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.
Coronavirus and other developments in Turkey
Turkey reported 31,712 more coronavirus infections, including 6,213 symptomatic cases, according to Health Ministry data.
The nation also registered 5,846 more recoveries, bringing the tally to 447,361, while the death toll rose to 15,531 with 217 additions.
Over 204,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted across the country, pushing the total to more than 20.29 million.
Turkey's president on Wednesday dismissed the prospect of potential EU sanctions, saying such a move would not be Ankara's concern.
Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Wednesday that a draft EU summit statement about potential sanctions on Turkey is "disappointing.”
Turkey opened a trade center near Dubai's Palm Island on the shore of the Persian Gulf, a local industrial zone authority announced Wednesday.
Turkey's whirling dervishes, followers of the 13th-century Islamic scholar, poet and Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin al-Rumi, will perform their Sema dance without an audience this year in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19 updates worldwide
Noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease now account for 7 of the world’s top 10 causes of death, according to the World Health Organization’s 2019 Global Health Estimates published Wednesday.
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency announced Wednesday that those with a history of "significant" allergic reactions to drugs, food or vaccines should not take the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
Italy reported a fall in both daily coronavirus infections and new deaths Wednesday, confirming that the contagion curve is slowing down.
With 26,266 new recoveries registered over the past day in Russia, the total number of people who have been successfully treated for COVID-19 passed 2 million.
With the start of the mass vaccination campaign, hundreds of Russians rushed to hospitals to get a jab of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.
Germany recorded 590 deaths from COVID-19 Wednesday, the highest number of fatalities in a day since the beginning of the pandemic.
South Korea reported nearly 700 cases of the virus for the first time since March, with experts saying the third wave of the virus is growing in the country, official data showed.
South Africa reported 183 new COVID-19 deaths late Tuesday, pushing the death toll to 22,432, the health minister announced.
Other global developments
A report by the UN refugee agency estimated that global forced displacement surpassed 80 million at mid-year, noting that the full picture for 2020 is not yet established.
The UN human rights chief said Wednesday that her office remains concerned about ongoing reports of serious human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region, home to the ethnic Uighur community, and would like to visit the area.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said some of the conditions on a post-Brexit trade deal are “unacceptable,” but the “deal is still there to be done” with the EU.
A report on the 2019 Christchurch attack in New Zealand which was recently made public has been widely criticized in the local media.
YouTube said Wednesday it will remove "any piece of content" claiming that the 2020 US presidential election's outcome was fraudulent.
The Federal Trade Commission and 46 states, the District of Columbia and the US territory of Guam issued separate lawsuits against Facebook Wednesday seeking the social media company's divestment from key subsidiaries and additional legal remedies.
The Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Masrour Barzani, said Wednesday that the PKK has not withdrawn from Sinjar district in Nineveh province.
A new government was formed in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Wednesday.
A joint exercise between the Pakistani and Chinese air forces kicked off in Pakistan on Wednesday, said an official statement.
