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.

The Pentagon denied reports Saturday that the U.S. military has given up on plans to keep several thousand troops in Iraq after a year-end deadline, saying talks with Baghdad were still underway.

U.S. and Iraq officials have been negotiating a possible American military training mission of about 4,000 troops after 2011, but a dispute over legal protections for the U.S. forces has jeopardized the security agreement.

Unknown attackers hurled stones and fired shots to disperse participants at an anti-corruption conference in northern Jordan on Saturday, injuring at least 35 people, witnesses said.

The conference, entitled "For reforms and against corruption," was being held at Salhub, 50 kilometers from Amman, and attended mainly by members of the Bani Sakher and Bani Hassan tribes, they said.

Tunisia's Islamist party Ennahda, tipped to dominate elections later this month, on Saturday condemned an attack on the home of a television chief over alleged blasphemy, denying any role in it.

But Ennahda party chief Rached Ghannouchi equally accused the Nessma television station of "provocation" for airing a film that depicts an image of God as an old, bearded man.

Saudi Arabia has asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to inform the Security Council of the "heinous conspiracy" to kill its envoy to Washington, in an alleged Iranian plot, SPA state news agency said on Saturday.

"The Saudi permanent mission to the United Nations in New York has ...formally requested the U.N. secretary general to inform the Security Council of the heinous conspiracy to assassinate the Saudi ambassador," it said.

Omanis voted on Saturday to elect their purely consultative Majlis al-Shura council, which Sultan Qaboos has pledged to vest with new authorities in response to unprecedented social unrest.

Voting centers across the sultanate closed at 7:00 pm (15:00 GMT) after opening for 12 hours and drawing a "strong" turnout, according to an electoral commission official.