The Netherlands and several Western allies have dropped their call for an international Commission of Inquiry to monitor human rights violations in war-torn Yemen.

A revision to a Dutch- and Canadian-led resolution Thursday at the Human Rights Council signaled the diplomatic heft of Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations who have helped fight rebels in Yemen and oppose any such commission.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is making his second trip to China since taking office in February, and relations between the two world powers have rarely mattered so much.

The standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons has entered a new, dangerous phase as its leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump exchange personal insults and threats of war with no sign of a diplomatic solution.

Hassan Youssef was 10 years old when a local Syrian composer discovered his talent: a deep powerful voice that was particularly resonant for traditional songs.

It wasn't long, however, before Syria's grinding civil war nearly shattered Youssef's hope of polishing his natural gift. He and his family left their home in a suburb of Damascus and traveled to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to become one of the millions of Syrians living in refugee camps around the region.

President Michel Aoun has said from Paris he wants some 1.5 million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon to henceforth start returning to their homes, voluntarily or not.

Aoun, in a state visit to France, said that U.N. assistance given to aid Syrian refugees in "camps of misery" in Lebanon would be better used to return them to their country "from now on."

Iran is working to restore a lost link in its network of alliances in the Middle East, trying to bring Hamas fully back into the fold after the Palestinian militant group had a bitter fall-out with Iranian ally Syria over that country's civil war.

The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates says Iran's "hostile and expansionist policy" is the major obstacle to solving all crises in the Arab world.

Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan accused Iran of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and supporting "terrorist groups," including Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hizbullah, the Lebanese group fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

The federal government on Friday told election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems before last year's presidential election.

The global number of nuclear warheads dropped last year, but it seems China, India, North Korea and Pakistan are expanding the size of their atomic arsenals, a Swedish arms watchdog said Thursday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says developments in North Korea's nuclear program "contributed to international political instability with potentially serious knock-on effects."

President Donald Trump is considering a further reduction in the number of refugees allowed into the United States as the administration works to re-shape American immigration policy, officials say.

Trump has already slashed refugee admissions once since taking office. Now he faces a decision on how many to admit in the next budget year.

President Donald Trump's suggestion that refugees be resettled closer to home instead of brought to the United States has angered many in Lebanon, a tiny country hosting more than 1.5 million refugees.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri said "everyone knows Lebanon rejects resettling Palestinians or any other nationalities."