Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas have appeased fears that the donors conference, which is scheduled to be held in London next week, would encourage Syrian refugees to remain in Lebanon and pave way for their naturalization.

The conference has for the first time shown international commitment to consolidate economic and development projects, Bassil told An Nahar daily published on Wednesday.

Lebanon continues to suffer from public sector corruption despite a slight improvement since 2014, graft watchdog Transparency International (TI) said on Wednesday.

Lebanon ranked 123rd with a score of 28 out of a possible 100 in 2015 in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

Fueled by funding from Qatar, Paris Saint-Germain's crushing dominance this season has removed all suspense from the French league with 16 matches remaining.

Unless you are a PSG fan, the excitement factor has evaporated. PSG already leads closest rival Monaco by a colossal 21 points and has only setting domestic records to worry about.

The Spanish football league says it has extended the end of the January transfer window by three days to February 1 in a bid to coincide with the timing applied in other European leagues.

The league says in a statement Monday that the closing date for "the second registration period" for the 2015-2016 season is now set at Monday, February 1 at 23:59, "thus coinciding with the time limit set in most European professional leagues."

FIFA presidential candidate Gianni Infantino gained votes outside Europe on Monday when the 7-nation group of Central American soccer federations pledged its support.

The group, known as UNCAF, published a letter signed Monday by its federation presidents backing the UEFA general secretary in the Feb. 26 FIFA election to succeed Sepp Blatter.

Serena Williams attacked Maria Sharapova's strength and it helped extend her complete domination of their rivalry, earning the six-time Australian Open champion a place in the semifinals.

Top-ranked Williams beat Sharapova 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, her 18th consecutive victory and 19th in their 21 career meetings back to 2004.

Golden State's Stephen Curry scored 37 points and hit six 3-pointers in three quarters as the reigning champion Warriors showed they still rule the NBA's Western Conference by beating nearest rival San Antonio 120-90 on Monday.

The Spurs were chasing a win that would have left the conference's top teams only one game apart, but were never in the contest against a Warriors team that has now won 39 consecutive home games.

Faced with a chronic shortfall in Syria aid, the World Bank and other donors are promoting new ideas, including interest-free development loans for the hard-hit Middle Eastern countries that are hosting most refugees.

The idea was discussed at a meeting with top officials from regional host countries on Monday, ahead of next week's Syria pledging conference, where aid agencies and regional governments are expected to seek close to $9 billion for 2016.

Juventus closed in on another record as it beat Roma 1-0 in Serie A on Sunday to keep the pressure on leader Napoli, which won 4-2 at 10-man Sampdoria.

Paulo Dybala struck again to help Juventus secure an 11th successive league win and remain two points behind Napoli, while Inter Milan's woes continued.

Real Madrid dropped its first points under coach Zinedine Zidane in a 1-1 draw at Real Betis on Sunday, while Atletico Madrid failed to regain the Spanish league lead from Barcelona after finishing goalless against 10-man Sevilla.

Madrid could only muster a second-half goal by Karim Benzema to cancel out Alvaro Cejudo's stunner. Despite seeing his team fall four points adrift of the pace-setting pair, Zidane tried to be upbeat about Madrid's performance and prospects.