Riot police on Monday fired tear gas and baton-charged protesters in central Tunis who defied a ban on demonstrations, in some of the worst violence in the city in months.

As hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets, the head of the Ennahda Islamist party which dominates parliament called on Tunisians to "be patient" and give the new government a chance to bring in reforms.

A peace plan for Syria was in jeopardy on Monday as deadly fresh clashes raged after President Bashar al-Assad's government laid down conditions for it to pull troops and armor out of protest hubs.

Security forces killed 151 people across the country, among them more than 30 women and children and four rebels, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

The United Nations Development Program on Monday transferred four electrical transformers to Gaza in a bid to upgrade the territory's struggling sole power plant.

The UNDP, in a statement from its Gaza office, said it brought four transformers and other electrical equipment into the territory as part of a project valued at $3.3 million dollars.

U.S. and Libyan authorities are probing oil giants including Italy's Eni SpA and Total SA of France for their past ties to the fallen regime of Moammar Gadhafi, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The Libyan general prosecutor's office is investigating "Libyan and foreign operators in Libya" for possible "financial irregularities," the office's deputy chief Abdelmajeed Saad told the Journal.

A Bahraini court on Monday jailed 10 Shiites for marching on the capital's former Pearl Square, the focal point of a month-long uprising crushed last year, a judicial source said.

They were arrested in February during protests marking the first anniversary of the month-long Shiite-led uprising against the Sunni monarchy which was crushed by force in mid-March 2011.

Bahrain's interior ministry said on Monday that jailed activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on a hunger strike for two months, is in "good health" after his lawyer expressed fears he could be dead.

"Abdel Hadi al-Khawaja's state of health is good," the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that the activist had been transferred to a military hospital "for the best medical treatment."

Two Syrians among a group of 17 who were wounded when their village was shelled overnight died after crossing the border into nearby Turkey, an official said Monday.

Two other Syrians and a Turkish translator were wounded near a refugee camp in the same area when shots were fired from Syria, as border tension escalated ahead of a visit by top international mediator Kofi Annan.

The Syrian rebel army said Monday it is ready to respect a truce brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan if the regime of President Bashar Assad abides by the peace deal.

"We have announced that we will cease operations against the army of the regime on the morning of April 10, and we will respect this pledge if the regime commits to respecting the terms of the (U.N.) plan," Free Syrian Army spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine said in a statement received by AFP.

China on Monday urged Syria to honor its ceasefire commitment, after Damascus said it wanted guarantees from armed rebels before it pulled back its troops from protest hubs.

The Syrian army was scheduled to withdraw from protest cities on Tuesday under a peace deal brokered by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.

Syrian security forces and pro-regime militias have executed more than 100 civilians and rebel fighters in attacks on protest hubs since late 2011, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

Many of the summary and extrajudicial executions were carried out last month, and at least 85 of those killed were residents who never took part in fighting, including women and children, said the New York-based watchdog.