UN Syria envoy to visit China this week

UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will visit China this week, the Foreign Ministry announced on Monday, as Syrian President Bashar Assad kept up air strikes against rebels despite a U.N.-brokered truce that now appears to be in tatters.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that China appreciated Brahimi's mediation efforts in the Syrian crisis, but did not provide details about who he would meet on his two-day visit which begins on Tuesday. (Reuters)