The son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been arrested in the Seychelles, the Tunisian authorities announced on Friday.

Sakhr El Materi, who was convicted in absentia for corruption by a Tunisian court, fled to Qatar after the mass uprising that toppled his father-in-law in January 2011, but the Gulf emirate agreed to expel him in September this year.

The United States will deploy two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey along with 400 troops to help defend its ally against potential threats from neighboring Syria, U.S. officials said Friday.

The move was part of a wider NATO effort to bolster Turkey's air defenses amid growing tension on the Turkish-Syrian border, with Ankara siding with opposition forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing bloc was seen as retaining its strong lead over its rivals in January 22 snap elections, according to polls published on Friday.

Top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily predicted that the joint list of Netanyahu's Likud party and the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would win 35 of the 120 seats in parliament, compared with 37 predicted by the paper two weeks ago.

Syrian leader President Bashar Assad is losing the fight against rebel forces and must be made to leave as quickly as possible, French President Francois Hollande said Friday.

"On the ground, the war is now turning against Assad and we should set ourselves this objective -- make Assad leave as quickly as possible," Hollande said as he went into a meeting of EU leaders where the Syrian conflict will be discussed.

Egypt's mainly secular opposition gathered for last-ditch protests on Friday against a new constitution it slams as divisive, but on the eve of a referendum it held back from urging a boycott.

The opposition National Salvation Front expressed "deep concern" over the vote called by Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, which is intended to complete the transition from veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak's rule.

Russia said on Friday that it had not changed and would not change its controversial stance on Syria, after a top Russian diplomat said the defeat of the Syrian regime was possible.

"We have never changed our position (on Syria) and we never will," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane said Thursday the kingdom would not tolerate the media implicating the king in political party rivalry, in reference to the withdrawal of an AFP journalist's accreditation.

The government decided to suspend Omar Brouksy's press accreditation on October 4, in response to a story he wrote that referred to the participation in a Tangiers by-election of candidates "close to the royal palace."

Israel's High Court ordered the military on Thursday to reconsider the route of a portion of its security barrier, which was to pass through the West Bank village of Battir, an environmental NGO said.

"The High Court this afternoon... ordered the military to present an alternative plan within 90 days," the Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) group said.

The jihadist al-Nusra Front claimed on Thursday that two of its men were responsible for a deadly suicide attack on the Syrian interior ministry the day before, via its official Twitter account.

"Thank God, we targeted the interior ministry building in Kfar Sousa district in Damascus at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, December 12," the extremist group Tweeted, adding that fighting had erupted inside the ministry.

Spain announced Thursday it had seized 28 million euros ($37 million) in financial products, luxury cars and buildings linked to ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt requested Spain's help under U.N. anti-corruption conventions to find and block assets owned by Mubarak, his family, top aides and their related companies, a national police statement said.