A teenager was shot dead near Bahrain's capital on Thursday as clashes erupted when hundreds took to the streets to mark the second anniversary of a Shiite-led uprising against the kingdom's Sunni rulers.

The demonstrations, staged early morning in Shiite-populated villages across the Gulf archipelago, turned violent when police fired shotguns and tear gas to disperse the crowds, wounding several people, witnesses said.

Syrian rebels from the Islamist al-Nusra Front on Thursday seized the town of Shadadeh in the oil-rich northeastern province of Hasake, on the border with Iraq, a monitoring group said.

"After three days of fierce battles against the army, al-Nusra Front fighters have seized control of Shadadeh," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its reporting.

Embattled Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said on Thursday he will announce a new government line-up on Saturday, and warned that he will quit if it is rejected.

Jebali has been pushing to form a government of technocrats in defiance of his Islamist Ennahda party since the murder last week of vocal government critic and leftist figure Chokri Belaid plunged the country into political crisis.

Suspected Jewish extremists scrawled anti-Arab graffiti on the headstones in an ancient Muslim cemetery in west Jerusalem, police and witnesses told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

"The words 'price tag' and Stars of David were scrawled on around a dozen tombs in the Muslim cemetery in Mamilla in central Jerusalem," a police spokeswoman told AFP, saying an inquiry had been opened.

Attacks mostly targeting Iraqi security forces north of Baghdad killed seven people on Thursday, security and medical officials said, the latest in an uptick in nationwide violence.

Near the main northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed two brothers -- a policeman and a soldier -- inside their home, according to officials. The soldier was a bodyguard for Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed one of its nationals in Riyadh after he was convicted of murdering another man, the interior ministry said.

Shbib al-Otaibi was beheaded by the sword for killing a fellow Saudi, Faleh al-Shibani, following a dispute between the pair, said a ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Israel has confirmed it jailed a foreigner in solitary confinement on security grounds who later committed suicide, as Australia admitted Thursday it knew one of its citizens had been secretly held.

The man, identified by Australian media as Mossad agent Ben Zygier, known as "Prisoner X", died in a secret prison near Tel Aviv in 2010 in a case Israel went to extreme lengths to cover up, imposing media gag orders.

Washington aims to change Syrian President Bashar Assad's belief that he can hang onto power and accept "the inevitability" of his departure, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.

"We need to address the question of President Assad's calculation currently," Kerry told reporters. "I believe there are additional things that can be done to change his current perception."

The United States believes there may be a way to rekindle stalemated Middle East peace talks, but wants to hear ideas first from regional leaders, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

"I believe that there are possibilities," Kerry said after talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, adding he was an optimist at heart.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council on Wednesday to overcome its paralysis and take meaningful action on Syria, while he slammed North Korea for its "reckless" nuclear test.

"It is essential for the Security Council to overcome the deadlock and find the unity that will make meaningful action possible," in Syria, Ban said in a speech at the Organization of American States in Washington.