Egypt on Friday blasted Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes in an east Jerusalem settlement as a "major obstacle" to the start of new peace talks with the Palestinians.

"We cannot accept this, we condemn it categorically," Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr said in Berlin during his first European visit since taking office last month, according to remarks translated into German by an interpreter.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is halting humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip over alleged meddling by the enclave's rulers, Hamas, a U.S. official said Friday.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Egypt, tensions between Washington and the country's ruling generals were sparked on news that a notorious Egyptian intelligence apparatus is probing foreign funding of civil society groups.

Russia on Friday said Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes in an east Jerusalem settlement would worsen an already explosive situation in the Middle East peace process.

The decision to build new homes in the area "cannot but arouse serious concern and disapproval," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

Hundreds of thousands flooded Yemen's streets Friday seeking victory against "tyrants," a day after President Ali Abdullah Saleh said a Gulf Cooperation Council proposal for power transfer should be treated positively.

"God most merciful, grant us victory in (the Muslim holy fasting month of) Ramadan," protesters chanted in Sittine Road, in a western district of the capital Sanaa.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called on his Syrian counterpart to implement overdue reforms before it is too late, in a letter handed over to Bashar al-Assad by Turkey's foreign minister.

"I would not want you to look back some day and regret that you acted too little and too late," the Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying in his letter.

A court sentenced 25 relatives of Tunisia's ousted leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to jail Friday, most of whom were caught trying to flee with cash and jewels at the climax of January's revolution.

In one of several trials of figures from the toppled regime, the court in Tunis also issued fines totaling 200 million dinar (more than 100 million euros) for Ben Ali's family and his wife Leila Trabelsi.

Syrian security forces opened fire Friday killing 18 people as thousands of anti-regime protesters poured onto streets of flashpoint cities after the Ramadan weekly prayers, rights activists said.

Undaunted, protesters also took to the streets after the Tarawih evening prayers in several suburbs of the capital Damascus and in Homs, Deir Ezzor, Latakia, Hasakeh, Daraa and many other regions.

France on Friday condemned the arrest of the head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights and called for his immediate release.

"The arrest of Mr. Abdel Karim Rihawi... constitutes another unacceptable decision by the authorities in Damascus and goes directly against the expectations of the international community," the foreign ministry said.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed alarm over the rising number of civilian casualties in the Libya conflict, including those inflicted in NATO airstrikes.

Without specifically naming any side, Ban called on "all parties" to use "extreme caution" in the battle, said a U.N. statement. Ban also stepped up calls for a political solution to the conflict, in which rebels have sought to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi's four-decades-old regime.

President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree toughening sanctions on Libya five months after the measure was passed by the U.N. Security Council in March, the Kremlin said Friday.

It was not immediately clear why Medvedev signed the decree implementing the sanctions so long after Resolution 1973 was passed.