Around 1,000 Palestinians gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday to protest against U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the United Nations.

The protesters carried signs deriding the United States and Obama for his address, in which he reiterated his opposition to the Palestinians' attempt to win U.N. membership for their state, saying there was no "shortcut" to peace.

NATO can achieve its mission in Libya within the next three months, the commander of the NATO military operation, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard said Thursday.

Asked for an assessment a day after NATO allies extended their air campaign in Libya by another 90 days, Bouchard said at a press briefing in Brussels: "I'm highly confident we can complete this mission well within this timeframe."

Troops advancing on Moammar Gadhafi's hometown Sirte from the east have put off any offensive for a week for lack of ammunition, a brigade commander told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

"Fighting has been stopped for a week. We are facing a shortage of ammunition," said Commander Mustafa bin Dardef of the Zintan Brigade, whose troops are deployed on the front line 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Sirte.

Palestinians on Thursday slammed U.S. President Barack Obama's address to the U.N. General Assembly, calling it a display of U.S. bias towards Israel.

Commentators, politicians and ordinary Palestinians alike said Obama's speech on Wednesday, just days before the Palestinians apply to become a U.N. member state, showed Washington was incapable of serving as a fair broker between Israel and the Palestinians.

Three security officials were killed in two separate attacks attributed to Kurdish rebels in east and southeast Turkey, local security sources said on Thursday.

Clashes with Kurdish rebels late Wednesday in a town in Van province in eastern Turkey resulted in the death of two Turkish security forces and left three others wounded, added the sources.

Syria said on Thursday that "terrorists" had killed five security force members and wounded 17 in the restive area of Daraa while pro-democracy activists said three civilians were killed in Homs, another hub of protest against President Bashar al-Assad.

Activists also said the authorities had blocked mobile phone signals and the internet in parts of Damascus province, at Saqba, Jisrin, Kafar Batna, Hamurieh and Ain Tarma.

Former TV journalist Shelly Yacimovitch who was elected as head of Israel's Labor, beating former union boss Amir Peretz, on Thursday urged Israelis to join her in rebuilding the country.

The 51-year-old secured 56 percent of the vote in a run-off contest on Wednesday, compared with 46 percent for Peretz, leaving her to take the helm of the ailing party, according to official results published early on Thursday.

The Palestinians are prepared to give the U.N. Security Council time to consider their bid for U.N. membership for a Palestinian state, a top Palestinian official said Wednesday.

President Mahmoud Abbas will give "some time to the Security Council to consider first our full membership request before heading to the General Assembly," Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told reporters.

U.S. President Barack Obama's pick to be ambassador to Bahrain said Wednesday that the kingdom should respond to unrest there "not through repression, but through genuine reform and reconciliation."

"Political reform and respect for human rights are vital to Bahrain's stability and to the protection of U.S. interests in the region," Thomas Krajeski told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a confirmation hearing.

Dozens of people were killed and wounded when pro-Gadhafi forces shelled the al-Jufra oasis town of Hun, southwest of Tripoli, witnesses told Agence France Presse in the Libyan capital on Wednesday.

"There are dozens of people killed and wounded in the town and we cannot reach them because of the fierce bombardment," one witness told AFP by telephone.