In his high-rise office in Beirut, Sandro Saade carefully chews a merlot grape from a vineyard hundreds of miles away in war-ravaged Syria, trying to determine if it is ripe enough to order the start of the harvest.

It's too dangerous for him to travel to the vineyards of Domaine de Bargylus, which is nestled in verdant hills where wine has been produced since ancient times. But despite the bloody conflict and the threat of Islamic extremists, he is determined to produce world-class wines, and to help preserve a Levantine cosmopolitanism imperiled by decades of war.

The call to prayers, a fixture across Egypt at sunrise, sounded more jubilant than ever as a country weary after years of turmoil began marking the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

In Cairo, typically smog-filled streets of honking cars stood empty and quiet, aside from the occasional bleat of a ram.

Blues guitarist B.B. King has canceled the remaining eight performances of his current tour after being diagnosed with dehydration and exhaustion.

King's official website says he fell ill Friday evening during a performance at the House of Blues in Chicago and was evaluated by a doctor.

Greek police say two Russians, both aged 23, were arrested Sunday for scaling a wall on the Acropolis and damaging it while doing acrobatics.

The two were observed by a guard preparing to scale the wall and were warned against it. They ignored the warnings, police say. As they scaled the wall and were doing acrobatic moves, several stones fell off of the wall, which is a medieval addition.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic won his fifth China Open title in what he called the most dominant final of his career, routing third-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-0, 6-2 on Sunday in a little over an hour.

Djokovic was one point away from handing Berdych a ''double bagel'' - a 6-0, 6-0 defeat - but the Czech player fought off match point, then broke Djokovic to win his first game. He raised both arms in celebration and smiled with relief as the crowd roared.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi attended at the Vatican on Sunday a landmark two-week synod of bishops on the family.

Pope Francis opened the synod of bishops from around the world, which will review Church teaching on the family and marriage.

An American nun credited with curing a boy's eye disease moved a step closer to sainthood Saturday in what church officials said was the first beatification Mass held in the United States.

A beatification Mass for Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, who died in 1927, was led by Cardinal Angelo Amato at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. Beatification is the third in a four-step process toward sainthood.

A virus that has been causing severe respiratory illness across the U.S. is responsible for the death of a 4-year-old boy in New Jersey, a state medical examiner determined.

Hamilton Township health officer Jeff Plunkett said the Mercer County medical examiner's office found the death of Eli Waller was the result of enterovirus 68. The virus has sickened more than 500 people in 43 states and Washington, D.C. — almost all of them children.

The U.S. Methodist church's highest court will decide later this month whether a minister who officiated at his gay son's wedding can keep his pastoral credentials.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer was defrocked following a church trial in southeastern Pennsylvania last year, then re-instated by an appeals panel in June. That decision was appealed to the Judicial Council, the church's highest court.

Jean-Claude Duvalier, who presided over what was widely acknowledged as a corrupt and brutal regime as the self-proclaimed "president for life" of Haiti until a popular uprising sent him into a 25-year exile, has died. He was 63.

Duvalier died Saturday from a heart attack at the home of a friend in Port-au-Prince where he had been staying, said his lawyer, Reynold Georges, and several officials in the impoverished nation.