Lebanon

Serbia's First Deputy PM and FM has met with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

This is Dacic's first visit to Lebanon, and the talks focused on "improvement in relations between the two countries."

Syrian rebels, including Al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters, have fired hundreds of rockets and mortar shells on two besieged Shiite-majority villages in the northwestern province of Idlib, a monitor said July 21.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu July 21 to try to ease tensions over the Iran nuclear deal, as the Israeli leader urged lawmakers in Washington to reject the hard-won agreement.

Uruguay will take in a new group of Syrian refugees by the end of the year, officials said July 20, adding that the country was committed to helping alleviate a humanitarian crisis.

A total of 117 family members are being relocated to Uruguay from refugee camps in Lebanon.    

The deadline for the completion of the investigation of the 2012 Burgas bus bombing has been extended to August 25, according to a media statement of the Burgas District Prosecutor's Office.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a social media storm on July 16 after the release of a video showing her awkward interaction with a crying Palestinian girl threatened with deportation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a rare moment where she was directly confronted with the results of policies she champions, met with Reem, a Palestinian girl whose family faces the threat of deportation. In the televized meeting, she rubbed the shoulder of a crying teen who – according to the girl in fluent Germany – was one of “thousands and thousands” of refugees.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, celebrated her 18th birthday in Lebanon on July 12 by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls and called on world leaders to invest in "books not bullets". 

One of the worst but least told aspects of the four-year old Syrian civil war is the human tragedy of millions of Syrians who had to leave their homes to flee the violence committed by either the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad?s regime or terror organizations. The number of Syrians who have sought shelter in neighboring countries exceeds four million, according to the U.N.

The Turkish parliament approved on July 8 a motion authorizing the government to extend the mission of Turkey's troops in Lebanon under a United Nations' peacekeeping mission for one more year.