Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday blamed conspirators for deadly unrest in Syria but failed to lift emergency rule or offer other concessions in his first speech since protests demanding greater freedoms erupted earlier this month.

Assad said his country was facing a "major conspiracy" plotted by "nearby and distant countries."

A Palestinian engineer was abducted in Ukraine on an Israeli request because he might know where missing soldier Gilad Shalit is, Germany's Spiegel magazine reported Wednesday.

Western intelligence sources suspect that Dirar Abu Sisi, 42, was seized from a train in Ukraine on the night of February 18-19 before being taken to Israel where he is in prison, Spiegel said in its online edition.

A Palestinian was killed and another wounded in a dawn raid Wednesday by Israeli warplanes near the southern town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.

The Israeli attack had targeted two Palestinians traveling on a motorbike. One of them had died of his wounds, while the other had been taken to hospital, said the sources.

Security forces stormed the provincial council building in former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Tuesday after an hours-long shootout with gunmen that left 58 dead and 97 wounded, a police official said.

"The latest toll is 58 dead and 97 wounded, and there are many with serious injuries, Six of the dead were the attackers," said the official, stationed at Tikrit's main hospital."

International powers meeting in London on Tuesday edged closer to an exile plan for embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, as France said it was ready to discuss military aid for rebels.

More than 40 countries and organizations, including the United Nations and NATO, agreed to create a contact group to map out a future for Libya and to meet again as soon as possible in the Arab state of Qatar.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, given a new lease of life by a solidarity rally as well as U.S. fears over al-Qaida and 150 deaths in a killer blast, has taken the initiative against calls for his ouster.

Scoffing at pressure to quit at a time of growing insecurity, as highlighted by the blast at an ammunitions plant in southern Yemen, Saleh challenged his opponents to leave the country instead, in remarks published on Tuesday.

Facebook group The Syria Revolution 2011, which has emerged as the motor behind demonstrations demanding "freedom" in Syria, is calling for sit-ins across the country Friday despite a bid by the state to reach out to protesters.

"The Friday of Martyrs. In all governorates, in all mosques, in all squares. An overnight sit-in until our demands are met -- all our demands," read a banner poster as the group's profile picture.

World powers vowed Tuesday to continue military action until Moammar Gadhafi stops his "murderous attacks" on Libyan civilians, as loud blasts rocked his stronghold in Tripoli.

At a meeting of more than 35 nations in London, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Prime Minister David Cameron said that allied air strikes would go on until the Libyan leader met U.N. demands for a ceasefire.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri on Tuesday tendered his government's resignation to President Bashar al-Assad, who promptly re-appointed him caretaker premier, state media reported.

"President Bashar al-Assad today accepted the resignation of the government of Mohammed Naji Otri and designated it to act in a caretaker capacity pending the formation of a new cabinet," state-run news agency SANA said.

A court in Kuwait on Tuesday condemned to death two Iranians and a Kuwaiti national for belonging to an Iranian spy ring, a judiciary source told Agence France Presse.

A Syrian and a stateless Arab were handed life terms at the end of the espionage trial, while an Iranian man and the only woman defendant -- daughter of one of the two Iranians on death row -- were acquitted, he said.