European Union nations offered shelter to a majority of the Syrians seeking refuge from conflict last year but to less than one in three people fleeing Afghanistan, Africa or elsewhere.

Of the 50,000 Syrians who fled to the 28-nation bloc, some 35,000 were granted immediate protection -- accounting for a quarter of the 135,000 people given asylum across Europe last year, the EU's Eurostat agency said Thursday.

A global rights group denounced Thursday abuses committed in predominantly Kurdish areas of Syria, accusing the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) of arbitrary arrests and failing to address unsolved killings.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the PYD has also recruited children into the police force and its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

The Maronite bishops synod reiterated on Thursday Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's stance regarding the ongoing presidential vacuum, considering that the delay in electing a new head of state violates the constitution and the national pact.

“The absence of the head of state poses a threat to the country,” the synod said after its annual retreat.

With Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters, flags and emblems everywhere, there is no mistaking who controls the north Syria city of Raqa.

Fighters from ISIL, the jihadist group that is now spearheading an offensive in Iraq, already regard the city that is strategically placed in the Euphrates valley as their "capital", activists say.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat reiterated on Thursday his support for the nomination of MP Henri Helou for the presidency, saying that he acts as a moderate figure when compared to other nominees, reported the Egyptian daily al-Ahram.

He told the daily: “We will not withdraw Helou's nomination for the sake of others regardless of what agreements are made. This is democracy.”

An international rights group says Kurdish authorities ruling three enclaves in northeastern Syria have committed abuses, included arbitrary arrests of political opponents.

Human Rights Watch says the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, has abused its opponents in detention, and has failed to address abductions and unresolved killings in areas it controls.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Thursday said she was deeply concerned about 150 Australians learning the "terrorist trade" fighting alongside Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria.

The country's top diplomat was briefed by her intelligence analysts this week on the number of Australians, some dual citizens, taking up arms alongside rebel groups.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said Wednesday terrorism will strike back against the West and other countries that "supported" attacks in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Ever since a revolt broke out in March 2011, Assad has blamed all violence in Syria on a foreign-backed "terrorist" plot.

Prime Minister David Cameron warned Wednesday that militants making advances in Iraq and fighting in Syria were also planning to attack Britain.

"I'd disagree with those people who think this is nothing to do with us and if they want to have some sort of extreme Islamist regime in the middle of Iraq that won't affect us -- it will," Cameron told the House of Commons.

Pope Francis called Wednesday for concrete help for millions of refugee families around the world and sent his prayers to those forced to flee an insurgency spearheaded by Islamist militants in Iraq.

"The number of brother refugees grows and, over the past few days, thousands of others have been forced to abandon their homes to save their lives," he told the crowds in St Peter's Square during the weekly general audience.