Libyan authorities said Tuesday that government forces have arrested a senior Islamic State group (IS) figure in an operation south of the capital Tripoli.

Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah of the North African country's interim government wrote on Twitter that the capture of Embarak al-Khazimi was "a great success for our security forces".

Moroccans head to the ballot box on Wednesday for parliamentary and local elections that will decide the fate of Islamists who have governed the kingdom since the Arab Spring uprisings.

Doors will open at polling stations at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and close at 7:00 pm for the 18 million on the electoral roll, who will vote for 395 MPs and more than 31,000 local and regional officials.

The trial in Egypt of Hossam Bahgat, one of the country's most prominent human rights advocates, for a tweet criticizing alleged electoral fraud, was postponed Tuesday, his lawyer said.

Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, is already banned from travelling and his assets have been frozen because of a separate case in which he remains indicted.

Qatar said the Taliban have demonstrated "pragmatism" and should be judged on their actions as the undisputed rulers of Afghanistan, but stopped short of announcing formal recognition of the Islamists.

Qatari Assistant Foreign Minister Lolwah al-Khater told AFP in an exclusive interview that it would be up to the Afghans to determine their future, not the international community.

Workshops in Syria's Aleppo used to clatter on into the night before the war, but these days the machines grind to a halt at 6:00 pm sharp because of power cuts.

Fighting ended almost five years ago in the country's former economic hub, but limited electricity supply has hampered a full return to work in its manufacturing neighborhoods that produce everything from plastic to food.

Israeli authorities remained short on answers Tuesday over how six Palestinian prisoners' escape from a high-security jail went unnoticed and where they could have gone, with a vast manhunt still underway.

The group's early-morning flight, through a hole made below a sink in a Gilboa prison cell to a tiny tunnel exit discovered by guards and police early Monday morning, sounds almost like a plotline from Israeli-Palestinian conflict drama "Fauda".

As night falls on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian protesters approach the border fence with Israel, carrying homemade stun grenades and Molotov cocktails to hurl toward the enemy soldiers.

The aim of these so-called disruption operations, sponsored by the Islamist armed group Hamas that rules Gaza, is to harass the Israeli border forces -- but analysts warn it is a dangerous game.

Government shelling of rebel-held areas in northwestern Syria killed four people, including a child and a woman, and wounded more than a dozen Tuesday night, opposition activists said.

The shelling of the city of Idlib came after several airstrikes hit the region that borders Turkey earlier in the day.

A Jordanian soldier killed in the 1967 Middle East war was given a military funeral and laid to rest in east Jerusalem on Monday, in an extraordinary scene that pointed to improved ties between Israel and Jordan after years of tensions.

The soldier's remains were discovered last month during construction work at Ammunition Hill, the site of a famous battle between Israeli and Jordanian forces. Funeral prayers were held at the Al-Aqsa mosque and a Jordanian honor guard in uniform, with red-checkered headscarves wrapped around their faces, carried the casket to a nearby Islamic cemetery.

With the help of the United Nations, authorities in Iraq are taking measures to prevent voter fraud in national elections next month, the U.N. envoy to Iraq said Tuesday.

However, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert stressed that Iraqi political parties and candidates must abstain from intimidation, voter suppression and bribes to ensure the October federal elections are free and fair.