The United States plans talks with Saudi Arabia on civilian nuclear cooperation, people familiar with the plans said, in a step that has already set off fierce criticism on Capitol Hill.

With the United States hoping to head off an arms race in response to Iran's nuclear program, officials from President Barack Obama's administration plan to head to Riyadh in the coming week for nuclear talks, the sources said.

Syrian troops shot dead three people on Saturday when villagers hurled stones at their convoy as it advanced on the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, an activist told Agence France Presse in Nicosia.

Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a convoy of about 60 military vehicles, including tanks, was moving towards Deir al-Zour when people from Tibneh village attacked them with stones.

At least 42 people have died in violence near Yemen's southern city of Zinjibar, most of which has fallen under the control of spected al-Qaida militants, military and local sources said on Saturday.

Eleven people including top officers were killed in fierce clashes between the army and militants in Dofas, a village 15 kilometers south of Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar, they said.

Egypt's military has arrested five people in connection with clashes in the north Sinai city of El-Arish that left four people dead, the official MENA news agency said on Saturday.

Armed forces arrested four men suspected of involvement in an attack on an El-Arish police station, while another man was arrested driving close to the police station with two machine guns in his possession, MENA said.

Eleven people including top officers have been killed in fierce clashes between Yemen's army and suspected al-Qaida militants in the country's restive south, military and local officials said on Saturday.

"Al-Qaida elements stationed in Dofas (Abyan province) attacked army units there using machine guns on Friday, killing two officers and four soldiers, and wounding nine others," a military official in the village told Agence France Presse.

Amnesty on Friday renewed calls for Iran to release two young U.S. hikers held on spying charges since July 2009, two days ahead of a fresh hearing in their case.

"Iranian authorities have held these men for two years, subjecting them to legal proceedings that fall far short of international fair trial standards," the London-based organization said.

Libyan rebels were on Saturday probing the death of their army chief General Abdel Fatah Yunis, a murder the Gadhafi regime blamed on al-Qaida, as NATO warplanes targeted the strongman's "terror broadcasts."

"The NTC has appointed an investigative committee and we will publish all the facts of this investigation," said Ali Tarhuni, who handles economic affairs for the rebel National Transitional Council.

Bahrain's main Shiite opposition formation slammed the national dialogue's recommendations submitted to King Hamad on Thursday, saying they do not represent its demands or the will of the people.

The conclusions of the dialogue carried "none of our demands" and "the dialogue does not represent the will of the people," the Islamic National Accord Association (Al-Wefaq) said in a statement posted on its page on social networking website Facebook.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Friday seeking to unify their demands despite rifts over key issues between liberal activists and Islamist groups.

Protesters carrying banners, flags and umbrellas to shield them from the punishing Cairo sun filled the square in one of the largest demonstrations since the popular uprising pushed President Hosni Mubarak from power in February.

A blast early Friday hit a pipeline carrying natural gas from Iran to Turkey, forcing a cut in supply, an Iranian oil official said.

"The export of gas to Turkey has been temporarily halted after an explosion struck the pipeline" in northwestern Iran, spokesman for National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Majid Boujarzadeh told the oil ministry's news agency SHANA.