The U.N.'s peace envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura arrived Monday in Damascus for talks with President Bashar Assad's government in a fresh bid to resolve the country's four-year war.

"Yes, he arrived," a member of de Mistura's team told AFP, without elaborating.

Rights group Amnesty International on Monday slammed world leaders for "condemning millions of refugees to an unbearable existence" and demanded they work closely to resolve the "worst crisis" since World War II.

"From the Andaman to the Mediterranean people are losing their lives as they desperately seek safe haven," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general, as the group published a report ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat does not intend to host Syria's Druze in areas where the sect is concentrated in Lebanon, sources said, as a PSP delegation visited Turkey to contain the repercussions of the killing of at least 20 Druze in the neighboring country.

Sources close to Jumblat denied to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily published on Monday reports that the PSP chief would host Druze from Syria in Lebanon's Shouf district to guarantee their safety.

An al-Nusra Front official has revealed that the Islamic State extremist group is plotting a terrorist attack in northern Lebanon in the coming weeks, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper said the official claimed on his Twitter account that the IS is planning for “a huge operation against the Lebanese army” in the northern city of Tripoli at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

The U.N.'s peace envoy to Syria said Sunday he would visit Damascus soon and renewed his criticism of the use of barrel bombs by President Bashar Assad's regime.

Without specifying when the visit would be, his spokesman said Staffan de Mistura "intends to raise with the Syrian Government the issue of protection of civilians, underlining once again the unacceptable use of barrel bombs."

Kurdish forces advanced Sunday to the gates of a Syrian town and clashed with Islamic State jihadists, an upsurge in violence that saw Turkey open its border to fleeing civilians.

Backed by Syrian rebel fighters and U.S.-led air strikes, the Kurdish militia pressed their offensive on the northern town of Tal Abyad, a strategic supply route from Turkey to IS' self-proclaimed capital of Raqa.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi lashed out at politicians Sunday, accusing them of steering the country according to their own interests and whims.

“No one has the right to deprive the country from it's head of state,” al-Rahi said during sermon from at Our Lady of Lebanon basilica in Harissa.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed grave dissatisfaction over the ongoing cabinet crisis, expressing fear over the fate of Syria after the attack against Druze in Syria's Qalb Lawzah

“Prime Minister Tammam Salam and I are on the same page,” Berri said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper Sunday, considering that they are tackling the matter "patiently."

Since opening its doors to Syrians fleeing war, Sweden has welcomed record numbers of refugees and a small but growing group are taking fast-tracks to jobs, bucking unemployment trends.

Rami Sabbagh, an energetic 31-year-old financial analyst, fled the Syrian capital Damascus after the regime of President Bashar Assad put his name on a wanted list for helping refugees from the city's bombed-out suburbs.

An Egyptian court Saturday ordered the retrial of 16 people sentenced to death or long prison terms for their involvement in the deaths of 25 policemen in the restive Sinai peninsula.

They were among 35 people accused of involvement in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a police bus in August 2013 that was travelling to Rafah, on the border with the Gaza Strip.