The planned release of a Saudi diplomat, kidnapped in Yemen almost four months ago, fell through at the last minute, when his captors doubled their ransom demand, a tribal mediator said on Sunday.

Abdullah al-Khalidi, Saudi deputy consul in Yemen's main southern city Aden, was supposed to be released overnight, but his captors "reneged at the last moment over the amount of the ransom," the mediator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Israel on Sunday began testing an SMS system for warning the public of an imminent missile attack as chatter over a possible strike on Iran dominated the Israeli press headlines.

As testing began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had chalked up "a significant improvement" in its home front defense capabilities, mentioning its highly-vaunted anti-missile systems such as Iron Dome and Arrow 2.

The United States and Egypt are trying to put together a new security assistance package to address the worsening situation on the Sinai Peninsula, The New York Times reported late Saturday.

The Egyptian military has been bolstering its presence in the Sinai with tanks and helicopters after Sunday's unprecedented ambush on a border guard outpost near the borders of Gaza and Israel, which left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead.

Hundreds of activists took to the streets of Morocco's main cities late on Saturday to protest against corruption, the high cost of living and other causes of discontent, according to AFP reporters and witnesses.

Rights groups, trade unionists and the February 20 protest movement had called the demonstrations, amid frustration at the perceived failure of the Islamist-led government to make good on its electoral promises.

Officials in Iran on Sunday called a halt to rescue operations following twin quakes that devastated scores of northwestern villages, killing 250 people and injuring hundreds, saying all survivors had been located and saved.

"There are no people left to recover from under the rubble in any village, and all necessary aid is currently being distributed," an Interior Ministry official in charge of disaster management, Hossein Ghadami, told state television.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he wants Syrian leader Bashar Assad to stand trial at the International Criminal Court, which tries genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity,

"The best thing would be for Assad to appear," at the court based in The Hague, he told German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

A French cargo plane carrying tons of aid supplies and medical equipment for Syrian refugees landed Saturday in Jordan for tens of thousands of Syrians who fled their country's violence.

The Antonov aircraft is carrying 80 tons of medical and support equipment and more French supplies destined for Syrian refugees will be flown to Jordan soon, the head of the operation, Colonel Yannick Rio, said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pushing for a U.N. presence in Syria after its observer mission there ends to support mediation efforts, diplomats said Saturday.

In a letter to Security Council members, Ban suggested several options for maintaining an "effective and flexible presence," according to a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bombings and a shooting against Iraqi security forces, a Shiite mosque and a local official killed six people and wounded dozens of others on Friday, security and medical officials said.

"Three policemen were killed and two others wounded by a bomb targeting their patrol in al-Muqdadiyah this morning," said a police lieutenant colonel in the town, which lies in restive Diyala province.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said on Saturday he was "horrified" by the violence in Syria as he visited a desert refugee camp in neighboring Jordan.

"We are tremendously horrified to learn of this experience that so many people here face, the horrifying experiences that cause them to leave," their country, Baird said during a tour of the Zaatari refugee camp outside the northern Jordanian city of Mafraq.