At least 13 people were killed in northwest Syria on Saturday, mostly security personnel, as activists reported clashes and military operations following the defection of dozens of soldiers.

Two civilians were killed in the restive central city of Homs.

Fierce clashes erupted in Yemen's second city Saturday as protesters in the capital Sanaa condemned international silence in the face of a government crackdown that left more than 15 dead the previous day.

"Oh world, the children and women of Taez are being killed...where is your conscience?" chanted tens of thousands of protesters in Sanaa who for 10 months now have been calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

A massive explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base just west of the Iranian capital on Saturday killed 17 members of the elite force, including a top commander, officials said, revising the toll down from 27.

"Unfortunately the fax that I received from the site of the incident was not legible, and the figure 27 was announced, whereas the number of martyrs stands at 17," Commander Ramezan Sharif said.

A week of deadly violence in the central Syrian city of Homs piled pressure on Arab foreign ministers gathering for an emergency meeting in Cairo Saturday to take action against Damascus for failing to honor an Arab League peace deal.

President Bashar Assad's regime agreed on November 2 to an Arab roadmap which called for the release of detainees, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as negotiations with the opposition.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will open the European Union's new delegation in Libya on Saturday and meet the country's new authorities, she said in a statement.

"Opening a fully-fledged EU Delegation in Tripoli underlines the EU's commitment to our close relationship with the Libyan people, both during the political transition and in the long term," Ashton stated.

At least 33 people were killed in violence in Syria on Friday, most of them in the restive city of Homs, as Human Rights Watch accused the regime of crimes against humanity.

The Local Coordination Committees said that 33 people were killed at the hands of security forces during Friday’s demonstrations.

Libya's former Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi has applied for U.N. political refugee status to try to prevent his extradition from Tunisia, one of his lawyers said Friday.

"If the HCR (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) grants Mr. Mahmoudi refugee status it will no longer be possible to extradite him," said the lawyer, Taufik Wanas.

Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh shelled the country's second largest city Taez early on Friday, killing nine people, among them two women and a child, a medic and witnesses said.

"The bombing killed nine people this morning (Friday), all of them civilians," the medical source said, adding that two women and a nine-year-old child were among those killed and that dozens of other people were wounded.

Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Syrian government forces of "crimes against humanity" based on the systematic nature of abuses against civilians in their eight-month crackdown on dissent.

In a report issued a day before the Arab League holds an extraordinary meeting on the crisis, HRW urged the Cairo-based pan-Arab group to suspend Syria's membership.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a settler and wounded two others when they opened fire on a car at a roadblock in the West Bank on Friday, the army said.

"Soldiers who had been warned of a suspicious vehicle opened fire, killing one Israeli and wounding two others," a military spokesman told Agence France Presse.