Three Iraqi protesters were killed in the capital as thousands of anti-government demonstrators sought to shut streets across the country on Monday, their deadline for authorities to implement long-awaited reforms.

Rallies have rocked Iraq since October but fearing they would lose momentum amid spiraling regional tensions protesters last Monday told the government it had one week to meet their demands or they would escalate their demonstrations. 

World leaders including the presidents of Turkey, Russia and France opened talks on Sunday at a summit hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel aimed at ending the war in Libya.

Held under the auspices of the United Nations, the summit's main goal is to get foreign powers wielding influence in the region to stop interfering in the war -- be it through the supply of weapons, troops or financing.

More than 100 people were killed and dozens wounded in a missile and drone attack blamed on Huthi rebels in central Yemen, officials said Sunday.

Protests escalated across Iraq's south and its capital Baghdad on Sunday as demonstrators sealed off streets with burning tires in outrage at the government's slow pace of reform.

International players must stop interfering in the Libyan conflict, the UN's special envoy told AFP on Saturday, the eve of a summit of world powers to try to end the fighting in the North African nation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Europe it could face new threats from terrorist organisations if Libya's UN-recognised government in Tripoli were to fall, in an article published in Politico on Saturday.

Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Morocco of holding a dual Belgian-Moroccan  citizen in "inhuman" and "abusive solitary detention" for more than three years following his 2009 life sentence on terrorism charges.

If this weekend's Berlin summit on the Libya crisis goes according to plan, nervous European Union member states will come under pressure to provide forces to help monitor any truce.

The bloc's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has made it clear that Brussels does not want to be sidelined while Moscow and Ankara move boldly to oversee an end to the conflict on their terms.

Victims of increasing jihadist attacks, African states bordering Libya are pushing for more say in efforts to end the crisis in their northern neighbor whose conflict risks becoming a growing source of regional instability.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in a peace conference on Libya in Germany on Sunday, as world powers step up efforts to find a lasting ceasefire.