A military appeals court in Tunis Saturday upheld the convictions of Tunisia's ousted president and his top officials for torturing army officers over an alleged coup plot, judicial sources told Agence France Presse.

"The verdict was pronounced Saturday in a closed door session," said one of the defense lawyers, Abada Kefi, who said he would take the case to a higher court.

At least one million Syrians affected by violence need urgent humanitarian aid worth $70 million, said the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Saturday.

A joint U.N. and OIC assessment mission that visited Syria has "found that there are... one million people affected by events and in need of an urgent humanitarian program worth $70 million," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Agence France Presse.

Two Palestinians were wounded by a rocket fired by an Israeli drone while riding a motorcycle in Rafah on the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian security sources told Agence France Presse.

Medical services in Gaza said the two, who were not identified, were in moderate condition.

Thousands of demonstrators turned out in the Syrian capital on Saturday to show their backing for President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath party on the 65th anniversary of its creation.

An Agence France Presse journalist said government supporters gathered in the central Sabaa Bahrat Square, waving the red, black and green national flag and portraits of Assad as patriotic music blared from loudspeakers.

Nearly 700 Syrian refugees poured into Turkey in 24 hours, bringing to more than 24,000 the total number of Syrians seeking haven in the neighboring country, a Turkish official said on Saturday.

Turkey is home to a growing number of refugees fleeing the unrest in Syria, where more than 9,000 people have been killed since March last year, according to U.N. figures.

More than 100 people were reported killed across Syria on Saturday, 74 of them civilians, as regime forces pressed a protest crackdown three days ahead of a deadline to cease fire and pull back.

Monitors reported the escalation in violence despite U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's latest rebuke to Damascus for stepping up its assault on dissent hubs ahead of Tuesday's deadline.

Gaza's Hamas rulers on Saturday executed a Palestinian convicted of collaborating with Israel and two others deemed complicit in murder, the interior ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement that the three men were hanged in a "security center" in Gaza City.

The airport in Yemen's capital was shut down on Saturday after forces loyal to a general close to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh threatened to attack landing and departing aircraft, an airport source said.

The airport has been surrounded by forces loyal to air force chief General Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, Saleh's half-brother, who has refused to step down after being sacked by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, the source said.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Friday that increased attacks by government forces on Syrian cities "violate" the U.N. Security Council's demand for an end to hostilities.

The U.N. secretary general strongly condemned new violence and indicated he believes President Bashar Assad is using an April 10 deadline to pull troops and heavy weapons away from cities as "an excuse" to step up killing.

Former spy chief Omar Suleiman, a pillar of the ousted regime, decided on Friday to run in next month's presidential vote, in a surprise twist to a contest to elect Hosni Mubarak's successor.

His change of mind came after hundreds of demonstrators gathered in a Cairo district to urge Suleiman, who served as Mubarak's vice president before the strongman's overthrow last year, to contest the poll.