Power cuts that last up to 20 hours a day. Mountains of trash spilling into streets. Long lines at gas stations.

Foreign Minister Nasif Hitti announced on Monday his resignation from office in protest at the performance of the government, warning a lack of vision and a will to make changes risked turning the country into a “failed state.”

Hitti submitted his resignation to the prime minister and left the government house without making any comments. He later issued a strongly worded statement explaining his resignation, saying the government had failed to manage the crisis and implement the required reforms to save the country.

Iraq's government said Thursday that since last October when anti-government protests erupted in the country, a total of 560 protesters and members of the security forces have been killed in the violence.

The figure was reported by Hisham Daoud, an advisor to Iraq's prime minister, at a press conference in Baghdad. He said a fact-finding committee would investigate the killings further.

Small groups of pilgrims performed one of the final rites of the Islamic hajj on Friday as Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday amid a global pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of this year's pilgrimage and celebrations.

The last days of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia coincide with the four-day Eid al-Adha, or "Feast of Sacrifice," in which Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.

Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out power and caused flooding and small landslides across Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on Thursday, then strengthened into a hurricane late in the night while moving toward the Bahamas and U.S. East Coast.

The storm's rain turned several streets into fast-flowing rivers and toppled trees and some telephone and electrical cables in Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from previous hurricanes and earthquakes. The National Guard rescued at least 35 people, including two newborns. Authorities in the northwest town of Rincon reported a woman missing after floodwaters swept her away when she tried to drive across a bridge.

U.S. officials frowned upon the opening of an Iranian supermarket in Venezuela's capital, saying Thursday that any presence of Iran in the Western Hemisphere is "not something we look very favorably on."

Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak told journalists in a call that the opening of the market shows this is like an alliance of "pariah" states.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman was discharged from a hospital in the capital Riyadh after more than a week following surgery to remove his gall bladder, the Royal Court said.

The court said in a statement late Thursday the monarch, 84, left the King Faisal Specialist Hospital after a recovery.

Yes, it's possible.

A U.S. magistrate judge improperly denied release to a father and son wanted by Japan on charges that they helped sneak former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of that country, their attorneys have said.

Lawyers for Michael and Peter Taylor urged U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to immediately free the men on bail. Their lawyers insisted the Taylors have no plans to flee the U.S. as they fight their extradition to Japan, noting that the men returned to Massachusetts from Lebanon earlier this year, even though they knew Japan was seeking their arrest.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched underground ballistic missiles as part of an exercise involving a mock-up aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, state television reported Wednesday.

It was the latest barrage in a drill that the previous day saw two American bases temporarily go on alert over the launches.