An official source at the Syrian Foreign Ministry denied on Thursday media reports that a meeting was recently held between President Bashar Assad and Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, labeling them as untrue, reported the state news agency SANA.

The source said that the last meeting between the two officials took place in August, adding “no messages were conveyed from or to anyone during the meeting.”

Twelve people were killed in clashes between soldiers and deserters in villages of Idlib province in northwest Syria on Thursday, a human rights group said.

"Seven soldiers and five deserters were killed in the clashes in villages west of Jabal al-Zawiya," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that dozens were wounded.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has condemned "heavy sentences" handed down by courts in Bahrain to pro-democracy Shiite protesters there, Tehran media reported on Thursday.

"The intensification of the crackdown on protesters and the heavy sentences will lead nowhere. Bahrain's government should take appropriate measures to respond to the demands and wishes of its people," Salehi said in remarks on Wednesday, Iran's state television reported on its website.

Germany has summoned the Syrian ambassador to Berlin over a tirade by Damascus's envoy to the United Nations, the foreign ministry said in a statement here Thursday.

"The Syrian ambassador in Germany was summoned yesterday to the foreign ministry," the statement said.

Israeli police arrested seven more people suspected of joining rock-throwing protests in a Bedouin village in northern Israel following an arson attack on a mosque there, a spokesman said Thursday.

"We arrested another seven people suspected of taking part in the demonstrations, which raises to 25 the total number of people being investigated over the incidents," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

Four Syrian soldiers were killed and several civilians wounded on Thursday during clashes between troops and deserters in a town in northwest Syria, rights activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops and security agents had attacked villages in the region,

NATO allies debated on Thursday how quickly to end the bombing campaign in Libya as they reviewed progress in their plans to withdraw combat troops from the 10-year-old war in Afghanistan.

With Moammar Gadhafi diehards surrounded by the new leadership's forces in Sirte and Bani Walid, and the fallen Libyan leader in hiding, the number of NATO air strikes has drastically declined in recent weeks.

Fresh fighting erupted during the night between government troops and gunmen loyal to opposition tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar in Sanaa's northern al-Hasaba district, witnesses said Thursday.

The two sides traded machinegun and mortar fire for around two hours late on Wednesday, the witnesses said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday slammed Russia and China for vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, saying the people of Syria "will not forget."

Clinton said the Council had "abrogated its responsibility" by failing to push through the European draft resolution that would have threatened possible action against Syrian President Bashar Assad over a crackdown on protests.

The United States said Wednesday it was "incoherent" for UNESCO to back the Palestinian Authority's bid to join the cultural body with the rights of a state and said it could fuel tension.

A process is underway at the U.N. Security Council to study the Palestinian request to be admitted as a member state, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.