Around 3,000 Palestinians gathered in the West Bank on Sunday to protest against the U.S. veto that nixed a Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements.

The crowd massed in Ramallah's Manara Square, a central roundabout in the West Bank city, waving banners and shouting slogans against the American administration.

Several Iranian opposition websites said that anti-government demonstrations had started in some cities, including Tehran on Sunday, as police said security forces were deployed in the Iranian capital.

"Police fired tear gas as a cat-and-mouse game (between police and demonstrators) began in Vali Asr Square" of Tehran, the Rahesabz.net said citing witnesses.

Israel's prime minister on Sunday accused Iran of trying to exploit the recent instability in Egypt by sending two warships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, saying he views the move "with gravity."

The Iranian ships were expected to make a rare crossing through the canal on Sunday or Monday en route to Syria — an Iranian ally and Israel's enemy to the north. Egypt confirmed the ships would be allowed through the strategic passage.

Saudi Arabia urged the Bahraini opposition to heed government calls for dialogue, pledging on Sunday to stand by its small neighbor after protesters re-occupied Manama's central Pearl Square.

"Saudi Arabia is carefully following the developments... and calls upon brothers in Bahrain to be reasonable in proposing their ideas, and accept what was offered by the government," state news agency SPA said quoting an unnamed official.

An Algerian opposition deputy was badly hurt in clashes with riot police as protesters tried to rally in a central Algiers square Saturday and was thought to be in a coma, his party said.

Tahar Besbes, of the Rally for Culture and Democracy, was hit in the stomach by a policeman and hit his head on the pavement when he fell, party spokesman Mohsen Belabbas said.

One protester was shot dead and five wounded in clashes with Yemeni government supporters near the capital Sanaa's university campus on Saturday, an AFP correspondent reported.

The death, the first in Sanaa in a week of similar clashes, came as government supporters, armed with guns, batons and rocks, tried to break into the campus and students responded by hurling stones.

The Tunisian authorities and the country's main Islamist movement on Saturday denounced the murder of a Polish priest who was found dead in the country with his throat slit.

Marek Rybinski, 34, was found dead Friday in the garage of the private religious school in the Manouba region near the capital Tunis where he was responsible for the accounting.

The Bahraini opposition on Saturday rejected an offer of dialogue from the authorities saying it would join talks only after the cabinet quits and troops behind a bloody crackdown leave the streets.

The Islamic National Accord Association, which is boycotting parliament in protest at the army's iron-fisted response to the wave of protests sweeping the small but strategic Gulf kingdom, said 95 people were wounded on Friday, of whom three were "clinically dead."

Internet service was cut off in Libya on Friday as the regime evidently moved to strip anti-government protestors of ways to organize and communicate, according to Arbor Networks.

Libya "abruptly disconnected" from the Internet at 4:15 pm.(00:15 GMT Saturday), according to the U.S. based tracker of online traffic.

Moammar Gadhafi's regime vowed on Friday to snuff out attempts to challenge the Libyan leader, after an opposition "day of anger" became a bloodbath and two policemen were reported hanged by protesters.

According to a toll compiled by Agence France Presse from different local sources, at least 41 people have lost their lives since demonstrations first erupted on Tuesday.