Israel's High Court was on Thursday mulling an urgent appeal on behalf of 20 Eritrean nationals stranded in no-man's land on the border with Egypt for a week after the Jewish state refused them entry.

The appeal was filed by Israeli NGO We Are Refugees in a petition against Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Interior Minister Eli Yishai for refusing to allow the group of Eritreans, who are seeking political asylum, into the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Western and Arab powers Thursday to reassess their stance on Syria and ensure the security of its current leadership in any power transition process.

"Why should Russia be the only one reassessing its position? Perhaps our negotiating partners should reassess their position," Putin told Russia Today television.

The Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral James Winnefeld, is on a secret visit to Israel as tensions rise over Iran's nuclear progress, Israel's army radio reported on Thursday.

The Israeli military itself refused to confirm the report, which said Winnefeld was in the country at the invitation of his counterpart, Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Naveh.

The United States waterboarded Libyan Islamists opposed to Moammar Gadhafi and handed them over to his regime for further torture during the Bush administration, a rights group said Thursday.

A new report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch said a former detainee claimed to have been waterboarded and another described a form of water torture, indicating wider use of the method than is officially claimed.

Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, raising to six the number killed in the past 12 hours, medical sources said.

"We have received three bodies," said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, saying the three had been killed by an Israeli tank shell just east of the town of Beit Hanun.

The two kidnapped brothers of a Syrian rebel commander were killed on Thursday, a monitoring group said, as battles raged between rebels and army forces in several districts of Damascus.

The men were kidnapped on Wednesday night at an army checkpoint, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

An overnight explosion at Yemen's main oil pipeline sabotaged transfers of crude to the country's Red Sea export terminal, the oil ministry said on Wednesday.

The pipeline pumping crude from the Safir fields in Marib province, east of Sanaa, to the Ras Isa terminal "was hit by an explosion in the area of Damashqa in Marib" province, said a spokesman for the petroleum and minerals ministry.

The United States on Wednesday urged Iraq to ensure that Iranian planes flying over its territory land and face cargo inspections, amid concerns Tehran is shipping arms to the Syrian regime.

"We expect Iraq as a member of good standing in the international community, as a strategic partner of the United States, to meet its international obligations," acting State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sharply criticized the U.N. Security Council's "paralysis" on Syria on Wednesday, warning it has hurt both the Syrian people and the council's own credibility.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on its responsibility to protect civilian populations from genocide and war crimes, Ban said: "The council's paralysis does the Syrian people harm. It also damages its own credibility."

Egyptian satellite operator Nilesat on Wednesday cut transmission of Syrian state channels, as requested by the Arab League group for Syria, a Nilesat executive said, angering Damascus.

"We have stopped transmission of the official Syrian channels, implementing the recommendations of the Arab League," the executive, who asked to remain anonymous, told Agence France Presse.