Middle East & North Africa

SANAA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- A UN cease-fire monitoring mission in Yemen's Hodeidah on Sunday began establishing control points to monitor a truce between Yemeni warring parties, a security source in the city said.

The temporary control points would be set up on four front lines in the east and south of the city to prevent escalation between the government forces and the Houthi rebels, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

KHARTOUM, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese army on Sunday accused an armed group in Darfur region of violating the cease-fire declared by Sudan's government, according to the army's statement.

"On Oct. 17, forces of the Sudan's Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdul-Wahid Nur attacked positions of our forces at Brobas area, some 8 km northeast of Kara area in Darfur," said the Sudanese army in a statement on Sunday.

"Our forces exchanged fire with the attackers and repulsed them," added the statement.

TEHRAN, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday announced the country's readiness for further cut of its commitments under the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement.

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that "we hope parties to the nuclear deal take special measures (to protect Iran's interests) pertaining to the deal, otherwise, we are ready to take the fourth step" to cut Iran's nuclear commitments.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey and Russia will discuss the removal of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the northern Syrian towns of Manbij and Kobani during talks in Sochi next week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday.

Turkey paused its military offensive into northeastern Syria after President Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday, in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, a five-day ceasefire to allow the YPG to withdraw from a “safe zone” Ankara aims to establish near its border.

AMMAN, Oct 20 (NNN-PETRA) – King Abdullah II of Jordan, met on Saturday, with a U.S. delegation, stressing the need to reach just, lasting and comprehensive peace, on the basis of the two-state solution, to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The meeting with the delegation, headed by U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, also covered the cooperation and strategic partnership between Jordan and the United States, as well as, regional developments.

DAMASCUS, Oct 20 (NNN-SANA) – The Syrian army, on Saturday, captured a previous U.S.-run base in the northeastern province of Hasakah, as part of an ongoing military deployment, in Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria, a military official said.

The army captured the former U.S. base in the village of Qasr Yalda, in the western countryside of Hasakah province, said the official.

LUXOR, Egypt, Oct 20 (NNN-XINHUA) – Egyptian Antiquities Ministry, on Saturday, unveiled 30 newly-discovered, well-preserved ancient coffins with mummies, in Upper Egypt’s Luxor.

“We have very famous cachettes in Luxor. Today, my colleagues in the ministry are adding a new cachette,” Egyptian Antiquities Minister, Khaled al-Anany, told Xinhua on the site, in al-Assassif necropolis.

He said, the cachette includes a collection of 30 colourful wooden sarcophaguses, noting that, the coffins are in a good condition of preservation.

CAIRO, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Egypt hosted on Saturday a meeting of members of the Libyan parliament to unite their visions and efforts for the settlement of war-torn Libya's crisis, official MENA news agency reported.

Held at the headquarters of Egypt's House of Representatives in Cairo, the meeting of Libyan lawmakers is the second such hosted by Egypt after a previous one in July.

ISTANBUL, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- After halting its military offensive on the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria following a deal with Washington, Ankara expressed satisfaction with the bargain, but analysts said Turkey's objectives are far from having been achieved.

Ankara stopped its operation immediately after the deal was struck between top-level Turkish and American officials in Ankara on Thursday evening.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria (all times local):

11:15 p.m.

A senior Syrian Kurdish official says his forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a U.S.-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town there.

Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said Saturday the plan for evacuation from the town of Ras al-Ayn is set for the following day, if there are no delays.