Algeria's Islamists were reeling Saturday from a stinging setback in legislative polls which saw the ruling party come out on top, resisting the Arab Spring's tide of democratic change.

The regime argued that the results showed Algerians' desire for stability, at a time when regime change was bringing chaos to other countries, and outright rejection of Islamism, whose rise 20 years ago led to civil war.

A large explosion went off near an office of the ruling Baath party in Syria's second city of Aleppo on Friday evening, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"A big explosion was heard near al-Jabiri Square. It targeted an office of the Baath party, according to initial reports," the Britain-based watchdog said in a statement.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, 88, was admitted to hospital on Friday for what his spokeswoman called a "very, very simple" operation for a hernia.

Spokeswoman Ayelet Frish told Agence France Presse that during a five-day state visit to Canada this week Peres was diagnosed with a hernia and treated by his personal physician, who accompanied him on the trip.

Syria's authorities have refused to submit a report on torture in the country to a United Nations committee scheduled to discuss the situation there next week, its secretary said on Friday.

The Committee Against Torture monitors the implementation of the U.N.'s anti-torture convention by state parties and is currently meeting in Geneva.

Algeria's former single party tightened its grip on power in an election that bucked the regional trend, according to results Friday that drew accusations of fraud from the defeated Islamists.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) won 220 out of 462 seats up for grabs in Thursday's election, the first since the Arab Spring, improving on its share in the outgoing national assembly.

Saudi King Abdullah on Friday sacked one of his advisers, an outspoken critic of the sexes mingling outside the home, something banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

The state news agency SPA published the decree announcing the dismissal of Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al-Obeikan, an adviser to the royal cabinet, without providing further details.

Syrian troops killed a would-be suicide bomber in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, a day after devastating bomb blasts in Damascus, state television reported.

"Syrian authorities have foiled an attempted suicide attack in al-Shaar area of Aleppo and killed the would-be attacker," the channel said.

More than 1,000 Jordanians, mostly opposition Islamists, demonstrated on Friday demanding elected governments and "radical" reforms, and criticizing newly appointed Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh.

Marching in central Amman after midday prayers, the protesters, including youths and trade unionists, carried banners reading "we want to reform the regime, radical change and elected governments."

The Algerian regime hailed a "remarkable" turnout as polling officials tallied votes Friday for legislative elections expected to hand a bigger share of power to moderate Islamists.

Turnout had been expected to be very low after a campaign that produced no new faces and failed to draw crowds, but the interior minister announced a relatively high figure of 42.9 percent after polling closed Thursday.

The European Union is set to slap new sanctions on Syria, imposing an assets freeze and visa ban on two firms and three people, EU diplomats said Friday.

They said the measures targeting "mainly sources of revenue for the regime" would be decided at talks between EU foreign ministers next Monday.