Turkey's top diplomat predicted in an interview published Sunday that his country would form an alliance with a reformed Egypt, creating a new democratic axis of power in the Middle East.

"This is what we want," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told The New York Times.

A Cairo court sentenced former tourism minister Zuheir Garana on Sunday to three years in prison for illegally issuing operating licenses to tourism companies, the state news agency MENA reported.

Garana had been previously convicted in May on different corruption charges to five years in prison.

The unveiling of a new Libyan government due on Sunday has been put off "indefinitely," Mahmoud Jibril, the number two official in the National Transitional Council (NTC), said.

"The announcement of a new transitional government has been postponed indefinitely in order to finalize consultations," Jibril told a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Yemeni security forces opened fire on protesters in Sanaa calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Sunday, killing 20 people and wounding 500 others, medics said.

Medics in the capital reported 20 dead and 500 others wounded by live rounds, batons or suffering from breathing difficulties after inhaling tear gas.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday warned against "any foreign intervention that threatens to fragment states in the region and increase the risk of extremism in them," in talks with a Russian delegation on a mission to help end the government crackdown on anti-regime protests.

Assad also welcomed the "balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria," the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Hamas on Sunday said it would not back a U.N. membership bid, and warned that no Palestinian leader had a mandate to sacrifice fundamental Palestinian rights.

Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya, speaking in Gaza, said the group also continued to support the establishment of a Palestinian state on any part of "historical Palestine" but would not seek to disrupt the U.N. bid.

Opponents of President Bashar Assad met in Damascus on Sunday calling for the continuation of popular protests to overthrow the "tyrannical" regime in power in Syria.

"We need to end the tyrannical security regime. We must overthrow the tyranny and the security (agents). We welcome all those who have no blood on their hands," said Hassan Abdul Azim, a member of the opposition National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that next week's bid by the Palestinians for U.N. membership had no chance of success and that they would ultimately seek renewed talks.

"Their attempt to be accepted as a member of the United Nations will fail," he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. "That attempt will fail, since it has to pass through the Security Council."

The trial of members of a suspected al-Qaida cell charged with planning attacks against two U.S. military bases in Qatar opened in Riyadh on Saturday.

The cell, dismantled five years ago, comprised 41 members -- including 38 Saudis, a Qatari, an Afghan and a Yemeni -- and was "the most important al-Qaida" operation in Saudi Arabia, the attorney-general said.

Six students were wounded in clashes Saturday on the first day of the academic year between rival groups at Sanaa University, near the epicenter of ongoing protests, a hospital source said.

Two groups, divided between students who backed a resumption of classes and those who did not, came to blows, with stones and other projectiles also being used in the clashes, according to those involved and the medical official.