The rebel Free Syrian Army called on Saturday for the Friends of Syria to carry out air strikes on the forces of President Bashar Assad after more than 90 people, including 25 children, were reportedly "massacred" in the town of Houla.

Turkey-based General Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, head of the FSA's military council, called on the international community to take "an appropriate stance after the heinous crime committed by Assad's assassin regime in the Houla region."

A Saudi diplomat kidnapped nearly a month ago in Yemen's south appealed to King Abdullah to fulfill the demands of al-Qaida to secure his release, according to a video posted on jihadist forums.

"I appeal to King Abdullah ... and the Saudi government to save me and release me from al-Qaida organization in return for releasing the sisters detained in (Saudi) general investigation prisons and fulfilling the remaining demands of the organization," Abdullah al-Khalidi said in the video, posted late on Friday, and published by SITE Intelligence Group.

A gas blast at a university canteen in Algeria killed seven students and left 28 others injured, the APS news agency reported.

The students were eating dinner in Tlemcen, 520 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers when the explosion occurred.

Syria's main opposition bloc urged the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to convene an emergency meeting to examine what it called an army massacre near Homs, where it said 110 people were killed.

"More than 110 people were killed (half of whom are children) by the Syrian regime's forces" in the village of Houla, the Syrian National Council said in a statement.

Army tanks were deployed on Friday in Syria's second city Aleppo for the first time since an uprising against the regime erupted 14 months ago, a monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the tanks rumbled through the Kalasse and Bustan al-Kasr neighborhoods of the northern city, where thousands of people attended a funeral.

Egyptian Islamist candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh on Friday urged his supporters to "confront the corrupt regime," in an implicit appeal against Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

His statement came after figures showing that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi and Shafiq appeared to have won the first round of Egypt's presidential vote, setting them up for a run-off.

Helicopter gunships on Friday fired on rebel positions in the Latakia area of northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, wounding at least 20 people, a monitoring group said.

"This is the first time that this area, known as the Mountain of the Kurds, has been the target of air strikes," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Four Russian bikers who were arrested in Iraq last weekend and complained of beatings by security forces have been freed and are in Russian custody, a top official said Friday.

"The bikers arrested in Iraq are already in the Russian embassy," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on his Twitter blog. "Their bikes have not yet been returned. Thank you everyone who helped out."

The head of the U.S. delegation to nuclear talks with Iran arrived in Israel on Friday to brief officials after a meeting in Baghdad that achieved little other than arranging more talks.

Wendy Sherman's visit is the latest in a series of meetings between U.S. and Israeli officials over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful but much of the international community suspects is a cover for attempts to obtain nuclear weapons.

A contingent of border guards has been sent in to help maintain law and order in Tel Aviv neighborhoods rocked by race riots, a police spokesman said on Friday.

"A unit of border guards comprising 60 men, including 40 police officers, has been deployed in south Tel Aviv to ensure order," Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.