Wikipedia's Farsi-language website appears to be disrupted in Iran after a close confidant to the country's supreme leader died of the new coronavirus, an activist group said Tuesday, as the Islamic Republic suffers the highest death rate from the epidemic outside of China.

Turkey on Wednesday lifted its more than two-year ban on accessing Wikipedia, weeks after the country's  highest court ruled that the block violated freedom of expression.

Russia has announced the successful countrywide test of an alternative to global internet as experts fear that the policy could lead to repression of free speech.