A wave of attacks in Baghdad Thursday killed 57 people as Iraq faced a political crisis, with its vice president accused of running death squads and the premier warning he could break off power-sharing.

The apparently coordinated blasts, which left 176 people wounded, were the first major sign of violence in a crisis that has threatened the country's fragile political truce and heightened sectarian tensions just days after U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq.

At least 22 people were killed on Wednesday in clashes in the southern Syrian province of Daraa, where the protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in March, a rights group said, as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about the mounting death toll.

"Twenty-two people -- six deserters, a civilian and 15 members of the armed forces and security forces -- were killed and several dozen civilians were wounded in their homes," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The United States on Wednesday warned of new international measures to halt Syria's bloody crackdown on protests after reports that more than 200 people had been "massacred" in two days.

The White House said if Damascus did not fully implement an Arab League plan to contain the violence, "the international community will take additional steps to pressure the Assad regime to stop its crackdown."

Egypt's foreign minister on Wednesday slammed foreign "interference" following impassioned comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the stripping and beating of a female protester.

"Egypt will not accept any interference in its domestic affairs," Mohammed Amr told reporters.

Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo were mulling on Wednesday ways to reactivate their national parliament, which has been paralyzed since 2007 following the split between the West Bank and Gaza.

All the main factions, led by the former rivals Hamas and Fatah, are meeting in the Egyptian capital to thrash out ways of implementing a reconciliation deal that was signed in May but has never been implemented.

Human Rights Watch urged Jordan's Prime Minister Awn Khaswaneh on Wednesday to probe the death in custody of a 20-year-old Jordanian man, who allegedly helped two Syrians buy arms.

It called for an "independent inquiry into the death of Najem Zuhbi ... when in detention at the military intelligence offices in Amman, on November 16, 2011," in a letter to the prime minister.

Thousands of Yemenis are marching 270 kilometers from Taez to the capital Sanaa demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh's trial for alleged crimes against anti-government protesters.

The demonstrators, who are being joined by fellow Yemenis from towns and villages along the road to Sanaa, began their journey on foot on Wednesday morning and are expected to reach the capital on Sunday.

Five Iranian technicians working on a power plant project in Syria were abducted on Tuesday by an unidentified group of people, the Iranian embassy in Damascus said Thursday.

Earlier, Iran's Mehr news agency said the kidnap took place on Wednesday.

France denounced Wednesday what it said was the "unprecedented massacre" of 120 people by Syrian forces and urged Russia to accelerate talks for a U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis.

At his regular briefing, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said: "Everything must be put in motion to end this murderous spiral into which Bashar Assad is dragging his people, deeper each day."

Two Egyptians accused of murdering a Filipino were beheaded by the sword in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, said the interior ministry.

The pair, Wael al-Sayed and Rizq Rajab, lured the Filipino driver by saying they wanted to rent his truck before killing him and stealing the vehicle, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.