Saudi Arabia beheaded and crucified a Sudanese man in Riyadh on Friday after he was convicted of raping, robbing and killing a woman, the interior ministry announced.

Abdulrahman Zine Elabidine "broke into a house strangling its owner to death while she was asleep."

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Friday said that it would likely contribute observers to the U.N. mission in Syria.

"I think OIC countries will contribute to the observer (mission) to be sent by the U.N.," OIC head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in Libreville during a meeting of information ministers of the 57-member pan-Muslim body.

The last 10 pro-Palestinian activists who were in Israel as part of the "flytilla" campaign were on Friday deported to France, an interior ministry spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

"Ten French pro-Palestinian activists were released from the prison in which they were detained and boarded a plane bound for Paris at 1300 local time (1000 GMT)," Sabine Haddad said.

The leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region vowed Friday he would not allow Kurdish separatists to stage attacks in Turkey from northern Iraq, local media reported.

"We will use all methods including pressure" to deter the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from launching cross-border attacks, Massud Barzani said, according to the CNN-Turk television.

An 18-year-old Palestinian shepherd was seriously wounded by Israeli gunfire in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said on Friday.

Yasser Kaabneh, 18, was tending his sheep north of Tubas in the Jordan Valley on Thursday night when he received a bullet wound to the chest, the sources said, adding the area was regularly used by the Israeli army for training.

A $180 million draft plan for delivering humanitarian aid for Syria's one million needy has been drawn up and is awaiting the green light from Syria, the United Nations said on Friday.

A successful assessment mission has been carried out and donors are ready with their cash to provide food, medical and other supplies, said John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe declared on Friday that the U.N. observer mission in Syria needs to be able to guarantee Syrians the freedom to protest against Bashar Assad's regime.

"We need observers on the ground, but properly equipped observers with helicopters that can ensure the right to protest. It's extremely important. The day this freedom is guaranteed, the regime will not stand," he said.

The internationally-backed ceasefire in Syria is in a fragile state and the situation on the ground is not good, a spokesman for the plan's architect Kofi Annan said on Friday.

Ahmed Fawzi said there were new victims of violence every day.

The European Union is preparing a fresh round of sanctions against the Syrian regime, banning exports of luxury items and goods which can be used for internal repression, diplomats said Friday.

"The sanctions are ready," said an EU diplomat who asked not to be named. The timing for their adoption however "will depend on the situation on the ground."

Turkey on Friday urged the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region for tougher action against a drawn-out insurgency waged by Kurdish militants, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse.