The United States on Friday criticized Israel's decision to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling it a setback for peace.

The White House earlier called the move -- which came in response to a historic vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to recognize Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state -- "counterproductive."

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor's office said on Friday it was considering the legal implications after the U.N. General Assembly's overwhelming vote to make Palestine a non-member state.

"The Office of the Prosecutor takes note of the decision" and will now "consider the legal implications of this resolution," it said in a statement sent to Agence France Presse but declining to elaborate.

Unknown attackers fired at a U.N. convoy leaving Damascus airport for the second day in a row on Friday, a U.N. spokesman said.

No injuries were report from the latest attack, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. On Thursday, four Austrian troops in the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for the Golan Heights were wounded when a convoy heading for the airport was attacked.

The ruling National Liberation Front won Algeria's municipal and regional elections, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia announced on Friday, in a widely-expected result.

Voter turnout, considered the only real issue in Thursday's polls, was officially pegged at 44.27 percent, described by Kablia as "acceptable," as thousands had to brave poor weather conditions to cast their ballots.

Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday slammed President Mohamed Morsi and an Islamist-dominated panel that approved a new draft constitution, in a message on his Twitter account.

"The president and his constituent assembly are currently staging a coup against democracy. Regime legitimacy fast eroding," he wrote.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Friday for a return to peace talks, but slammed Israel's latest settlement plans in reaction to a United Nations vote recognizing Palestine as a non-member state.

"I've said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it," Abbas told reporters in New York.

Protesters clashed with police Friday in the flashpoint town of Siliana, where violence has left hundreds wounded this week, as political instability mounts two years after Tunisia's revolution.

Thousands took to the streets of the impoverished town demanding the governor's resignation and financial aid in a fourth straight day of unrest, with the authorities battling to maintain order.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon predicted Friday that Syrian refugee numbers will surge to more than 700,000 by January as the country's conflict reaches "appalling heights of brutality."

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned alongside Ban that Syria is now in danger of becoming a "failed state" as he appealed for new international efforts to reach a political settlement.

Russia said Friday it was willing to "set aside differences" with Turkey ahead of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish officials that will focus on Syria.

"Turkey and Russia have clearly different positions on several questions, notably the Middle East, but these must be put aside when Mr. Putin holds talks in Istanbul," Russian Ambassador Vladimir Ivanovsky told reporters.

Fighting raged around Damascus on Friday as Internet and phone links in Syria remained cut for a second day and rebels consolidated gains in the east, capturing an oil field near the Iraqi border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the road from the capital to Damascus airport had reopened, a day after fighting during which a bus carrying airport employees was hit by a shell, killing two people.