Libyan leaders in Misrata could be held legally accountable by the International Criminal Court for crimes committed by militias under their command, Human Rights Watch warned on Sunday.

"The leaders of the Libyan city of Misrata could be held criminally responsible for ongoing serious crimes by forces under their command," the watchdog said in an open letter to the city’s military and civilian leaders.

Turkey's prime minister has warned of as yet unspecified "steps" if the government of neighboring Syria fails to abide by an April 10 deadline to cease violence, local media reported on Sunday.

"We will patiently follow the process until April 10," Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by daily Hurriyet.

Two days ahead of a U.N. deadline for Syria's military to halt fire, neither regime forces nor the rebels appeared ready on Sunday to compromise after a deadly day that saw nearly 130 people killed.

The main opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council called for U.N. intervention after monitoring groups said 86 of those killed on Saturday were civilians.

The United States on Saturday praised Yemen's president for steps taken as part of the ongoing political transition even as the capital's airport was temporarily shut down and tensions ran high in Sanaa.

"The United States welcomes President Abd Rabo Mansour Hadi's announcement of civilian and military personnel transfers as part of the ongoing political transition in Yemen," State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said.

With a White House meeting, talks at a think-tank, and interviews with newspapers, Islamists unshackled by the Arab Spring are launching a new charm offensive to reassure a nervous Washington.

The rise to power of elected Islamists in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere has alarmed many Americans, who fear the emergence of Iran-style theocracies that would deny the rights of women and minorities and antagonize Israel.

Bahrain is examining a request to transfer to Denmark a jailed Shiite activist who has been on hunger strike for almost two months, who is also a Danish citizen, the BNA news agency reported Saturday.

Seif al-Islam, son of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi, will be moved next week to Tripoli and has agreed to take a lawyer, Libya's representative to the International Criminal Court said Saturday.

"Seif al-Islam will be transferred from his prison in Zintan to an official prison in the capital Tripoli before the end of the (coming) week," Ahmed Jehani told Agence France Presse, declining to give an exact date for security reasons.

Salafist politician Hazem Abu Ismail will probably be disqualified from his bid for Egypt's presidency because his late mother was a US citizen, the electoral commission said on Saturday.

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

The trial opened in Saudi Arabia on Saturday of 50 al-Qaida suspects accused of carrying out and plotting attacks in the kingdom, including U.S. and British interests, state news agency SPA reported.

It said 47 Saudis, a Syrian and a Yemeni national went on trial in the specialized criminal court in Riyadh.

A roadside bomb killed three policemen in Diyala province of central Iraq while a bomb inside a minibus in Baghdad left at least two people dead on Saturday, security and medical sources said.

The roadside bomb exploded as a police patrol passed by in Khan Bani Saad, a town south of Baquba, the capital of Diyala, a police major said.