Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET: President Barack Obama on Saturday rejected any denigration of Islam, but insisted there was no excuse for attacks on U.S. embassies as angry protests over an obscure, anti-Muslim film spread to Australia.

"I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

"Yet there is never any justification for violence .... There is no excuse for attacks on our embassies and consulates,” he added.

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Anti-American protests have swept the Muslim world in response to the film, which insults the Prophet Muhammad.

Libya president: 'Foreigners' involved in consulate attack

The death toll as a result of violence during protests in the Middle East and North Africa Friday rose from seven to nine with Tunisian officials saying four people -- rather than two as stated earlier -- died there. Three were killed by gunfire and the other died after being hit by two police cars, a senior hospital official told Reuters.

An attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others this week.

A day after Obama led a somber ceremony marking the return of the bodies of the Americans killed in Libya, Obama acknowledged that a surge of anti-American violence in the Middle East is disturbing.

Related: Suspected anti-Islam filmmaker questioned by Feds

The Pentagon had said it was sending Marines to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, following similar reinforcements to Libya and Yemen. But on Saturday, Sudan rejected the U.S. request to send a platoon the embassy in Khartoum.

"Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps," Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told SUNA, the state news agency.

Protesters on Friday entered the embassy grounds.

The Libyan attack and theU.S.-directed outrage have raised questions about Obama's handling of the so-called Arab Spring, a series of revolutions that have unseated entrenched authoritarian governments.

Related: At least seven reported killed in protests

The turbulence in the Middle East has had ripples in a tight U.S. presidential election, with Obama's Republican challenger Mitt Romney saying Obama has weakened U.S. authority around the world.

However, Obama repeated a vow to bring the attackers of the U.S. Consulate in Libya to justice. "We will not waver in their pursuit," he said.

The president also said the turmoil should not deter U.S. efforts to support democracy in the region or elsewhere.

"Let us never forget that for every angry mob, there are millions who yearn for the freedom, and dignity, and hope that our flag represents," he said.

The protests over the anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims," continued Saturday, spreading to Australia where authorities seemed taken by surprise as more than 400 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Consulate in Sydney.

Some of the chanting protesters carried placards reading "Behead all those who insult the Prophet."

Several streets, usually thronging with weekend shoppers, were blocked off by police as the protest grew. Police, many wearing anti-riot equipment and some on horseback, used dogs and chemical sprays as they tried to control the protest.

Reuters Television pictures showed one policeman with a head injury being led away by colleagues. Police later said six officers had been injured and eight protesters arrested. A spokesman for paramedics said there were no serious injuries. 

A Muslim leader addressed the protesters in a park, calling for calm.

In Egypt, the interior minister said he would restore calm after a 35-year-old protester was killed and dozens of people were injured in clashes overnight.

The authorities closed the street leading to the U.S. Embassy where the demonstrators had spent four days throwing rocks and petrol bombs at police.

A Reuters reporter saw police push several young men into trucks. Two of the men looked bruised and one was stripped down to his underwear.

Police formed cordons on roads into Tahrir Square near the U.S. mission and plain-clothes officers wielding sticks frisked passers-by. The square, the focus of last year's popular uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, was strewn with garbage and a torched vehicle was towed away.

"Our presence here is to clear the square of people who are breaking the law," Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal el-Din said as he inspected the area. "We must preserve the square as a symbol of the revolution. That is the aim of our operation."

He said measures would be taken to ensure "those breaking the law" do not return.

The protesters said they wanted to expel the U.S. ambassador to punish Washington over the low-budget film. It portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and religious fake. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the film "disgusting and reprehensible."

Egypt's state news agency said 27 people were injured on Friday, which suggests more than 250 people have been hurt in the clashes since Tuesday, when protesters climbed the embassy's walls and tore down an American flag.

President Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt's first freely elected leader, has to strike a delicate balance, fulfilling a pledge to protect the embassy of a major aid donor while delivering a robust line against the film to satisfy his Islamist backers.

In Sinai, militants attacked an international observer base close to the borders of Israel and Gaza, a witness and a security source said. Two Colombian soldiers were wounded, an official from the observer force said.

Many Muslims regard any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous. The film has provoked outrage across the Middle East and led to the storming of several U.S. missions in the region.

In Libya, authorities said they had made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Morsi has condemned the film, rejected violence and promised to protect diplomatic missions. His cabinet said Washington was not to blame for the film but urged the United States to take legal action against those insulting religion.

The United States has a large embassy in Cairo, partly because of a vast aid program that began after Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Washington gives $1.3 billion in aid a year to Egypt's army plus additional funds for government.

