A rocket fired at Israel on Saturday by Palestinian militants instead hit a house in the Gaza Strip, but there were no casualties, witnesses said.

It apparently exploded prematurely, damaging the house, the witnesses said, without being able to provide further details.

Egypt was set to further widen a row with the United States by announcing on Saturday that it would go ahead with a trial of foreign democracy activists, including 19 Americans, on February 26.

A court set the date for the start of the trial of 43 suspects -- who also include Serbs, Norwegians, Germans, Egyptians, Palestinians and Jordanians -- in a crackdown on NGOs accused of receiving illegal foreign aid, state media announced.

Embattled Syrian president Bashar Assad's forces unleashed their heaviest pounding yet of the central protest city of Homs, monitors said, as thousands rallied for his ouster.

The protesters emerged from mosques after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday, including in Damascus, following a call by Internet-based activists for a rally for a "new phase of popular resistance."

Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean after crossing the Suez Canal on Saturday to show Tehran's "might" to regional states, the navy commander said, at a time of simmering tensions with Israel.

According to Iran’s Mehr news agency the two warships have docked in the Syrian port of Tartus.

U.S. military and intelligence drones are reportedly monitoring the Syrian military's deadly crackdown on opposition forces and protestors.

U.S. defense officials told NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski that "a good number" of unmanned drones are monitoring the activities of the Syrian regime.

Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for "taking part in illegal demonstrations," bringing to 12 the number expelled over the past week.

The four were deported for "lying on immigration forms" as their "visas were issued for the purposes of tourism but all were participating in illegal demonstrations," the official BNA news agency reported late on Friday.

Yemeni troops killed three suspected al-Qaida members during overnight clashes around the southern city of Zinjibar, which was seized by the group in May, a military source said on Saturday.

"Two members of al-Qaida, including a local chief, died when a rocket hit their position in the suburbs of Zinjibar," the source said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun called on all sides in Syria to stop the violence and said elections should go ahead peacefully after Damascus talks with President Bashar Assad Saturday, state media said.

"The position of China is to call on the government, the opposition and the rebels to halt acts of violence immediately," Zhai said, adding that it was vital that "calm be restored as quickly as possible as that serves the interests of the Syrian people."

Several hundred Iranian exiles arrived at a U.N.-approved site near Baghdad on Saturday, a first step in a process that aims to see them resettled outside Iraq, where they have been based for decades.

The move is part of a December 25 deal between the U.N. and Iraq, reached after extensive talks, under which around 3,400 Iranians opposed to the regime in Tehran are to move from their long-time base, Camp Ashraf, to a new location called Camp Liberty, with the aim of eventually moving them to other countries.

Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi accused some Arab states he did not identify Friday of helping to fund terrorism, and expressed concern about security at the Syrian border.

"Businessmen from some countries in the region, with the help of their governments, are providing significant funds to terrorist groups in Iraq," Assadi said in an interview with state television.