Libya's National Transitional Council has pledged to continue with the previous regime's program of destroying its chemical weapons stockpiles, an international monitoring group said Friday.

"The new authorities inherited the obligations of the old regime as a state party to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," the organization’s spokesman Michael Luhan said at its headquarters in The Hague.

The Israeli navy on Friday intercepted two international ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists who were trying to break the blockade on Gaza, a military statement said.

"A short while ago, Israel navy soldiers boarded the vessels which were en route to the Gaza Strip, attempting to break the maritime security blockade that is in place in accordance with international law," it said.

France said Friday that Syria was breaking its commitments to an Arab League peace plan by continuing a deadly crackdown on protesters and cast doubt on President Bashar al-Assad's dedication to the deal.

"The continuing repression can only strengthen the international community's doubts about the Syrian regime's sincerity to implement the Arab League peace plan," the French foreign ministry's deputy spokesman, Romain Nadal, told journalists.

Protesters on Friday held massive demonstrations in Yemen's capital Sanaa and in Taez as they buried 19 people killed by government forces over the past two days in both cities.

A smaller number of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's loyalists staged a counter rally on the capital's Sabiin Avenue in support of the embattled leader, witnesses said.

France confirmed Friday that it would abstain in a Security Council vote on full Palestinian membership of the United Nations, deputy foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

"France reiterates its consistent proposal to envisage for Palestine, at this stage, the status of non-member observer state through a U.N. General Assembly vote that would be another step towards admission," Nadal said.

Syrian troops killed at least 23 people Friday when demonstrators took to the streets denouncing "despots and tyrants," as world powers cast doubt on the regime's commitment to an Arab peace deal.

Troops raked several residential neighborhoods of Homs -- a city of some one million people that has been at the frontline of protests raging since mid-March -- with heavy machineguns mounted on tanks, a watchdog said.

More than 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims began on Friday the rites of the annual hajj pilgrimage, leaving the holy city of Mecca for Mount Arafat, where the prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final hajj sermon.

Dressed in white, they flooded the streets as they headed towards Mina, around five kilometers east of the holy mosque.

A U.S. soldier has been killed in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Friday, the first American service member to die in an attack here since the U.S. announced its forces would depart by year's end.

"A U.S. service member was killed Thursday while conducting operations in northern Iraq," the military said in a brief statement, without providing further details.

Embattled Australian carrier Qantas on Friday diverted one of its A380s to Dubai because of engine problems; a year to the day after a turbine blast in another of its superjumbos rocked the airline.

QF31 was four hours into the flight from Singapore to London, carrying 258 passengers and 25 crew, when the pilot decided that the oil pressure in one engine made it "absolutely important" to change course, a spokeswoman said.

Eleven people, including two children, have been killed in flash floods caused by heavy rains that have hit Oman over the past three days, the Arabian Peninsula state's police announced on Thursday.

"Eleven people died in several of the sultanate's provinces when their vehicles were swept by heavy rains as they drove through valleys," state news agency ONA quoted a police statement as saying.