President Michel Aoun on Thursday launched the work of a French ship that will drill for oil and gas in block 4 of Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

“Today is a happy day for us and for all Lebanese. We hope the dream which we sought to achieve will be realized. Today is a historic day,” Aoun said at the ceremony.

Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters on Thursday retook a strategic northwestern town in Syria that was recently captured by government forces, and cut the highway linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.

The retaking of Saraqeb which sits on the highway is a setback for Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces who have scored major gains in a weeks long Russian-backed campaign in the last rebel stronghold in Idlib province. Officials had hailed the reopening of the motorway, known as the M5, as a major victory in the nine-year conflict.

President Donald Trump faces a critical personal challenge in grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak: Asking Americans to believe him after he and some of his top advisers have contradicted federal scientists in playing down the threat.

Keenly aware of the stakes not just for public health but also his credibility, Trump conducted a lengthy press conference Wednesday evening aimed at reassuring everyone that he has the crisis well in hand.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday banned foreign pilgrims from entering the kingdom to visit Islam's holiest sites over the new coronavirus, potentially disrupting the plans of millions of faithful ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and as the annual hajj pilgrimage looms.

The decision showed the growing worry across the Mideast about the virus as Iran's confirmed that infected cases spiked by over 100, to 254 now. A total of 26 people have died so far, it said. That pushes the region's overall cases to above 350. Iran's death toll is highest outside of China where the outbreak began.

Lebanon on Tuesday took another step to try and deal with a massive debt that stands at more than $87 billion or more than 150% of the GDP.

Manal Abdul Samad, the information minister, said the government has agreed to appoint Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as a legal adviser on the country's Eurobond debt.

A New Hampshire senator is sponsoring a bill to ban visas and freeze assets of Lebanese officials involved in the detention of a Lebanese-American citizen since September.

South Korea reported another large jump in new virus cases Monday a day after the the president called for "unprecedented, powerful" steps to combat the outbreak that is increasingly confounding attempts to stop the spread.

The 161 new cases bring South Korea's total to 763 cases, and two more deaths raise its toll to seven.

Iran's interior ministry said voter turnout in recent parliamentary elections stood at 42.57%, the first time it dipped below the 50% mark since the country's 1979 revolution that ushered in a Shiite theocratic establishment to power.

The lower turnout is widely seen as a measure of how Iranians view the country's government, with low turnout a signal of possible widespread dissatisfaction with Iran's clerical rulers and the system they preside over.

A Lebanese-American man in custody in Lebanon isn't guilty of charges brought against him by the Lebanese government, according to a U.S. lawmaker's top aide.

Naz Durakoglu, senior foreign policy adviser to Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said in a conference call with media outlets that colleagues in different U.S. government offices have found no evidence that Amer Fakhoury is guilty of the murder, prison torture and other allegations levied by his native country.

Some in Lebanon are casting blame on Iran, the supporter of the country's powerful Hizbullah group, after the country's first case of the new virus was discovered on a flight from the Iranian city of Qom this week.

Many Lebanese who support the Hizbullah-led coalition have remained silent on the issue of the virus, while some supporters of rival groups supported by the west blame Iran for the introduction of the virus into the country.