A pro-Gadhafi TV channel confirmed the death of the toppled Libyan leader's youngest son, Khamis, who had been reported killed by National Transitional Council fighters late in August.

Arrai, a Damascus-based broadcaster that has become the favored forum for Gadhafi and the remnants of his ousted regime, said late Sunday that Khamis was killed August 29 in Tarhuna, some 80 kilometers southwest of Tripoli while fighting "enemies of the homeland."

Deadly clashes erupted overnight in the Yemeni capital as tension spiked following a new wave of killings of anti-regime protesters by troops loyal to veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in the street battles, which saw tribes and troops opposing Saleh ranged against loyalists, medics and a tribal source said Monday.

Nine people were killed on Sunday as Syrian security forces pressed a crackdown on political dissent in three separate hubs of protest against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in emailed statements received by Agence France Presse in Nicosia that four civilians died in the central city of Homs when security forces opened fire on a protest outside the home of a detained activist, Mansur al-Arassi.

The Arab Foreign ministers on Sunday called on the Syrian regime and the opposition to hold a national dialogue at the Arab League's Headquarters in fifteen days.

At the end of the emergency meeting in Cairo on the crisis in Syria the Arab league urged the "immediate cease of violence and the removal of security troops from the streets in order to maintain peace."

Potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei called on Sunday for a "clear roadmap" to civilian rule in Egypt, accusing all sides of having fallen short so far in the post-Hosni Mubarak era.

"What I ask of (the ruling military) Council is that it announce a clear roadmap, to have a clear vision for citizens and for investors," the former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief told a news conference in Cairo.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned on Sunday of a "decisive response" to any "inappropriate action" over U.S. claims of a Tehran-directed assassination plot.

"If American officials are entertaining any illusions, they should know that any inappropriate action -- whether political or security-related -- will meet with the Iranian people's decisive response," he said in a speech in western Iran, according to his official website.

Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for an activist in the oil-rich east on Sunday as they pressed a crackdown on dissent, a human rights group said.

"Syrian security forces in Deir Ezzor fired live bullets at a funeral procession for Ziad al-Obeidi," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in reference to one of its associates on the ground.

Yemeni troops shot dead four protesters Sunday as they attempted to block a new bid by activists to bring 10 months of protests against veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh to a head.

The defiant march by tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators came despite the deaths of at least 12 people in a similar protest in the capital on Saturday.

Yemeni pro-democracy activists called for a new mass demonstration Sunday aimed at bringing 10 months of protests to a head, a day after troops shot dead at least 12 people marching in the capital.

"We will continue with our protests... even if thousands of our youth are killed. This is the only way to ensure the fall of the regime," Walid al-Ammari, a spokesman for the protesters, told AFP.

Israel on Sunday published the official list of the 477 Palestinian prisoners to be released on Tuesday in the first stage of a deal for the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

The list of 450 Palestinian men and 27 women was published by Israel's justice ministry on the website of the Israel Prisons Service, to give the public 48 hours to lodge any legal appeals against the deal which will see the return of Shalit, who has spent more than five years in captivity.