Thirty-five Ethiopian Christians, 29 of them women, face deportation from Saudi Arabia for "illicit mingling" after police raided a private prayer gathering, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

The New York-based watchdog said the women were subjected to "unwarranted strip search," while the men were beaten and insulted as "unbelievers".

Swedish immigration authorities said Monday they were temporarily halting all deportations to Syria due to growing violence as President Bashar al-Assad's regime continues its deadly crackdown.

"The Swedish Migration Board has now temporarily stopped all deportations ... to Syria. The reason is the dramatically worsened security situation in the country," the agency said in a statement.

Russia will not back a new draft resolution on Syria, its deputy foreign minister said Monday ahead of the U.N. Security Council's debate over the latest Western-backed proposal.

"The current Western draft has not gone too far from the October version, and, certainly, cannot be supported by us," Gennady Gatilov told Interfax news agency in an interview.

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council on Monday rejected the resignation of its number two, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, who had stepped down after protests against him, a member of the council told Agence France Presse.

"The NTC in its meeting examined the resignation of its deputy and rejected it," Intisar al-Akili said of the decision which was taken during an NTC meeting in Tripoli.

The opposition Syrian National Council warned on Monday of a possible "massacre" of hundreds of young men rounded up by security forces in a town near Damascus.

It voiced "fears over a possible liquidation of hundreds of young men that Syrian security services have gathered in a public square in Rankous," 40 kilometers north of the capital, in a statement received by Agence France Presse.

The head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, arrived in Qatar on Monday, beginning a regional tour that is also expected to take in Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran.

The official Qatari News Agency said Haniya's visit to the Gulf emirate will "last several days," while diplomats said he will leave Doha on Saturday, after leading the main weekly Muslim prayers at noon on Friday.

Egypt's ruling military on Monday laid out the rules governing the country's first presidential elections since a popular uprising ousted veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Only Egyptian nationals born to Egyptian parents and who do not hold dual citizenship can qualify for candidacy, according to the new election law issued by military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

Former pro-Gadhafi fighter Milad Mohammed Youssef lifts his shirt to reveal scars from what he says are cigarette burns and chain beatings, claims his jailer denies happened at his prison.

Youssef, a prison inmate in the western city of Misrata, says he has been held in his small cell at the army-run facility since October 28, five weeks after being captured.

Representatives of Syria's Kurdish community are divided on the issue of seeking a foreign military intervention to help topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush a popular uprising.

NATO-led forces, which carried out air strikes in Libya last year after popular protests gave way to an armed uprising, were instrumental in long-time strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s fall.

Disagreement on Syria is one underlying cause of the current diplomatic row between Iraq and Turkey, analysts say, but crucial economic ties are likely to prevent a serious escalation.

Despite improving relations and rising trade between their two countries in recent years, the rhetoric between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become heated in recent weeks as Baghdad grappled with a political crisis that has stoked sectarian tensions.