Libyans on Monday marked the third anniversary of their revolt which ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi fearful for the future of a country plagued by lawlessness.

Putting on a brave face, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who was briefly abducted last year by militants, said revolution had achieved the goals of "ending tyranny and securing freedom of expression".

Israeli President Simon Peres on Monday hailed remarks by Mahmoud Abbas on the Palestinian refugee issue which he said showed the Palestinian president's "seriousness about reaching peace."

"I was happy to hear him," Peres's office quoted him as saying at the start of a meeting with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.

Yemeni authorities have foiled an attack on the oil refinery in Aden and arrested 27 suspected al-Qaida militants linked to the operation, police said Monday.

The thwarted strike was the latest in a series of attacks targeting security forces and vital installations, including oil pipelines, in a country grappling with a thorny political transition.

Powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's announced exit from politics two months before elections may be a "gift" to rivals but could also be another temporary withdrawal, experts say.

Sadr's political career began with his fierce opposition to the presence of foreign troops in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and has spanned more than a decade.

Jordan's border guards on Monday killed a man and wounded three others as they tried to enter the kingdom illegally from Syria, the army said in a statement.

The incident is the latest in escalating clashes along the border between Jordan's security forces and groups attempting to cross illegally from Syria.

Syria's regime and rebels are likely to ratchet up military pressure on the ground after the failure of peace talks, setting the scene for a grim escalation of fighting, analysts say.

Barely a day after a second round of peace talks in Geneva broke down on Saturday, the rebel Free Syrian Army fired its military chief Selim Idriss, citing "the paralysis within the military command these past months".

Russia on Monday dismissed U.S. claims that it was "enabling" Syria's President Bashar Assad to stay in power and failing to push for a transitional government that could help end the bloody conflict.

"We have done everything we have promised," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters, referring to Moscow's efforts to get the Damascus regime to hold direct peace talks with opponents.

An African migrant was killed in an altercation with police in a suburb of the western Saudi city of Jeddah over the weekend, a police spokesman said Sunday.

Lieutenant Nawaf al-Buq said the incident took place Saturday as police were checking the IDs of a group of migrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

Hamas-run authorities in the Gaza Strip are investigating a senior member of the Palestinian Islamist movement over unspecified "irregularities", a source in the office of another senior Hamas official said Sunday.

The implication of a high-ranking Hamas member in misdeeds could potentially tarnish the reputation of the Islamist group, which won a landslide victory in Palestinian elections in 2006 largely because of its reputation for honesty and incorruptibility.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said Sunday it had fired Selim Idriss as its military chief, citing the "difficulties faced by the Syrian revolution" in its battle with the regime.

In a video broadcast on the Internet, the rebel coalition said its military council had decided to replace Idriss with Brigadier General Abdel al-Ilah al-Bachir.