Three more people died in Cairo on Wednesday, a medic said, as violence which has killed dozens raged into a fifth day despite promises by Egypt's military ruler to speed up the transition to democracy.

Clashes broke out in Mohammed Mahmoud street, just off Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, where thousands of protesters rallied again on Wednesday to demand an immediate end to military rule.

Bahraini police clashed with protesters in at least two Shiite villages as tensions escalated ahead of Wednesday's release of a report on government misconduct during a protest crackdown, activists said.

Early morning protests erupted in village of Aali on the outskirts of the capital Manama, where rights activists and an Agence France Presse correspondent said police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators.

Kuwaiti police Wednesday arrested at least one opposition activist over charges of storming parliament while other activists began surrendering voluntarily, their lawyer said.

"Police arrested youth activist Youssef al-Shatti at Kuwait Airport this morning," coordinator of the opposition defense team al-Humaidi al-Subaie told Agence France Presse.

Syria has reached a "point of no return" in the regime's crackdown on opposition demonstrators, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday during his state visit to Britain.

"Unfortunately Syria has come to a point of no return," Gul said in a speech, adding that the whole region could be dragged into "turmoil and bloodshed" by the crisis.

The U.N. human rights chief called Wednesday for an independent probe into the killing of protesters by Egypt's military and security forces.

"I urge the Egyptian authorities to end the clearly excessive use of force against protesters in Tahrir Square and elsewhere in the country, including the apparent improper use of tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition," said Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Iran has dismissed a U.S. news report implicating it in a chemical weapons cache uncovered in Libya, saying it was a champion in fighting to eradicate such arms.

"About the arms delivery to the regime of (toppled Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi... The West would do better to look to itself, because Iran has always been at the forefront in the fight against chemical weapons," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to Iranian media Wednesday.

Several thousand Egyptians rallied in Tahrir Square on Wednesday demanding an end to military rule, despite a promise by the country's interim leader to transfer power to an elected president by mid-2012.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who served as minister under Hosni Mubarak but took power when the ex-president was ousted in February, pledged in a rare televised address Tuesday to hold a presidential election by the end of June.

China said Wednesday a U.N. human rights resolution condemning Syria's deadly eight-month crackdown on anti-government protestors was "counterproductive".

China was among 41 nations to abstain from voting on the resolution, which strongly condemns "continued grave and systematic human rights violations" by Syria that the United Nations estimates has left more than 3,500 dead.

Turkey has bombed the Sulaimaniyah and Arbil provinces of Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region, wounding one civilian, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday.

"The Turkish aerial bombardment was renewed on Tuesday night and the civilian Ismail Baz Hamed, 20, was wounded during this bombing," said Hassan Abdullah, the mayor of the Qalat Dizah area in Sulaimaniyah.

Forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed Wednesday with dissident tribesmen in the Yemeni capital, residents said, while the veteran leader was in Riyadh to sign a power transfer deal.

The clashes broke out between gunmen loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar and pro-Saleh troops in al-Hasaba district, while explosions were heard in the nearby neighborhood of Sufan, residents there said.