Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has warned that a U.N. document demanding global standards to prevent violence against women is un-Islamic and would lead to the "complete degradation of society."

Governments and NGOs from around the world are to wrap up two weeks of discussions in New York on ways to end violence against women and children with the aim of reaching a consensus by Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his center-right partners have overcome differences with rightwing factions to pave the way for an accord on a new government on Friday, reports said.

Media outlets said that Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, and Naftali Bennett of Jewish Homeland renounced their demands for the post of deputy prime minister, a key obstacle to finalizing a coalition agreement.

Syria's devastating conflict entered its third year on Friday with EU leaders frustrated over the failure of diplomacy to end the bloodshed pressing to arm rebels despite Russia's objections.

The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, a key driving force behind the uprising, has called on people to take to the streets after the main weekly Muslim prayers under the rallying cry "Two years of sacrifice towards victory".

Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International lashed out on Thursday at Greece's treatment of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-ravaged homeland, with many locked up as illegal immigrants or reportedly facing police brutality.

"There is a total lack of a humanitarian response and solidarity" in Greece towards Syrian asylum-seekers, Willem de Jonge, general director of Doctors Without Borders in Greece, told Agence France Presse on the sidelines of a press conference.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said he had no plans for "immediately" releasing an Israeli jailed for spying who has been in prison since 1985, saying he was guilty of "a very serious crime."

"I have no plans for releasing Jonathan Pollard immediately," he said in an exclusive interview with Israel's private Channel 2 television, broadcast a week before the U.S. leader arrives on a historic three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The U.N. Security Council raised new concerns Thursday about arms flowing from Libya into neighboring countries and thousands of detainees held in secret by militias.

A resolution renewing the mandate of the U.N. mission in Libya highlighted "the illicit proliferation of all arms and related material of all types" since the fall of Libya's longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Gunmen on Thursday attacked an Egyptian Coptic church in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and started a fire, witnesses said.

"Several armed men arrived firing in the air, started a fire in the church and left," a resident near the church in central Benghazi told Agence France Presse, asking not to be named.

The balance of power in Syria will eventually shift to rebel forces but a protracted civil war risks destabilizing the whole region, a leading think-tank warned Thursday in its annual report on world military strengths.

Syria dominated an "increasingly complex" global security situation that also includes China's rise and a continuing increase in Asian defense spending, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said.

Ali Larayedh became Tunisia's new Islamist premier on Thursday, taking over from his predecessor Hamadi Jebali and faced with the task of ending a political and economic crisis gripping the country.

Speaking at the swearing in ceremony at the prime minister's office, Larayedh said his cabinet would listen to "the concerns of the nation and the people."

The Egyptian opposition is more determined than ever to boycott parliamentary elections after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi challenged a court decision delaying the polls, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday.

In an interview with Agence France Presse, Moussa said there had been no "serious talks" with the president on the opposition's core demand for a government of national unity despite the impact of the political deadlock on Egypt's faltering economy.