Egyptian authorities have arrested al-Jazeera's bureau chief and one of its journalists in Cairo, the Doha-based television channel said on Saturday, amid anti-government protests in the capital.

"Egypt's security services have arrested al-Jazeera bureau chief in Cairo Abdel Fattah Fayed and the journalist Ahmed Yousef," the pan-Arab channel, banned since last Sunday from operating in Egypt, reported on its website.

Unknown attackers blew up an Egyptian terminal supplying gas to Israel near the Gaza Strip on Saturday, an official said, amid raging protests against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

The attackers blew up the terminal and the pipeline in the town of Lihfen in the Sheikh Zuwayed area of Sinai, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Gaza Strip, the official said.

Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei has announced that he would not run for president in the upcoming elections.

"No, I will not join in. The best I can do is act as an agent for change," he told Austrian newspaper Der Standard, when asked whether he would compete in presidential elections.

The U.S. military's top officer on Friday cautioned against moves to cut off aid to Egypt due to the unrest against the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

"I would just caution against doing anything until we really understand what's going on," Admiral Mike Mullen said in an interview on ABC News.

Around 1,000 protesters gathered on Friday outside the Jordanian prime minister's office to demand reforms, before staging a sit-in near Cairo's embassy in support of anti-regime protests in Egypt.

The demonstrators, answering calls by the powerful Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the country's Muslim Brotherhood, chanted: "The people demand reform and change."

A small private jet en route to Turkey's capital Ankara crashed soon after takeoff on Friday in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, killing seven people, airport officials said.

"The aircraft caught fire just after it took off," Hadi Amer, an official at the airport 270 kilometers north of Baghdad, told Agence France Presse.

Rain, not protesters, flooded the streets of Damascus on Friday after Muslim prayers when a "day of anger" had been promoted by online activists in an echo of Egypt's popular uprising.

For a week, Facebook activists had touted Friday as the day they would mark a peaceful "2011 Syrian revolution" to "end corruption and tyranny."

Access to Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound was restricted on Friday in a bid to prevent demonstrations in support of the Egyptian uprising after Muslim prayers, police said.

"This Friday, we are forbidding access to the compound to men under 50 years old carrying an Israeli identity card," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

Egyptian protesters massed Friday for sweeping "departure day" demonstrations to force President Hosni Mubarak to quit after he said he would like to step down but fears chaos would result.

Tens of thousands filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 11 straight days of protests that have shaken the pillars of Mubarak's three-decade rule, on the Muslim day of rest.

Human Rights Watch called for the Syrian authorities on Friday to "respect" the right of its people to protest, amid online calls for large demonstrations.

"Syria’s government should immediately cease its intimidation and harassment of demonstrators expressing solidarity with pro-democracy campaigners in Egypt," the human rights group said in a statement.