After two days of U.N.-mediated talks in Geneva, two senior Libyan officials from the country's rival camps failed to reach an agreement on a constitutional framework for national elections, the United Nations envoy to Libya said.

According to Stephanie Williams, the U.N. special adviser on Libya, the influential speaker of the country's east-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, and Khaled al-Meshri, head of the government's Supreme Council of State, based in the west in the capital of Tripoli, could not reach an agreement on the eligibility criteria for presidential nominees.

Pro-government television presenters and state newspapers in Egypt are at the forefront of a "campaign against journalism", Reporters Without Borders (RSF) charged Thursday.

The media watchdog, in a report entitled "The Puppets of President" Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said Egyptian journalists were operating in an "unsustainable working environment", faced with "campaigns of hatred, denigration and defamation".

Some in Israel dismissed Yair Lapid as just another media star when the former news anchor, ad pitchman and soap actor launched his bid for political power a decade ago.

But the 58-year-old, who is set to become the Jewish state's next prime minister at midnight, has a history of surpassing expectation during a political career which, even by Israeli standards, has been turbulent.

Young musicians, dancers, actors and comedians from across the Arab world took to the stage in Tunisia to express their visions of freedom, more than a decade after the Arab Spring uprisings.

The show, performed under the stars at a seaside theatre in the resort of Hammamet and broadcast across the region, featured winners of an online video competition to complete the phrase: "I will only be free when..."

Israeli lawmakers dissolved parliament on Thursday, forcing the country's fifth election in less than four years, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid set to take over as caretaker prime minister at midnight.

The final dissolution bill, which passed with 92 votes in favor none against, ends the year-long premiership of Naftali Bennett, who led an eight-party coalition that was backed by an Arab party, a first in Israeli history.

Palestinian gunmen opened fire at Jewish worshipers on Thursday at a flashpoint holy site in the occupied West Bank, wounding an Israeli military officer and two civilians, the Israeli army said.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa said a Palestinian teenager was wounded by live fire and 16 others by rubber bullets in clashes with Israeli forces at the site near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, a frequent point of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

The world's top wheat importer Egypt said Wednesday it is to receive $500 million from the World Bank to alleviate the impact of war between its main suppliers Russia and Ukraine.

"The World Bank financing will support the government's efforts to meet food needs and enhance resilience to future shocks," International Cooperation Minister Rania al-Mashat said in a statement.

Syrian counter-narcotics units seized a record haul of 2.3 tons of the amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon, the interior ministry announced Wednesday.

Law enforcement officers had earlier discovered 249 kilos of captagon hidden in steel machinery inside containers ready to leave the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

A Palestinian gunman from the Islamic Jihad militant group was shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes Wednesday in Jenin, a flash point in the occupied West Bank hit by waves of recent violence. 

Mohammad Marei, 25, died from a bullet wound to the chest, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

Israel's parliament is expected to dissolve Wednesday, ending Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's year-long tenure and triggering a fifth election in less than four years that could see ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu reclaim power. 

Barring an 11th hour shock agreement to save the coalition or form a new government within the existing parliament, Bennett's eight-party alliance is due to end by midnight, installing Foreign Minister Yair Lapid as prime minister.