In Yemen, al Qaida urged Muslims on Saturday to step up protests and kill U.S. diplomats in Muslim countries and called the film denigrating Muhammad another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam.

"Whoever comes across America's ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar's descendants (Libyans), who killed the American ambassador," Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said.

"Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony," it said in a statement posted on a website.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 8:30 a.m. ET: A medical team was heading to Antarctica on Wednesday in a bid to rescue an ailing American expeditioner.

The Australian team of five landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Wednesday night. Team members were monitoring the weather in Antarctica before flying on to McMurdo Station in their Australian Airbus319 aircraft by the end of the week, conditions permitting, officials with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the U.S. National Science Foundation told NBC News.

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The Australian Antarctic Division is a branch of the government's environment department.

Debbie Wing of the National Science Foundation told NBC News that a a U.S. C-17 aircraft was on standby in case the Airbus could not manage the trip.

From the archives: Why Antarctic rescues are so dangerous

The National Science Foundation had asked for help on the emergency mission and were in charge of the operation, AAD spokeswoman Patti Lucas Lucas told NBC News. Australian officials did not have any details as to the expeditioner's age or sex, she added.

McMurdo Station, established in 1955, is the largest Antarctic station, according to the National Science Foundation.

According to the U.S. Antarctic Program's website:

"McMurdo Station ... the main U.S. station in Antarctica, is a coastal station at the southern tip of Ross Island, about 3,864 km (2,415 miles) south of Christchurch, New Zealand, and 1,360 km (850 miles) north of the South Pole. The original station was built in 1955 to 1956 for the International Geophysical Year. Today's station is the primary logistics facility for supply of inland stations and remote field camps, and is also the waste management center for much of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Year-round and summer science projects are supported at McMurdo."

AAD director Tony Fleming earlier told the AFP news service that all countries with an interest in Antarctica "work together very cooperatively in these sorts of emergency situations in Antarctica to provide support when and as required."

Vast Antarctic ice sheet 'in play' with global warming

Similar evacuations from the icy continent rare, with the last such rescue having happened in October 2011, when an American scientist suffered a stroke at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and had to be airlifted out. 

Around 30 countries operate permanent research stations in Antarctica, the AFP reported. 

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Australia's foreign minister privately warned Sunday that foreign leaders see "America in decline," Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said.

Romney said he met with Foreign Minister Bob Carr in a San Francisco hotel Sunday night shortly before a Republican fundraiser.

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He said Carr suggested that America could improve that international perception "with one budget deal" that helps balance the budget.

"And this idea of America in decline, it was interesting [Carr] said that; he led the talk of American being in decline," Romney said at the fundraiser, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "And if they're thinking about investing in America, entrepreneurs putting their future in America -- if they think America's in decline they're not gonna do it."

The foreign minister requested the private meeting, a Romney spokesman said. The campaign would not say whether the two discussed foreign policy.

Risk and reward await Romney on foreign trip

Romney is scheduled to launch his first trip abroad as his party's presumptive presidential nominee later this week. He's set to meet with leaders in England, Israel and Poland.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SYDNEY, Australia - An Australian investment banker pleaded guilty Thursday to chaining a fake bomb to a young woman's neck in a bizarre extortion bid, before fleeing to the United States.

Paul Peters' lawyer Kathy Crittenden pleaded guilty on his behalf in a Sydney courtroom to a charge of aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offense by knowingly detaining Madeleine Pulver, 18.

 

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Pulver was alone studying in her family's Sydney mansion on Aug. 3 when the 50-year-old Peters, wearing a ski mask and wielding a baseball bat, tethered a bomb-like device around her neck. It took bomb squad officers 10 hours to remove it. The device contained no explosives and Pulver was not injured.

 

The man left behind a note demanding money, along with an email address. New South Wales state police have said surveillance footage showed Peters in several locations where they believe he accessed the email account.

Sydney to Kentucky: Cracking the 'collar bomb' case

Peters, who traveled frequently between the United States and Australia on business, was arrested at his former wife's home in Louisville, Kentucky, about two weeks after the crime. He was extradited in September to Australia, where he has remained in custody.

Peters appeared in court by video from prison Thursday. He showed no reaction when his lawyer entered the guilty plea.

Outside court, his lawyer Kathy Crittenden told reporters Peters was "profoundly sorry" to the Pulver family.

Why Peters targeted Pulver is unclear. U.S. federal court documents show Peters once worked for a company with links to her family, but the Pulvers have repeatedly said they don't know him.

At his U.S. extradition hearing in August, court documents from Australian police said a note attached to the chain attached to Pulver read:"Powerful new technology plastic explosives are located inside the small black combination case delivered to you. The case is booby trapped. It can ONLY be opened safely, if you follow the instructions and comply with its terms and conditions."

