U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday congratulated Saudi King Abdullah on the selection of Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as his heir, noting the new crown prince's counterterrorism record.

"I congratulate King Abdullah and the Saudi people on the selection of Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince. We in the United States know and respect him for his strong commitment to combating terrorism and supporting regional peace and security," Obama said in a statement.

Lithuania said Friday that it had barred Syrian planes from crossing its airspace on their way to Russia's Kaliningrad territory amid concerns that they could transport military cargo.

A Lithuanian defense ministry spokesperson told Agence France Presse that it acted in line with European Union sanctions, which were imposed in May due to a crackdown by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The head of the Islamist party Ennahda that won Tunisia's weekend elections called Friday for calm in Sidi Bouzid, the town where the north African country's revolution began, after overnight unrest.

"We call for calm and the preservation of public property," Rached Ghannouchi said after more than 2,000 youths marched on Ennahda's headquarters and sacked public buildings in Sidi Bouzid following the announcement of election results on Thursday.

The International Criminal Court is in "informal contact" with Seif al-Islam, the fugitive son of slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, its prosecutor said on Friday.

"Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Seif," Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement issued at the court's headquarters in The Hague.

An explosion at a state-run oil field in southern Iran killed a worker and injured three others on Friday, while a refinery in central Iran was hit by a fire, the Mehr news agency reported.

It said a rig at the Bibi Hakimieh oil field in the southern province of Bushehr was rocked by a blast when a huge amount of gas was released during drilling.

At least 37 people were killed Friday as Syrian security forces opened fire, encircled mosques and carried out arrests in a bid to break up anti-regime protesters who are now calling for a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians and soldiers deserting the army, the Syrian Revolution General Commission said.

"Eight civilians were killed in various neighborhoods of Hama, 11 others in the city of Homs and one civilian was killed in Qusayr, in the region of Homs," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier on Friday in a statement.

NATO formally decided to end its seven-month mission in Libya on October 31, a diplomat said Friday, despite calls from the country's new rulers for air patrols to continue until the end of the year.

Alliance warplanes would wind up the mission on Monday after flying more than 26,000 sorties and bombing almost 6,000 targets in an operation that helped a ragtag rebel force oust veteran ruler Moammar Gadhafi.

At least 32 people were killed and 71 wounded in twin blasts which rocked Baghdad, security officials said on Friday, more than tripling a previously-announced death toll.

A defense ministry official put the toll from Thursday night's twin roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad's Urr neighborhood at 32 dead and 71 wounded while an interior ministry official said 36 died and 78 were wounded.

A Tunisian Islamist party emerged victorious Thursday in the Arab Spring's first elections, taking 90 of 217 seats on a new assembly nine months after the ouster of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Violent protests broke out in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, where the uprising started last December, after the tally was announced, witnesses and the interior ministry said.

Saudi Arabia's powerful interior minister, 78-year-old Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, was named the new heir to the throne in a royal decree read out on state television Thursday.

Nayef -- who has been interior minister for nearly four decades and led a crackdown on al-Qaida in the kingdom -- succeeds prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who died last week in New York and was buried Tuesday in Riyadh.