U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held talks Friday with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan on the stalled Middle East peace process, officials said.

Kerry was attending an investment conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh along with hundreds of prominent figures to jumpstart its economy.

U.N.-mediated talks in Morocco between Libya's rival parliaments aimed at forming a national unity government will resume Wednesday, a lawmaker for the internationally recognized legislature said.

Mohammed Sharif Elouafi spoke after U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon held a new round of consultations Friday with representatives of the rival legislatures.

Tunisian authorities arrested a popular comedian and a television show host Friday for offending President Beji Caid Essebsi, whose office promptly denied it had anything to do with the case.

"The prosecutor has decided to place in detention" satirist Migalo, whose real name is Wassim Lahrissi, and television host Moez Ben Gharbia, prosecutor's office spokesman Sofiene Sliti said.

Whoever ends up forming a government after Tuesday's election in Israel will face the daunting task of repairing the country's frayed international ties, experts say.

Incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aggressive style has strained relations with Israel's foreign partners -- including closest ally the United States -- leaving the Jewish state increasingly isolated.

Israeli troops opened fire on more than 100 Palestinian protesters in the northern West Bank on Friday, an AFP correspondent said, wounding at least one person.

Soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinian youths who hurled stones at them at the entrance to the Jalazun refugee camp north of the city of Ramallah, the correspondent said.

Final opinion polls on Friday put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party four seats behind its center-left rival with four days to go before a general election.

Several polls released Friday -- the last day opinion surveys can be released before Tuesday's vote -- showed the Zionist Union pulling further ahead of Likud after an intense campaign.

Countries should seek dialogue with the Islamic State group in war-torn Syria to help aid workers gain access to areas under its control, the U.N. children's agency said Friday.

The militants have so far refused to talk with a range of United Nations agencies trying to send aid into areas under their control, making it difficult to help or even estimate the needs.

Hundreds rallied in Yemen's militia-controlled capital Friday to call for presidential elections and demand the son of ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh run as a candidate.

Sanaa has been under the control of the Shiite militia, known as Huthis, since September, and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has fled to the southern city of Aden after escaping house arrest in the capital last month.

Wearing a camouflage uniform with militia patches and a green headband, Nawar Mohammed is the image of an Iraqi Shiite fighter except for one detail: he is Sunni.

Mohammed is one of some 250 Sunni residents of Al-Alam who joined Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia with a fearsome reputation for kidnappings and killings targeting their community, to battle the Islamic State group after it seized their town.

Nearly 13,000 Syrians, including 108 children, have been tortured to death in government prisons since the uprising began in March 2011, a monitoring group said Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12,751 detainees in government detention centers had died from torture during the conflict.