Bahraini police wounded several people on Saturday morning when they fired sound bombs, tear gas and bird shot to disperse dozens who protested across several Shiite areas, witnesses said.

"Down Hamad," chanted dozens of supporters of the youth group of the "Revolution of February 14," referring to Bahrain's Sunni monarch. "The people want to overthrow the regime."

Russia will not approve the use of force against the Syrian regime at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday at a briefing in Moscow.

"We will not sanction the use of force at the United Nations Security Council," Lavrov said in televised remarks as he gave a briefing on Russia's proposal for an international conference on Syria.

Russia on Saturday pushed its proposal for an international conference on Syria to include Iran, despite skepticism from the United States.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was to give details on the plan for regional players to try to negotiate a strategy that would suit all Syrians at a briefing in Moscow at 1200 GMT.

Four members of the International Criminal Court were arrested and are being held in Libya, the tribunal said, calling on the authorities there to free them.

The ICC team had been held since Thursday, having travelled to Libya to meet Seif al-Islam, the detained son of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi, the statement said.

Leaders of the exiled Syrian National Council met in Turkey on Saturday to pick a new leader after the resignation of Burhan Ghalioun last month to avert divisions in the opposition bloc.

The vote came as Western powers moved to slap sanctions on Damascus amid mounting anger over a massacre in a central village blamed on regime troops and fears of a full-fledged civil war in Syria.

New fighting broke out in southern Libya on Saturday between members of the Toubou minority and government forces, the two sides said, with unconfirmed reports that at least five people were killed.

Tribal chief Issa Abdelmajid said the Toubou quarter of the town of Kufra came under shelling at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) by the Libya Shield Brigade, former rebels under government control sent to quell previous ethnic fighting.

Bahraini police wounded several people on Saturday morning when they fired sound bombs, tear gas and bird shot to disperse dozens who protested across several Shiite areas, witnesses said.

"Down Hamad," chanted dozens of supporters of the youth group of the "Revolution of February 14," referring to Bahrain's Sunni monarch. "The people want to overthrow the regime."

Five bombs exploded at a northern Iraqi oil field on Saturday morning, damaging two pipelines without affecting the country's vital crude exports, officials said.

The pipelines transport oil from the Bai Hassan field in the disputed province of Kirkuk to the Ceyhan pipeline that exports crude via Turkey.

Army shelling and gunfire killed at least 70 civilians in protest towns on Saturday, including women and children, a watchdog said.

According to the Syrian Local Coordination Committee, 29 were killed in Homs, 26 in Daraa, 20 in Latakia and one person in Hassaka, Aleppo and Daraya in Reef Damascus.

The Syrian army killed at least 23 civilians in two protest cities on Saturday, a watchdog said, as an international outcry mounted over a massacre in a central village.

U.N. observers who visited the village of Al-Kubeir, near Hama, said they witnessed blood on the walls and "a strong stench of burnt flesh," prompting Western governments to launch a push for tough new sanctions against Damascus.