After X-raying the box several times and conducting other tests, bomb technicians determined it was harmless and removed it. 

'Wrong place at the wrong time'
Pulver, who has graduated from high school since the attack, and her parents were in court to hear the plea.

Her father, Bill, thanked police, prosecutors and members of the public for their support, and said the attack remains as mysterious and as "random to us in our minds as it did back on Aug. 3."

 "We are incredibly pleased with today's outcome," Bill Pulver told reporters after the hearing. "It is great comfort knowing Maddie won't have to endure the stress and anxiety of reliving the events of that terrible night.

"Today's guilty plea brings closure to a crime that remains a mystery and as random to us in our mind as it did back on August 3."

Pulver said his daughter was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"A poor decision by one man has prompted a truly extraordinary and inspiring response from many thousands of people and we will be forever grateful," he added.

Bill Pulver was once the president and CEO of NetRankings, a pioneer in tracking online exposure and readership for companies advertising on the Internet. He left after the firm was sold to ratings giant Nielsen in 2007. He is now CEO of Appen Butler Hill, a company that provides language and voice-recognition software and services.

Peters will appear in court next on March 16 for a pre-sentencing hearing. He faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

NBC News' Pete Williams, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated at 4 p.m. ET: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --  An Alabama judge on Thursday acquitted the man accused of drowning his newlywed wife during a honeymoon diving trip to Australia eight years ago, ruling that prosecutors did not prove the man intentionally killed his wife to collect on a life insurance policy.

Circuit Judge Tommy Nail issued his ruling before the defense had even presented its case in the two-week-long trial and before jurors were given the case to deliberate.

Gabe Watson, 34, had faced life in prison without parole if convicted of murdering his wife, Tina Thomas Watson, in 2003. He already served 18 months in an Australian prison after pleading guilty there to a manslaughter charge involving negligence.

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Nail agreed with defense arguments that prosecutors failed to show Watson intentionally killed the woman. Prosecutors claimed he drowned her for insurance money, but the only eyewitness testified he thought Watson was trying to save the woman.

The state's evidence was "sorely lacking" and did not prove Watson had any financial motive. "I don't think anyone knows for sure what happened in the water down there," Nail said.  

Defense attorneys had argued that Watson didn't stand to gain anything monetarily because Tina Watson's father was the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. They contended her death was an accident.

'So relieved'
Gabe Watson's father, David, hugged his son in the courtroom after the judge made his ruling. He said every court that had looked at the case determined Gabe did not intentionally kill his wife.

"I'm just so relieved. Hopefully he can put his life back together," David Watson said.

"I hope everyone can begin to heal. The rest of his life will determine his legacy. Gabe is a good kid."
 
Gabe Watson left the courtroom hand-in-hand with his second wife without commenting to reporters.

Tina Watson's father, Tommy Thomas, had testified earlier in the day. He described how his family's grief and shock over Tina Watson's death turned to suspicion of Gabe Watson. He testified that he got the news of his daughter's death not from Watson, but from the defendant's father more than a day later.

Prosecutor Don Valeska walked with his arm around Tommy Thomas, who appeared to be in shock and stunned by the judge's decision.

"It should have gone to the jury for them to decide," Thomas said of the judge's decision.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office had sought to have Watson convicted on charges that he planned his bride's death in Alabama, before the couple departed for their honeymoon.

Thomas had testified earlier that shortly after the death, his wife, Cindy, was worried about Gabe Watson's condition. However, evidence showed relations between Watson and his wife's family frayed quickly as the Thomases began having doubts about what happened and Gabe Watson began asking for Tina Watson's belongings.
  
Gabe Watson's father called to tell them about the woman's death more than 15 hours after she drowned, Thomas said, and Tina Watson's family never heard from Gabe Watson until they attempted to contact him through the U.S. consulate in Australia.

Thomas said that in a phone call from Australia, Watson claimed his wife gave him a thumbs-up underwater, indicating she wanted to go back to the surface. Watson said he was leading her back to a rope when she panicked, knocked off his mask and air hose, and began sinking, according to Thomas.

But during a later talk at a lawyer's office, Thomas said, Watson changed his story and said the woman indicated she wanted to go back to the rope leading to the top rather than go directly to the surface. Staring directly at Watson from the witness stand, Thomas said he asked his former son-in-law at that time: "When Tina gave him the thumbs up sign to go to the surface, why didn't he just take her to the surface?"

The judge blocked Thomas from testifying about Watson's alleged desire to increase the woman's life insurance policy, a blow for prosecutors who earlier had been barred from presenting other
evidence about Watson's actions after the death.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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