Thousands of soldiers continued sit-ins Tuesday for a second day in Yemen demanding the "official" ouster of the Air Force commander they accuse of corruption, Agence France Presse correspondents and military officials said.

They are demanding the dismissal of General Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, a half-brother of President Ali Abdullah Saleh who left Yemen on Sunday for the United States following a year-long uprising against his 33 years in power.

Syrian security forces killed 52 people across the country on Tuesday as troops stormed Hama following large protests in the flashpoint central city, activists said.

"The Syrian armed forces stormed the neighborhoods of Bab Qubli and al-Jarajmah in Hama, firing heavy machineguns," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian government on Tuesday approved a request from the Arab League to extend the mandate of an Arab observer mission monitoring the unrest in the country for an additional month starting January 24, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported.

“This came in response to the letter from the Arab League Secretary General requesting the Syrian government's approval of extending the monitors’ mission for one month,” SANA said.

Egypt's military ruler on Tuesday said the country's decades-old state of emergency will be lifted on Wednesday except in cases of fighting "thuggery," but human rights groups slammed the move as cosmetic.

"I have taken a decision to end the state of emergency, in all parts of the country, except in fighting acts of thuggery, starting on the morning of January 25, 2012," Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said Tuesday in a televised address.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed shock Tuesday at Iraq's execution of 34 people and called for an immediate suspension of the death penalty there.

Pillay said she was shocked at the lack of transparency over the executions, including two women, in Iraq last Thursday following their conviction for different crimes.

Libya's interim government met on Tuesday to discuss the deadly clashes in the former regime's bastion of Bani Walid as sources said calm returned to the town.

"The government is in a meeting to discuss the issue of Bani Walid," a source in the administration of Prime Minister Abdul Rahim al-Kib told Agence France Presse.

Syria said on Tuesday it will spurn further Arab efforts to resolve its political crisis, as Gulf states piled on pressure by deciding to pull out their observers and urging strong U.N. action.

The Arab League said its monitors would be confined to base from Wednesday unless Damascus gives its approval for the mission to continue for a second month after an informal extension ran out.

The committee tasked with drafting Syria's new constitution has decided to limit presidential terms to a maximum of two seven-year mandates, al-Watan newspaper said on Tuesday.

The draft constitution will be submitted to President Bashar Assad in "the coming days" before being put to a referendum, said the newspaper, which is close to the government.

The Arab League has formally requested a meeting with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to discuss its plan for resolving the Syria crisis and to ask for the Security Council's support, a senior League official said Tuesday.

The request was made jointly by the pan-Arab bloc's secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, and by Qatar's premier, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who chairs a League panel on the crisis, Arab League deputy leader Ahmed bin Helli told Agence France Presse.

Israeli forces overnight demolished the home of a Bedouin family near Jerusalem for the fifth time, along with four other structures in an unrecognized Bedouin village, an Israeli NGO said on Tuesday.

Israel's Civil Administration, the military body that oversees the West Bank, confirmed the demolitions.