A suicide bomb attack on a police station in eastern Algeria early Sunday injured 29 people, including two Chinese nationals, the on-line edition of the French language daily El Watan reported.

Mohamed Nedir, director of the university hospital in Tizi Ouzou, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the capital, said eight policemen were among the injured.

At least 26 people were killed as the Syrian military opened fire on the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Sunday, with warships and tanks joining the assault, activists said.

But the state-run news agency SANA denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, quoting its correspondent in there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.

Canada said Saturday it had expanded sanctions on Syria, including blacklisting a commercial bank and a mobile phone provider, to protest the government's brutal crackdown on protests.

The new sanctions include travel bans on four officials, including Mohammed Mufleh, head of military security in the flashpoint city of Hama, and Mohammed Makhlouf, an uncle of President Bashar al-Assad.

Egyptian tanks were rolling into a town near Gaza's border on Saturday for an anticipated operation against militants who attacked a gas pipeline to Israel and police stations, security officials said.

The officials said the tanks and more than 1,000 soldiers and policemen, deployed on Friday and Saturday, would try to restore order to a lawless section in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, and then move southwards to a mountainous region where armed outlaws were hiding.

Tens of thousands gathered for fresh demonstrations Saturday outside Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, after leaders of a hugely popular social movement called for rallies across Israel to protest high prices and living conditions.

At 9:00 pm local time (18:00 GMT), some 50,000 people were mobilized throughout the country, police said.

Around 1,000 women's rights supporters rallied in Tunis Saturday to the mark the anniversary of a key equal rights bill amid fears gender equality may suffer if political Islam rises in post-revolution Tunisia.

The Personal Status Code (CSP) passed on August 13, 1956 by the country's first president Habib Bourguiba that helped shape the 1959 constitution, was considered a groundbreaking document in the Arab world.

Rebels fighting east of Tripoli said they strengthened their grip on the town of Tuarga on Saturday, in a bid to create a buffer zone between Moammar Gadhafi's forces and the city of Misrata.

On the third day of an offensive, rebels from the port enclave of Misrata said they routed all but the last remaining pockets of resistance from loyalist forces.

The Libyan government insisted Zawiyah was under the regime's control on Saturday, dismissing rebel claims of having captured the port city on the road to Tripoli.

Zawiyah is completely under government control, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in the capital.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas revealed he held four secret meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres in a bid to revive stalled peace talks, a Palestinian official said Saturday.

He quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting of his Fatah party on Friday that: "I met Shimon Peres four times in Amman and London in an attempt to restart negotiations and the peace process on a correct foundation."

U.S. President Barack Obama joined key British and Saudi allies Saturday in demanding that the Syrian regime "immediately" halt its brutal crackdown on protesters.

During a telephone conversation, Obama and Saudi King Abdullah expressed their "shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.