Thousands of people rallied in central Cairo on Friday in support of a Salafist candidate who could be ruled out of Egypt's presidential election because his mother reportedly held U.S. nationality.

Under the country's electoral law, all candidates for the presidency, their parents and their wives must have only Egyptian citizenship.

Nearly 1,500 Jordanians demonstrated on Friday across the country to demand the release of 19 detained political activists charged with insulting the king, and also calling for reforms.

In the capital Amman, more than 400 Islamists and trade unionists held a sit-in near the University of Jordan to condemn corruption and the detention of the young activists.

In the darkness, it was impossible for Umm Eddine to see her two eldest children as they trekked from Syria to Jordan. She wanted to call out, but knew any sound could attract army sniper fire.

When she set out into the cold night with her four offspring and several other families, the men smuggling them warned they must remain silent.

At least 23 people were killed as thousands of anti-regime protesters poured onto the streets across Syria on Friday despite a massive security forces presence and as troops pounded rebel towns, activists said.

Thirteen people were killed in the central province of Homs, six in Aleppo’s countryside in the north, two in the northwestern province of Idlib, one in the Damascus suburb of Douma and one in the Daraa Province town of al-Jiza in the south, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported.

Christians and Jews in the Holy Land were set to begin marking their most important festivals of the year on Friday, with Good Friday and the Jewish holiday of Passover coinciding.

Jewish families were completing last-minute preparations for Passover, which begins at sundown and commemorates the Israelite's exodus from slavery in Egypt, receipt of the Torah at Mount Sinai and eventual journey into the Promised Land.

Syria lashed out at the U.N. high commissioner for human rights on Friday, accusing her of turning a blind eye to "terrorism" funded from abroad.

Citing a foreign ministry letter to Navi Pillay, state news agency SANA said her "bias against Syria has become evident as she turns a blind eye to terrorism targeting the Syrian people at the hands of armed groups with an external funding."

Ankara has urged the U.N. to send officials to its border with Syria, where record numbers of refugees fleeing an assault by troops backed by helicopters have poured into Turkey in less than two days, a diplomatic source said Friday.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urgently called U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in the early hours of Friday after more than 2,800 Syrians crossed into the country in the last 36 hours, reportedly fleeing a helicopter-backed assault by government troops, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Two suspected al-Qaida suicide bombers were killed Friday in Yemen's main southern city of Aden when their payload exploded outside an intelligence bureau they were targeting, the defense ministry said.

"Two suicide bombers belonging to the al-Qaida terrorist network were killed when their motorbike exploded... early Friday in Mansura," the ministry's news website 26sep.net said.

Israel restricted access to its territory from the West Bank on Friday ahead of the Jewish Passover holiday, the military said, as police tightened security after a rocket attack on Eilat.

Checkpoints would be closed to general traffic but "persons in need of medical attention, humanitarian aid or exceptional cases will be permitted to pass for care" with the army's authorization, it said in a statement.

The global police agency Interpol issued alerts Thursday seeking the arrest of two senior officials in late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s regime on suspicion of torture and kidnapping.

A statement from the France-based body said Libya had requested assistance in detaining two officials identified as former interior minister Al-Senussi Alozyre, 63, and his former deputy Naser al-Mabrouk, 60.