The United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Monday it needs $53 million (41 million euros) in donations to provide aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in war-torn Syria.

"We have around 300,000 to 500,000 (Palestinian) people who have been impacted by the conflict, and they require humanitarian assistance," UNRWA director for Syria Michael Kingsley told a news conference in Jordan's Dead Sea region.

President Mohamed Morsi met senior judges on Monday to defuse a bitter dispute over a power grab that has worsened a political crisis in Egypt less than two years after its Arab Spring revolt.

The crunch talks came on the eve of planned protests by rival forces, although the Muslim Brotherhood party from which the president hails withdrew its call for a rally out of fears that it would spark more clashes.

An Iranian MP has blamed the death in detention of blogger Sattar Beheshti on the country's cyber police, news agency Fars reported on Monday.

"The action taken by the judiciary in Beheshti's case was lawful, but the cyber police's infraction is indisputable," said Mehdi Davatgari, the parliament's special representative on the case.

Thousands of Egyptians on Monday turned out for the funerals of two Egyptian activists who were killed in separate clashes amid a political crisis that has polarized the country.

Thousands marched at the funeral procession of Gaber Salah, a member of the April 6 movement known by his nickname "Jika", who was critically injured in clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square last week and died overnight.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince on Monday assured cabinet members over the health of King Abdullah, 89, who underwent back surgery on November 18 and has since remained in hospital, state news agency SPA reported.

It said Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz chaired a cabinet meeting and "assured (ministers) over the health" of the ailing king, of whom no photograph has been released since his hospitalization.

The premier of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said Monday that dialogue, not force, holds the key to ending a crisis with Baghdad that has seen military reinforcements sent to disputed areas.

"I want to emphasize one point, which is that Iraq's problems will not be addressed by force," Nechirvan Barzani told a news conference in Arbil, capital of the autonomous region in northern Iraq.

At least 40 Tunisian Islamist prisoners are still on hunger strike, the justice ministry told Agence France Presse on Monday, hours after announcing that the almost two-week protest had ended.

"After checking, only some of the strikers have ended (their protest). We have no set number because it changes all the time," said ministry official Fadhel Saihi.

A Syrian warplane launched three bombs or rockets at a rebel command center in the northwest of the country near the Turkish border on Monday without causing casualties, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

The aerial attack on the town of Atme occurred around 10:00 am (0800 GMT), the reporter said from the site. The target was a school that houses a military command and the Damascus Eagles rebel brigade.

Kuwait on Monday issued a permit to allow the opposition to stage a demonstration on the eve of a disputed general election, the Interior Ministry and activists said.

"We found the request submitted by the organizers fulfilled conditions set by the interior ministry and accordingly we issued the necessary license," Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adel al-Hashash told a news conference.

Syrian rebel officers have formed a commission to lay the foundations for a future army and liaise with the political opposition on issues such as arming fighters on the ground, a spokesman said on Monday.

The announcement came in a video posted to YouTube on Sunday which shows some 50 Free Syrian Army officers wearing military fatigues assembled in a dimly lit basement room, one of whom reads a statement listing the objectives and basic principles agreed on during their gathering.