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.

Algeria's peaceful "smile revolution" unseated the long-time president of Africa's largest country along with his powerful entourage and struck hard at the corruption they bred. But a year later, the pro-democracy movement is still holding its weekly marches, hoping to make further dents in the establishment.

This North African nation, whose powerful army has shadowed its rulers — or ruled outright — in an opaque system of governance since independence from France in 1962, is on the cusp of a new era, with no certainty what the future will look like.

Intelligence officials have warned lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election campaign to help President Donald Trump get reelected, three officials familiar with the closed-door briefing said Thursday.

The warning raises questions about the integrity of the presidential campaign and whether Trump's administration is taking the proper steps to combat the kind of interference that the U.S. saw in 2016.

He mixed extreme paranoia about secret state surveillance with far-right conspiracy tropes, misogyny and racist vitriol.

Authorities in northern Italy arrested the captain of a Lebanese-flagged cargo ship on suspicion of international arms trafficking Wednesday while they investigate if the vessel transported tanks, rockets and other weapons from Turkey to Libya.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab held his first meeting with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund to assess the measures needed to rebuild Lebanon’s economy, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have blocked half of the United Nations' aid delivery programs in the war-torn country — a strong-arm tactic to force the agency to give them greater control over the massive humanitarian campaign, along with a cut of billions of dollars in foreign assistance, according to aid officials and internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.