Yemeni security forces shot dead two people taking part in a protest in the port city of Aden on Friday for the secession of the formerly independent south, activists and a medic said.

"Security forces fired live rounds on protesters, killing two and wounding five," said Ghassan al-Shuaibi, an activist from the separatist Southern Movement.

Bahraini security forces on Friday fired rubber bullets to disperse an unauthorized rally by the opposition Al-Wefaq wounding its leader, the Shiite bloc said.

Sheikh Ali Salman was "wounded with rubber bullets in his shoulder and back when security forces fired at a peaceful demonstration held in Bilad al-Qadeem," three kilometers (two miles) from Manama, it said in a statement.

A Russian ship will make a second attempt to deliver military helicopters to Syria after docking in the northern port of Murmansk on return from its current voyage, Interfax reported on Friday.

The Alaed cargo vessel will return to Murmansk on Saturday and then set off again for the Syrian port of Tartus under the accompaniment of at least one other Russian ship, an unnamed diplomatic source told the news agency.

One Palestinian was killed and two were wounded on Friday, one seriously, when Israeli warplanes struck east of Al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

International envoy Kofi Annan on Friday urged the world to raise the level of pressure on Syria's rival sides and said Iran should have a role to play in the effort.

"It's time for countries of influence to raise the level of pressure on the parties on the ground and to persuade them to stop the killing and start the talking," he told a press conference in Geneva.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi said on Friday his movement wanted neither "confrontation nor violence," as the country nervously awaits the results of a divisive election.

Morsi spoke after the ruling military warned that it would deal "firmly" with any attempt to harm the public interest as thousands of people packed Cairo's Tahrir Square accusing it of a power grab.

Saudi female activists have cancelled their plan to brave a driving ban on Friday, settling instead for petitioning King Abdullah to allow them to get behind the wheel, members of their group said.

"I think that last year's attempt by ladies to drive in public has sent the message ... Now it's time to address officials to urge them to issue driving licenses to women," said researcher Hala al-Dosari.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday met his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem, urging Damascus to do more to implement the plan of peace envoy Kofi Annan.

Turkey searched for a missing fighter-jet and held an emergency security summit Friday, as the prime minister backed off reported comments suggesting Syria had downed the aircraft.

The military plane -- reportedly an F-4 Phantom with two pilots aboard -- lost radio contact and vanished off radar screens around 0900 GMT over the eastern Mediterranean, near the border with Syria.

Egypt's ruling military warned on Friday that it would deal "firmly" with any attempt to harm the public interest as thousands of people packed Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square accusing it of a power grab.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took over when veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February last year, also delivered veiled criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, charging that efforts were afoot to pre-empt the outcome of a hard-fought presidential election.