Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar Assad during a transitional period in Syria.

However, Yildirim told foreign media representatives on Saturday that Assad has no place in Syria's future.

Mosques are going up, women are covering up, and shops selling alcoholic beverages are shutting down in a changing Algeria where, slowly but surely, Muslim fundamentalists are gaining ground.

The North African country won its civil war with extremists who brought Algeria to its knees in the name of Islam during the 1990s. Yet authorities show little overt concern about the growing grip of Salafis, who apply a strict brand of the Muslim faith.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis are marching in support of Shiite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The Saturday march in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, was in support of a new combined governing council the rebels and Saleh announced late last month. The internationally recognized government and the United Nations rejected the council.

Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Africa on Monday for talks in Kenya and Nigeria on countering terrorism before visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Yemen.

Kerry first meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on regional issues including the upheaval in neighboring South Sudan and security in Somalia, where homegrown, al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab continues to launch deadly attacks in the capital.

Pakistan's army says its jets and ground forces have destroyed six militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region, killing nine "terrorists" in the latest operation near the Afghan border.

The military says its warplanes also destroyed an ammunition dump used by militants in the Khyber tribal region.

Communist rebels in the Philippines have fought one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies. Although less numerous and less violent than Muslim separatist rebels in the country's south, the Maoists have outlived successive Philippine administrations and held out against constant military and police offensives, relying on clandestine cells to pass on orders from exiled leaders.

The new Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has made peace with the rebels a priority, and a new round of marathon peace talks brokered by Norway opens in Oslo on Monday.

China and Myanmar have pledged to forge closer ties as "blood brothers" following Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to Beijing, her first diplomatic trip since taking power in March.

The neighboring countries said in a joint statement they would strengthen trade and cooperation on issues along the border, where fighting between Myanmar government forces and rebels have occasionally spilled over. There was no mention of progress, however, on a stalled $3.6 billion dam project in northern Myanmar primarily funded by Chinese energy interests, which was a key concern during the visit.

The Taliban seized a district on Saturday in the northeastern Kunduz province, where the insurgents briefly overran the provincial capital last year before being driven out by a counteroffensive, an official said.

Mohammadullah Bahej, spokesman for the provincial police chief, said the insurgents launched attacks from different directions on the district headquarters in Khan Abad. He says security forces are planning an operation to retake the area.

When news spread in early July that Indian troops had killed a charismatic commander of Indian-controlled Kashmir's biggest rebel group, the public response was spontaneous and immense. Tens of thousands of angry youths poured out of their homes in towns and villages across the Himalayan region, hurling rocks and bricks and clashing with Indian troops.

A strict curfew and a series of communications blackouts since then have failed to stop the protesters, who are seeking an end to Indian rule in Kashmir, even as residents have struggled to cope with shortages of food, medicine and other necessities. The clashes, with protesters mostly throwing rocks and government forces responding with bullets and shotgun pellets, has left more than 60 civilians and two policemen dead. Thousands of civilians have been injured and hundreds of members of various government security forces.

Democratic White House candidate Hillary Clinton has said that her "heart breaks" for the family of a man from Lebanon living in Oklahoma who police say was fatally shot by his neighbor.