RAMALLAH: The UN is leading efforts to calm the situation in Nablus and Jenin in the West Bank, Tor Wennesland, UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, tweeted in an announcement on Sunday. 

Wennesland said he held constructive meetings on Oct. 15 in Nablus and Jenin with influential figures to discuss the deteriorating security situation, and ways of restoring calm and pursuing a political solution.

He also stressed the need to reduce tensions and focus on tangible, permanent steps to improve the situation.

GAZA CITY: Reham Hamouda makes a point of walking around her restaurant to ask if customers are satisfied with the offerings available in her women-only eatery.

Recently opened Sabaya VIP restaurant in Gaza City caters exclusively for female diners.

“The restaurant was an idea, and it became a reality. There is financial independence for me and other female workers in this restaurant. All of them are women too,” Hamouda told Arab News.

AL-MUKALLA: At least three passengers died and dozens more were injured, some seriously, after a bus carrying 47 people plunged off a cliff in Yemen.

The vehicle reportedly slid off a muddy road between the besieged city of Taiz and the southern port city of Aden, sparking renewed calls for an end to the Iran-backed Houthi siege of Taiz.

Local officials and media said the Mercedes-Benz coach, operated by Nur Transportation, was traveling down a steep road in Lahij governorate’s Al-Qabbaytah District on Saturday evening when the crash happened.

AHATLAR, Turkey: Sitting on the stairs of his house overlooking the Black Sea, the father of a dead miner accepts condolences from relatives and neighbors. His scarred Turkish village lost three of its young men in this Friday’s mining disaster.

Three out of 41 miners killed in the coal mine explosion in the town of Amasra on Friday were from Ahatlar, a village on its outskirts, where funeral services were held on Sunday.

RAQQA, SYRIA: It has been five years since the Syrian Democratic Forces hoisted their flag in the main square in Raqqa, which, for four years, had been the capital of Daesh. The streets and squares of Raqqa had witnessed horrendous atrocities — beatings, torture, beheadings, and other unspeakable acts.

Global media, which watched the operation to liberate the city with bated breath, almost immediately packed up and fled once Raqqa was freed from the terror group, leaving the people alone again in the rubble of their once great city.