Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who has been in critical condition since moving to prison, was defibrillated twice after his heart stopped on Monday, a prison hospital source told Agence France Presse.

Mubarak's "heart stopped twice. Doctors had to use a defibrillator. He has been in and out of consciousness and has been refusing food," the source said.

Yemeni troops seized control of an al-Qaida munitions factory in the southern Abyan province on Monday as battles for control of the restive region killed 26 militants, local and military officials said.

The bodies of 12 militants were discovered inside the factory which lies on the outskirts of the al-Qaida stronghold of Jaar, a military official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Israel Prisons Service said on Monday that a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for more than 80 days, had ended his protest, but Palestinian sources, including his lawyer, denied the claim.

"(Mahmoud) Sarsak ended his hunger strike," IPS spokeswoman Sivan Weizman told Agence France Presse, saying he had taken the decision to end his fast after consulting his lawyer and the prison administration.

Helicopter gunships on Monday fired on rebels in central and northwestern Syria in a bid to snuff out armed opposition as violence killed 103 people across the country, a watchdog and activists said.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces killed 89 people across the country, including women, children and rebels.

Syrian rebel army chief, Colonel Riyadh Asaad, denied in comments published Monday that Kuwaitis were fighting alongside his men against forces of President Bashar Assad's regime.

"Reports indicating the presence of Arab fighters (in Syria) are totally baseless," Asaad was quoted as saying by Kuwait's al-Watan newspaper.

Israel's deputy military chief has warned that Syria has the biggest chemical weapons stocks in the world and missiles and rockets that can reach any point in Israel.

Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh also said if Syria had the chance, it would "treat us the same way it treats its own people."

Al-Qaida's chief has urged Tunisians to rise up to demand the rule of Islamic law, slamming the ruling Ennahda Islamist party for "violating" sharia law, in a message posted online on Sunday.

"O, honest and free Tunisians. The masks have dropped. Rise up to support your sharia," said Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message entitled "People of Tunisia, support your sharia," posted on Islamist websites.

Libya on Sunday announced that elections for the country's constituent assembly, initially slated to be held by June 19, had been postponed to July 7.

"The date for the elections will be July 7," the president of the electoral commission, Nuri al-Abbar, told a news conference in Tripoli, citing "logistical and technical" reasons for the delay.

Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq on Sunday claimed a suicide car bombing against the Baghdad headquarters of an Iraqi Shiite foundation that killed 25 people, in a statement posted on jihadist forums.

"One of the passionate sons of the Sunnis came out in a quick attack against this evil lair that is called the Shiite endowment," the Islamic State of Iraq said, according to a translation of the message by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.

A gunfight during the night between two feuding tribes in Egypt's south has killed 12 people, a police official said on Sunday.

The official said the battle in the southern Aswan province, in which automatic weapons were used, left three wounded. The gunfight erupted as a dispute over land, he said.