A retired Palestinian security officer died on Sunday of injuries sustained after falling from a window while in Palestinian custody, security sources told Agence France Presse.

Osama Aql Mansour, 49, was pronounced dead at a Ramallah hospital, where he was transported suffering serious injuries. His brother told AFP he believed Mansur had been murdered.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Sunday for the U.S. to speed up the transfer of weapons to Iraq, which lacks the ability to defend its airspace or borders, six months after American troops withdrew.

The Iraqi premier also pointedly said during a meeting with General James Mattis, the visiting head of U.S. Central Command, that only the central government would decide which arms purchases would be made, in an apparent swipe at Kurdish complaints over the acquisition of F-16 warplanes.

Gun and bomb attacks north of Baghdad killed three people, including a young girl, and left 10 others wounded on Sunday, security and medical officials said.

In the restive ethnically-mixed province of Diyala, a spate of shootings and explosions killed two, among them the five-year-old child.

Turkey must stop accepting "illegal" transfers of crude oil from the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq or risk damaging bilateral ties, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh warned on Sunday.

His remarks were the latest sign of cooling ties between Ankara and Baghdad, as well as between the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region over oil exports.

Petrol bombs were thrown during the night by unknown attackers at a parking lot of a Saudi Arabian court in the kingdom's unrest-hit Shiite-populated east, an official and witnesses said on Sunday.

They said the bombs were thrown in the parking lot outside the compound of the court in Qatif district, setting the plastic shades that covered the area on fire.

Egypt's Health Ministry said Sunday that rescue services had retrieved 10 bodies from under the rubble of an 11-storey building that collapsed a day earlier in the coastal city of Alexandria.

"Ten bodies have been found under the rubble of the collapsed building in Alexandria," the Health Ministry said, adding that the search for survivors was continuing. Five people were found alive on Sunday, it said.

Iran, the main regional ally of Syria, said on Sunday it is ready to host a meeting between Damascus and its opponents aimed at solving the country's conflict.

"Iran is ready to host the Syrian opposition for dialogue with the Syrian government," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told Arabic-language Al-Alam television.

Syrian peace mediator Kofi Annan was due in Moscow on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin that come amid growing pressure on Russia to finally back the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

The Kremlin said Sunday the U.N.-Arab League envoy would arrive in Moscow on Monday and meet Putin the following day for talks in which "Russia will underscore its support the peace plan of Kofi Annan."

Israel is weighing measures to sanction an U.N. agency that works with the Palestinians over "illegal activities" including "illegal construction," media reported on Sunday, citing local officials.

Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel wants to "reassess" the role of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in particular in response to the agency's promotion of "illegal" construction in the West Bank.

Syria's regime on Sunday denied its forces used tanks and helicopters in an assault on Treimsa, saying what happened in the central village was the result of clashes with rebels and not a "massacre."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said 39 people were killed in Treimsa on Thursday, all but two of them armed men, and that government forces only used light weapons to target five buildings.