Iran appeared to be pursuing atomic weapons.

The world must act to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday after the release of a key report by the U.N.'s atomic watchdog.

"The significance of the report is that the international community must bring about the cessation of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons which endanger the peace of the world and of the Middle East," he said in a statement issued by his office.