By Handan Kazanci
ANKARA (AA) – 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 confirmed 1,502 new COVID-19 cases and 1,212 recoveries over the past 24 hours, officials said Sunday.
The country's overall case count now stands at 335,533, including 294,357 recoveries, according to the Health Ministry.
The virus-linked death toll in Turkey reached 8,837 with 59 new fatalities.
Meanwhile, in Turkish-Greek relations, Ankara on Sunday criticized "unfounded" remarks made by Greece’s foreign minister.
“The claims and remarks of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Nikos Dendias in his interview with the newspaper Eleftheros Typos, which was published today (11 October), are unfounded," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement.
“Exploratory talks were suspended in 2016 upon the request of Greece. Claiming that the talks were suspended on the account of Turkey is an attempt to mislead public opinion," Aksoy said.
Tensions have recently escalated regarding the issue of energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean.
– COVID-19 updates worldwide
France reported 16,101 new cases of the novel coronavirus Sunday, down from a record number the previous day, according to the Health Ministry.
Although not officially announced, the country is clearly experiencing a second wave of infections.
Cases rose sharply to 26,896 on Saturday from 20,339 on Friday.
After the biggest single-day jump since the end of the lockdown on Friday followed by an even higher number on Saturday, Sunday's dip was welcome relief.
India’s coronavirus cases crossed the 7 million mark Sunday with more than 74,000 additional infections, according to the Health Ministry.
A total of 74,383 cases were reported in the past 24 hours with 918 more fatalities, taking the country's death toll to 108,334.
The ministry also said that recoveries have crossed 6 million.
South Africa recorded 1,575 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 692,471, according to Health Ministry data released Sunday.
The ministry said at least 107 more people died of COVID-19, putting the total number of fatalities at 17,780.
Recoveries exceed 623,765 and over 4.4 million COVID-19 tests have been performed since the first case was reported in the country in March.
– Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
Amid tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey’s foreign minister spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Sunday about the ongoing conflict in Upper Karabakh, an internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.
Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sergei Lavrov discussed Armenia's cease-fire violations.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since the 1991 invasion, but the latest clashes began on Sept. 27.
The death toll in a recent Armenian missile attack on Azerbaijan’s Ganja city despite a cease-fire rose to nine, including four women.
As many as 34 others, among them 16 women and six children, were injured, the Prosecutor General's Office in Azerbaijan said in a statement.
The Armenian attacks continued despite a humanitarian truce agreed on Saturday for the exchange of prisoners and retrieval of bodies in Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.
Hikmat Hajiyev, the assistant to the Azerbaijani president, said the attacks were Armenia's "policy of vandalism and barbarism" against Azerbaijani civilians and "an act of genocide."
Between Sept. 27, when the clashes began, and Oct. 11, as many as 41 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and 205 injured.
Some 1,165 houses, 57 residential and commercial buildings and 146 public buildings have also been destroyed or damaged, the prosecutors said.
– Other global developments
Residents of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) will cast their ballots for a second time after the candidates in the country’s presidential elections failed to secure more than 50% of the vote in the first round.
Prime Minister Ersin Tatar and President Mustafa Akinci will face off in the second round on Oct. 18.
Electorates also voted on a referendum for a constitutional amendment to increase the number of high court judges.
Another election took place in Tajikistan where voters on Sunday cast ballots to elect their president.
The voting ended at 8 p.m. local time (1500GMT). Vote counting is underway.
As many as 3,495,215 voters cast votes in 3,375 ballot boxes, said Bahtiyar Hudayarzade, head of the Central Election Commission.
In sports news, Spain's Rafael Nadal won the men’s singles title at the 2020 French Open after beating Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final.
Nadal defeated his Serbian opponent 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 in Paris to claim his 13th French Open title.
This is his 20th Grand Slam title, tying with Swiss legend Roger Federer.
