A cold weather spell has killed at least 44 people in Algeria over the past week, sparking strong press criticism of what it sees as the government's poor response to the emergency situation.

Channel Three radio, quoting official sources, Thursday said 30 died in road accidents caused by the weather, and 14 of asphyxia because of poor heating devices.

A German couple and their child drowned in a tourist submarine accident on Thursday off Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, security officials told AFP.

The victims were a German man, his wife and child, they said.

The opposition Syrian National Council gathered in Qatar on Thursday to prepare for meetings with regional blocs on their government's lethal crackdown on protests, an SNC spokesman told Agence France Presse.

The SNC executive committee talks come "before two important meetings, one for the Gulf Cooperation Council and another for the Arab League," both of which are to take place on Sunday in Cairo, Mohammed Sarmini said.

The Syrian city of Homs, dubbed "the capital of the revolution," has been under siege by regime forces and suffered the heaviest losses in the country's 11-month uprising.

With Damascus the political capital and the northern city of Aleppo the main commercial hub, Homs with its 1.6 million residents in central Syria represents the country's industrial lifeline.

Security forces killed 126 people in Syria on Thursday, 107 of them in Homs in the latest government blitz on the besieged city, said Local Coordination Committees.

Six people were killed in Maarat al-Naaman in Idlib, ten others in Reef Damascus, two in Ain al-Arab Koubani in Aleppo, and one in Latakia.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Thursday Germany was expelling four diplomats from the Syrian embassy in Berlin after the arrest of two men suspected of spying on regime opponents.

"After the arrest of two people suspected of spying for Syria, I have decided to expel four members of the Syrian embassy in Berlin," Westerwelle said in a statement.

China said Thursday it held talks with a key Syrian opposition group this week, amid fierce criticism of its decision to block a U.N. resolution condemning a bloody crackdown in the Middle East country.

China and Russia drew international ire for blocking the U.N. Security Council resolution on Saturday, with Washington calling their rejection a "travesty" and another Syrian opposition group saying they had handed President Bashar Assad's regime a "license to kill.”

Yemeni security forces shot dead two southern Yemeni activists during a demonstration Thursday in Daleh against presidential elections to be held later this month, witnesses and activists said.

"Southerner wake up, no more elections," chanted the protesters referring to a referendum-like election in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi stands as a sole candidate based on a Gulf brokered deal signed by departing President Ali Abdullah Saleh in November.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in the Qatari capital Doha Thursday after a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, where he secured pledges to ensure a stable supply of oil to the East Asian nation.

He is on a regional tour that will also include a stop in the United Arab Emirates.

Syria's top Muslim cleric has thanked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his unwavering support of Syria's government as it deals with widespread unrest, the presidency website reported Thursday.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun conveyed the "thanks of the Syrian people and president for the stance of Ahmadinejad and our nation," the website said after a meeting between the two late Wednesday in Tehran.