NATO's chief urged the U.N. on Thursday to quickly act on Libya to stop Moammar Gadhafi from crushing rebels, but the alliance was divided even as it pressed ahead with plans for a no-fly zone.

"If Gadhafi prevails it will send a clear signal that violence pays. That would be unacceptable from a humanitarian and democratic perspective," Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

The Libyan army announced that it would halt military operations from Sunday to give rebels the chance to lay down their arms and benefit from an amnesty, state news agency Jana reported Thursday.

"The provisional general committee (ministry) of defense has decided to halt military operations against the armed terrorist bands from midnight on Sunday (2200 GMT) ... to give (them) a chance to lay down their arms and benefit from a general amnesty," Jana said.

Fourteen prisoners were killed and thirty three others injured at an Iranian jail during a botched breakout bid which involved arson, a daily reported on Thursday.

The detainees, some of whom were on death row for drug-smuggling, clashed with guards on Wednesday at Ghezel Hesar prison near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, Khorasan newspaper said.

South Korea and Singapore have intercepted suspected nuclear and weapons materials bound for Iran that breach U.N. sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic, diplomats said Thursday.

The two seizures, made in the past six months but only revealed now, add to a growing list of alleged Iranian attempts to breach an international arms embargo, which are bringing mounting pressure to tighten sanctions, they said.

Five Yemeni protesters were wounded in an overnight attack by masked men on a sit-in in central Sanaa calling for the fall of the regime, witnesses and activists said Thursday.

Witnesses told Agence France Presse that the attack on demonstrators in the square in front of Sanaa University was carried out by men wearing masks, whom anti-government activists said were "thugs" loyal to the regime.

Bahrain arrested six opposition activists Thursday as part of a crackdown on the Shiite pro-democracy movement that has sparked outrage in the Shiite world and criticism from Washington, an MP said.

Five hard-line Shiite activists and one Sunni were rounded up during the night, a parliamentarian from the Shiite opposition alliance told Agence France Presse.

Iran has launched a rocket into space carrying a test capsule designed to house an animal, the official IRNA news agency said Thursday, amid Western concerns over Tehran's scientific advances.

The Kavoshgar-4 rocket was launched without fanfare on March 15, the report said, citing the president's office.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said his forces would fight a "decisive battle" Thursday, as Washington added its voice to efforts at the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone.

Gadhafi's latest comments came after his forces pressed rebels in the west on Wednesday and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, despite calls from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for an immediate ceasefire.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son on Wednesday told "this clown" French President Nicolas Sarkozy to "give us back our money" allegedly used to finance his 2007 election victory.

Seif al-Islam told Euronews that "we have all the details and are ready to reveal everything" as Gadhafi's forces closed in on rebels in the eastern city of Benghazi who France recognized as Libya's legitimate representatives.

Syrian security forces on Wednesday dispersed a demonstration by dozens of relatives of prisoners near the interior ministry, Agence France Presse correspondents said.

At least four protesters were arrested, the correspondents said, after the demonstrators gathered in a public square near the ministry in central Damascus.