ANKARA

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

Turkey has so far administered over 29.78 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched a mass vaccination campaign in mid-January, according to official figures released Thursday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received an Azerbaijan delegation led by Tahir Budaqov, deputy chairman of Azerbaijan's governing New Azerbaijan Party.

The 13th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Military Dialogue kicked off in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. The meeting is focused on bilateral cooperation in security, military, military-technical, military-medical, military-educational, defense industry, and other fields.

Turkey is getting ready to host the 89th General Assembly of Interpol on Nov. 20-25 in Istanbul, according to the country's deputy foreign minister, who said Ankara was the founding member of the organization.

As Turkey continued its fight against terrorism, at least 133 terrorists linked to the PKK, and its Syrian offshoot YPG were neutralized in May.

A total of 32 asylum seekers, pushed back by Greek coastal authorities, were rescued by Turkey and referred to the provincial migration office following a routine check.

The head coach of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champions Anadolu Efes was critical of Germany over visa row which denied his daughters from traveling to Germany to watch the critical Final Four tournament.

COVID-19 outbreak

More than two billion coronavirus vaccine shots have so far been administered worldwide, according to a tracking website called Our World in Data, with China leading the count with over 704 million jabs.

The US top disease agency reported the lowest numbers of new coronavirus cases and deaths on Thursday since the start of the pandemic and the count of new cases dropped to about 15,600 per day.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Malaysia surpassed the 3,000 mark Thursday as the country recorded 103 new fatalities over the last 24 hours.

India inked a deal with domestic vaccine maker Biological-E for 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine is currently undergoing Phase-3 clinical trials after showing promising results according to the country's Health Ministry.

Other developments

Armed low-cost drones of Turkey are reshaping battlefields and geopolitics, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, which said the Turkish drones are built with affordable digital technology and have successfully wrecked tanks and other armored vehicles as well as air-defense systems in wars in Syria, Libya, and Azerbaijan.

As tensions escalated in Gaza when Israeli forces launched an unprecedented attack on Palestinians, Israeli police detained 2,142 Arabs in May alone.

At least four people were killed following a blast in the Afghan capital Kabul just days after twin blasts left at least 10 people there dead.

As the world marks the International Day of Innocent Victims of Conflict on Friday, several South Sudanese families recalled their missing family members and children who were abducted and drafted into rival armies.

While the PKK killed eight people and wounded dozens of others in Manbij, Syria this week, Europe opted to ignore terror group's massacre of civilians.

Several people were killed in Iraqi capital Baghdad after an unidentified object exploded in a crowded spot.