A Syrian judge freed opposition figure Georges Sabra on Monday, almost two months after he was arrested at his home in Qatana near Damascus, his lawyer said.

"The judge decided to release Georges Sabra today after questioning on charges that were brought against him," said the lawyer Khalil Maatuk.

Fierce fighting raged Monday in Bani Walid as new regime fighters attacked the town where Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam is holed up, possibly with his father, said the new authorities.

"The revolutionaries came to Bani Walid this morning and engaged in a hard battle," Abdullah Kenshil, a senior official in the National Transitional Council (NTC), told Agence France Presse.

Security forces shot dead at least 31 people in Yemen on Monday, among them two children killed by snipers, protest organizers and medics said, as the United States called for restraint.

Organizers of anti-regime demonstrations in Sanaa said in a statement that 27 people were killed on Monday and that 942 people were wounded by gunfire over the past 48 hours, and that 47 are in critical condition.

A U.N. envoy to Yemen and the Gulf Cooperation Council chief arrived in Sanaa Monday, state news agency Saba and an airport official said, as deadly clashes raged in the capital.

"U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar and the convoy accompanying him arrived in Sanaa," Saba reported, while an official at Sanaa airport told Agence France Presse that GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani also arrived in the restive capital.

Iranian state television is reporting that authorities have arrested five people for working for the BBC's Farsi-language service.

Monday's report on the channel's website says the group provided the British Broadcasting Corp. with video and negative news reports on Iran. The report did not identify them by their full names.

A Turkish military cargo plane dropping humanitarian aid over the Libyan town of Bani Walid came under fire from the ground, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported Monday.

The incident happened on Saturday when one of two Turkish C-130 transport planes parachuting 22 tons of aid to residents, was fired on, the agency said, citing a journalist on the plane.

More than 5,000 men will compete in Saudi Arabia's upcoming municipal elections, the election commission said Monday as candidates began campaigning for votes.

The elections, only the second in Saudi Arabia's history, are set for September 29 and are for half the seats in the kingdom's 285 municipal councils. The other half are appointed by the government.

Syria's security forces opened fire on Monday during a raid on political dissidents in the town of Houla in central Homs province, a flashpoint in the months-long anti-regime uprising, activists said.

"Five residents, including a woman, were shot dead on Monday by security forces, who have been conducting a sweep in Houla since Sunday," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

Iranian forces will in the "coming days" finish off armed Kurdish rebels who are based in Iraq, a top commander said, quoted by local media on Monday.

"The scroll of the terrorist group PJAK will be rolled up in the coming days and full security shall be restored to the border areas," Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the ground forces commander, told Vatan Emrouz newspaper.

Mahmud Abbas said on Monday he expects a "very difficult" situation after he seeks U.N. membership for a Palestinian state this week, in a move strongly opposed by Israel and the United States.

The Palestinian president made the remarks as he arrived in New York, where world powers were meeting in an 11th-hour attempt to head off the membership bid and avoid a diplomatic showdown at the United Nations.