Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi on Saturday attacked Palestinian Authority "censorship" after authorities in Ramallah shut down websites criticizing President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Palestine should not promote censorship, whether on the Internet or in other forms of communication," Ashrawi, an MP and Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member said in a statement.

Russia on Saturday said it backed delivering a "decisive rebuff" to "terrorists" operating in Syria a day after state television reported 11 people killed in a bomb blast outside a Damascus mosque.

"We are convinced that the terrorists operating in Syria need a decisive rebuff, and that all domestic and outside players need to prevent any support" from reaching the rebel forces, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Leading Egyptian dissident Mohammed ElBaradei on Saturday unveiled a new party he said was aimed at rescuing last year's uprising from a "tragic" transitional period under the ruling military.

The former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief and Nobel Laureate said the goal of his new Constitution Party was to "to rescue the great January revolution that has diverted from its course."

Saudi Arabia on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Egypt after angry protests outside his embassy over an arrested Egyptian lawyer, sparking a diplomatic spat which Cairo moved swiftly to contain.

State news agency SPA said the embassy in Cairo as well as the kingdom's consulates in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Suez were closed.

Hungary said two of its nationals were kidnapped in Syria on Saturday by unknown gunmen, adding that Budapest may dispatch agents to the region to collect further information.

"The Foreign Ministry and TEK (Hungary's Anti-Terrorism Center) confirmed that two men working in Syria were kidnapped on Saturday at dawn by unknown gunmen," said Peter Szijjarto, a spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a statement to MTI, the Hungarian state news agency.

Official Syrian newspapers accused U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Saturday of "encouraging terrorists" and U.N.-Arab envoy Kofi Annan of failing to deliver on his promises.

At the same time, Arab and other countries were denounced for ignoring bombings in Syria, which the regime attributes to "terrorists" and the opposition to the government itself.

Top Iraqi politicians, many of whom feel marginalized by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's style of governing, called on Saturday in Arbil for greater democracy in running the country.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Massud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdistan region, Iyad Allawi, the head of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, and Sunni parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, held a meeting in Arbil, the capital of Kurdistan in northern Iraq.

The foreign ministry on Saturday accused Turkey of provocation with its talk of asking NATO to help protect its border with Syria, saying such action went against the U.N.-backed peace plan.

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu continue to make provocative statements aimed at aggravating the situation in Syria and harming bilateral ties," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said.

Saudi Arabia has allowed the three widows and children of slain Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden entrance into the kingdom on humanitarian grounds, a Saudi-owned daily reported on Saturday.

Citing a senior Saudi official, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat said the kingdom "dealt with bin Laden's wives on humanitarian grounds," adding that authorities were confident that they and the children "were not involved in" the operations of the extremist group.

Israel's former security chief Yuval Diskin on Saturday accused top ministers of misleading the public about the chances any pre-emptive military action against Iran's nuclear facilities succeeding.

Diskin singled out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak for criticism over their increasingly bellicose comments in the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.