Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Monday that Lebanon will maintain its moderate identity, reiterating the government's policy of disassociation from regional developments.

He said: “The rise of the state in Lebanon cannot take place through involvement in regional conflicts.”

Pope Benedict XVI will join Twitter from December 12, with regular tweets in eight languages from the account @pontifex just in time for Christmas, the Vatican said on Monday.

"The first tweets will be answers to questions sent to the pope on matters of faith. The public can start sending them starting now," the Vatican said, adding that tweets would be in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

A China theme park in Australia featuring a full-size replica of gates to the Forbidden City and a nine-storey temple could rival the Sydney Opera House as a tourist drawcard, officials said Monday.

The planned Aus$500 million (U.S.$520 million) attraction moved a step closer after Wyong Shire Council in New South Wales signed a deal on Sunday to sell 15.7 hectares of land to the company behind the proposal.

The Central Asian state of Uzbekistan has with much fanfare put on display what it says is a lost masterpiece of Western art, a painting by Italian Renaissance master Paolo Veronese.

The painting, which Uzbek experts say is one of several versions Veronese painted portraying the lamentation after Christ’s descent from the cross, has gone on display at the Uzbek State Arts Museum.

A popular map on social networks depicting a "bleeding" war-torn Syria has emerged as the centerpiece of an exhibition in Dubai by digital artist Tammam Azzam.

The artwork -- simply a 4.5 square metre (48.5 square foot) map of Syria painted in red to indicate blood -- is one of various pieces portraying the carnage of the conflict while mocking the international community's inaction.

A Roman wall at Pompeii in southern Italy has collapsed, local archaeologists said Friday, in the latest in a series of accidents at the ancient city buried by a volcanic explosion 2,000 years ago.

The section of wall some two meters (seven feet)long was part of the ruins of a house at the sprawling site near Naples. The area has seen heavy rain in recent weeks, and previous collapses have been linked to bad weather.

A rare gold coin from the dying days of Korea's independence before the 1910 takeover by Japan will go on sale in New York in December, Bonhams auctioneers said Friday.

The 20 Won coin dated 1906 last sold just under two years ago for $155,250.

China has unearthed the ruins of an ancient palace near the tomb of the country's first emperor that was already famed for its terracotta soldiers, state media said on Saturday.

The discovery is the latest at the mausoleum, which dates back more than two millennia and became one of the greatest modern archaeological finds after a peasant digging a well stumbled upon the life-size warriors in 1974.

The region of Bremen in northern Germany on Friday said it would be the second of the country's 16 states to recognize Muslim holidays.

"I am delighted because Islam and Muslims are part of our city and part of our life," said the mayor of the city state, Jens Boehrnsen, after signing the deal with representatives of the local Muslim community.

A U.S. House of Representatives vote to offer permanent residency to foreign students graduating with advanced degrees in science and math from U.S. colleges and universities is setting the stage for a bigger battle next year on how to redesign the nation's flawed immigration system.

House Republicans, with the help of a minority of Democrats, are expected to prevail Friday in passing the STEM Jobs Act, which would provide up to 55,000 green cards a year to those earning masters and doctoral degrees from U.S. schools in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.