Shiite Muslim militiamen from Afghanistan have been fighting in Syria for months alongside President Bashar Assad's troops, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded a Pakistani for heroin smuggling, the interior ministry said, in the conservative kingdom's latest execution of a foreigner.

Mohammed Ghafour Hashim Khan was convicted of smuggling "a large amount" of heroin into the country, the ministry said in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

With the Palestinians seeking to bring negotiations with Israel to a head, France has sought to insert itself as a moderating force that can break American dominance over the peace process.

"If there is a moment when France can do something, it's now," said Hasni Abidi, a Middle East expert based in Geneva.

Syria's passport office has recorded a sharp rise in applications since civil war broke out nearly four years ago, a pro-regime newspaper reported Wednesday.

"A thousand passport applications are being made a day in Damascus and its province, including 200 by people aged under 18," said a passport authority official quoted by Al-Watan daily.

Luxembourg's parliament voted Wednesday to urge the government to recognize a Palestinian state -- the latest in a series of similar moves around Europe aimed at pressuring Israel to move forward the peace process.

Six months after Abdel Fattah al-Sisi became Egypt's president after crushing his opponents, criticism of his regime is either whispered or left unspoken amid stifling curbs on freedom of expression.

The European Parliament overwhelmingly backed the recognition of a Palestinian state "in principle" on Wednesday, following a series of votes on the issue in EU nations that have enraged Israel.

Twenty-sex men suspected of having organized or taken part in homosexual orgies at a public bath in Egypt are to go on trial for "debauchery", a judicial official said Wednesday.

He said the men were arrested on December 7 at a hammam in the Azbakeya district of central Cairo and are to go on trial Sunday.

A British inquiry set up to probe allegations of atrocities carried out by UK troops in Iraq in 2004 cleared them of the most serious claims but found they had mistreated nine detainees.

The report said that some of the soldiers had used "tactical questioning" techniques including food and sleep deprivation on their prisoners in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Iraqi Kurdish forces launched a broad offensive on Wednesday aimed at recapturing areas near the Syrian border that have been held by the Islamic State group for months, officials said.

Among the goals is the Sinjar area, which was home to many members of the Yazidi minority before IS jihadists attacked in early August and forced most of them to flee.