Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday told those calling on him to go that he would never leave the land of his ancestors and those who have given their lives for him.
"They are asking me to leave. That's a laugh. I will never leave the land of my ancestors or the people who have sacrificed themselves for me," he said in a loudspeaker address to thousands of people in Zawiyah, some 50 kilometers west of Tripoli.

Hundreds of Syrian dissidents debated strategies to oust Bashar Assad's regime Saturday in Istanbul as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a halt to the "brutal" repression of protests.
A simultaneous gathering scheduled to take place in Damascus was cancelled after at least 28 civilians were killed, including 16 in the capital, in demonstrations on Friday, activists said.

Ex-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's murder trial will most likely be held in the Red Sea resort where he is hospitalized, which is bound to anger activists demanding his transfer to Cairo, officials said on Saturday.
The 83-year-old former strongman has been detained in a Sharm el-Sheikh hospital since April, and he is due to go on trial on August 3 on charges of murdering anti-regime protesters and of corruption.

Four policemen suspected of attacking journalists at a demonstration in the Jordanian capital were arrested on Saturday, officials said.
"So far, four police officers suspected of being linked to the attacks on journalists have been arrested," said a statement from the criminal investigation department received by Agence France Presse.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been receiving treatment for blast wounds in Saudi Arabia since early June, will return "soon," deputy information minister Abdo al-Janadi said Saturday.
"The president is in good health. He will return to Yemen soon, but is awaiting the decision of his doctors," Janadi told a news conference, without specifying a date for Saleh's return.
Libyan rebels were poised on Saturday for an attempt to retake Brega after breaching the key oil refinery town's defenses in a probing raid.
Rebel military spokesman Mohammed Zawi told Agence France Presse that a light mobile force had breached loyalist positions around Brega late on Friday, before pulling back for a renewed offensive early on Saturday.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station got a very long-distance call Friday from U.S. President Barack Obama, who joked that he thought he was dialing out for pizza.
Hot from giving a press conference at which he pushed Republicans to reach a deal on raising the U.S. debt ceiling, the American president took time out to chat with the 10 astronauts currently aboard the ISS.

Israeli aircraft struck Gaza overnight for the fourth time in as many days, wounding an activist who was about to fire a rocket, Palestinian security sources said on Saturday.
The Palestinian was admitted to hospital but his injuries were not life-threatening, the sources said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Friday said that the recognition by Western and regional powers of the rebel National Transitional Council was of no significance.
"Recognize the so-called National Transitional Council a million times: it means nothing to the Libyan people who will trample on your decisions," he said in a message to thousands of his supporters in Zliten, 150 kilometers east of Tripoli.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said Syria cannot return to the way it was before unprecedented anti-regime protests, but how the situation would evolve remained unclear.
"We have said that Syria can't go back to the way it was before," Clinton said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Libyan contact group in Istanbul.
