Anadolu Agency's Morning Briefing - Oct. 11, 2020

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 registered 1,649 more COVID-19 patients and 1,391 more recoveries over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Turkey's overall count now stands at 334,031, with recoveries totaling 293,145, according to ministry data.

Some 113,102 more coronavirus tests were carried over the past 24 hours, raising the total to over 11.5 million.

The death toll from the virus reached 8,778, with 56 more fatalities.

The figures also showed that the number of patients in critical condition currently stands at 1,414, with 6.2% suffering from pneumonia this week.

"The decrease in the number of patients in critical condition is stagnating. We have to keep the number under control," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, a Turkish soldier has been martyred in a clash between security forces and terrorists in Turkey's eastern Agri province, according to security sources.

The clash on Saturday in the rural area in Dogubeyazit district injured another soldier, the sources said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media. The injured soldier was hospitalized in Agri.

Although the statement did not mention any specific terrorist group, Turkish forces have been conducting operations against the PKK terrorist organization in the region for a long time.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

COVID-19 updates worldwide

On Saturday, France's Health Ministry reported 26,896 infections nationwide. This supersedes 20,339 cases recorded on Friday, which had been the biggest one-day jump since the end of lockdown in May.

Since the start of record-keeping for the disease, a total of 718,873 cases of infection have been logged in France.

There were 54 additional fatalities, compared to 62 on Friday, with the death toll currently standing at 32,684.

In Mexico, the pandemic has revealed structural flaws and socioeconomic inequities since its first COVID-19 case was reported on Feb. 27.

A 35-year-old man returning from a trip to Italy was diagnosed in Mexico City. By the end of May, two months after the federal government first implemented a quarantine, the number of cases had risen exponentially, with 84,627 infections.

Currently, Mexico is the fourth in the world in the number of coronavirus-related deaths, surpassing countries that once were epicenters of the pandemic. With 926,906 cases and 94,015 deaths, Mexico has faced a highly infectious expression of the virus and one of the deadliest.

In Africa, coronavirus cases are now over 1.55 million (1,556,262), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in an update on Saturday.

At least 37,922 people have died across the continent, it said. But the figures also indicated that more than 1.29 million (1,292,306) patients have recovered.

Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

On Baku-Yerevan tension, a top Azerbaijani official said on Saturday Armenia has not complied with a temporary cease-fire, which "clearly" shows "hypocritical policy" it conducts.

"Temporary humanitarian cease-fire was achieved as a result of the political will of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. But Armenia continues to break it even today," said Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the Azerbaijani president, according to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry on Twitter.

On Saturday, one civilian was killed in Azerbaijan when the Armenian army targeted Azerbaijani settlements despite a humanitarian cease-fire to exchange prisoners, retrieve bodies.

Azerbaijani prosecutors said in a statement the villages of Chemenli and Zengishali in the Agdam province came under artillery firing of the Armenian forces around 7 p.m. local time (0300GMT).

Gunduz Huseynov, 46, died in the attack hitting Chemenli. The number of civilians who lost their lives in the Armenian attacks in the last two weeks rose to 32.

Fighting began on Sept. 27, when Armenian forces targeted civilian Azerbaijani settlements and military positions in the Upper Karabakh region, leading to casualties.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

Some 20% of Azerbaijan's territory has remained under illegal Armenian occupation for some three decades.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as many international organizations, demand the withdrawal of the occupying forces.

The OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US -- was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.

Many world powers, including Russia, France and the US, have urged an immediate cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.

Other global developments

Kyrgyzstan's parliament named Sadyr Zhaparov the prime minister, who was freed from prison on Tuesday by his supporters protesting against the results of the Oct. 4 parliamentary elections.

Gathering at the Ala Archa State Residence in the capital Bishkek, 63 members of the current parliament unanimously approved Zhaparov's new post and his Cabinet.

Protests in Kyrgyzstan started on Monday, with people breaking into the parliament and other buildings and clashing with police, demanding a new vote. -