Yemen's embattled president agreed Saturday to a proposal by Gulf Arab mediators to step down within 30 days and hand power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a major about-face for the autocratic leader who has ruled for 32 years.

A coalition of seven opposition parties said they also accepted the deal but with reservations. Even if the differences are overcome, those parties do not speak for all of the hundreds of thousands of protesters seeking President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster, and signs were already emerging that a deal on those terms would not end confrontations in the streets.

Syrian President Bashar Assad must "do more, or allow others to do more" if he is going to satisfy the reform demands of the Syrian people, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Thursday.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner was responding to questions about comments from former Syrian vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who told an Egyptian newspaper that Assad's crackdown on demonstrators will eventually lead to the Syrian leader's ouster.

Israel confirmed that both the U.S. and France suspended deals that are meant to provide assistance to the Lebanese military, over fears that the munitions would fall into the hands of Hizbullah if it controlled the new government, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.

“It took a lot of effort to convince Washington… we made it clear that in a scenario where Hizbullah controls the Lebanese government, the arms will endanger Israel,” a high-rank Israeli official told the daily.

Bradley Manning, a U.S. soldier held for allegedly passing classified documents to WikiLeaks, is being transferred to a new prison facility after intense criticism of the conditions of his detention.

The Pentagon on Tuesday announced his imminent transfer to a Kansas military facility it said was better-suited for a long-term stay, while denying that the move was in response to criticism of his treatment in Quantico, Virginia.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged full support for quake-hit Japan on Sunday as the operator of its stricken nuclear plant said it expects to achieve "cold shutdown" in six to nine months.

Japan's embattled Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) offered the timeline more than five weeks after a giant quake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has since leaked radiation into the air, soil and sea.

Vicious storms smacked the Deep South and toppled trees like dominoes as tornadoes howled through towns, tossing a mobile home in Alabama nearly a quarter of a mile across a state highway, killing the man inside.

Combined with fatalities in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the death toll had risen to 10 by early Saturday — the deadliest storm of the season so far.

Syria denied on Thursday a claim by the United States that Iran was helping it to crack down on demonstrations for more freedom and political reforms that have left more than 100 people dead.

The Syrian foreign ministry denied as "totally false" the U.S. charge, challenging the U.S. State Department to publish any evidence in that regard, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported.

The U.S. embassy in Lebanon invited local secondary teachers on Wednesday to apply for a scholarship to develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills and increase their knowledge of the United States.

The International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) consists of a semester-long (January-June 2012) academic program at a U.S. university followed by an eight-week internship at a secondary school, said a press release issued by the embassy.

The White House condemned escalating repression of demonstrations in Syria Tuesday as "outrageous" and expressed concern about reports that the wounded were being denied medical care.

"We are deeply concerned by reports that Syrians who have been wounded by their government are being denied access to medical care," press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.

Façonnable, a high-end retailer of shirts, has filed a lawsuit against anonymous Internet users who wrote statements on its Wikipedia page linking the company to Hizbullah.

In the lawsuit filed last week in federal court in the U.S. city of Denver, Façonnable says the users edited the company's Wikipedia page in March to suggest that the firm supports the Shiite party.