British authorities evacuated a terminal at Manchester Airport in northwest England Wednesday while bomb disposal experts investigated a suspicious device, police said.

A man was being interviewed under anti-terrorism legislation after police were made aware of a "suspicious bag" in Terminal 1 shortly before 07:30 GMT, Greater Manchester Police said in a statement.

Two U.S. hikers jailed for spying and illegal entry left Tehran for the Gulf sultanate of Oman on Wednesday on their way home to the United States after Iran released them on bail, months after handing them hefty jail terms, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Moments ago they left Iran via Mehrabad airport and it seems that the two American nationals have left for Oman and from there to America," the report said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted a list of requests for help from the United States to counter Kurdish separatists, Anatolia news agency said Wednesday.

"There is a list of requests we have conveyed to them regarding the fight against the PKK," Erdogan was quoted as saying by Anatolia, referring to the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Artillery fire and shelling rocked Yemen's capital Wednesday despite a truce aimed at ending fighting between rival military units and deadly attacks on anti-regime protesters, witnesses said.

The fighting erupted in Achrine Street, whose residents include Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who had declared the truce late on Tuesday, the witnesses told Agence France Presse.

Thousands of Palestinians on Wednesday were gathering across the West Bank for rallies in support of the campaign to join the United Nations as the 194th member state.

In Ramallah, the political capital of the West Bank, thousands of people were heading for the city Centre, waving flags and chanting slogans, for a rally expected to start late morning, an AFP correspondent said.

Libya's new rulers said on Wednesday that their fighters have overrun the key southern city of Sabha, one of the last strongholds of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

"We are in complete control of the city of Sabha. Everybody, including (those who were) pro-Gadhafi, are now with the revolution," Abdelmajid Seif Ennasr, an official for the National Transitional Council in Sabha, told Agence France Presse.

Gunmen shot and killed a Somali lawmaker in the northern breakaway state of Puntland, where fighting between political and clan groups is on the rise recently, officials said Wednesday.

Security officials in Galkayo said Abdurahman Ahmed Haji was shot late Tuesday by men with handguns in front of the gate of his house.

The United States is building an array of secret new drone bases to conduct strikes against al-Qaida targets in Somalia and Yemen, according to the Washington Post.

One of the new installations is being set up in Ethiopia, a close U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamist Shebab that controls much of Somalia, while another is being established in the Seychelles, the Post reported late Tuesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday said that for progress to be made in the thorny clash at the United Nations over Palestinian statehood, both sides will have to give.

"It's up to us, and mainly to our counterpart, the Palestinian leadership, Mahmud Abbas, and to others, to show the leadership and start to move," Barak told CNN television.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday discussed the need to "increase pressure" on the Syrian regime to aid the pro-democracy protests.

The two leaders "talked about the need to increase pressure on the Assad regime, in order to lead to an outcome that is responsive to the aspirations of the Syrian people," a White House official said.