United Kingdom

The death toll in China from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 1,381, the country's National Health Commission said on Feb. 14.

Authorities said 63,851 confirmed cases have been reported, while in the last 24 hours, 121 people have died and more than 5,090 new cases have been detected.

All 42 people quarantined in Turkey after evacuation from Wuhan, China, were discharged from hospital on Feb. 14.

Turkey's health minister said none of the individuals -- 32 Turkish nationals, six Azerbaijanis, three Georgians, and one Albanian -- showed any signs of Covid-19, the disease caused by the deadly coronavirus.

Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had separate meetings with his British and French counterparts in Brussels on Feb. 13.

Akar visited NATO headquarters on the second day of NATO defense ministers meeting.

He met with U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace before attending a session on defense, deterrence and burden-sharing.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed outrage for the release of a UN list that names and shames more than 100 companies that operate in the occupied West Bank.

Bulgaria's economy will continue to grow at a moderate pace in 2020 and 2021, but it will be marked by a significant slowdown. The main reason will be the weakening internal consumption, which is the main engine of the economy, and investment will not offset this process.

Andrea Leadsom, Julian Smith, Geoffrey Cox and Theresa Villiers have all been sacked from the cabinet in what is likely to be a relatively modest reshuffle by Boris Johnson, The Guardian reported.

The housing minister and the universities minister were also dismissed.

The United Nations' human rights office on Feb. 12 named 112 companies it said have business ties to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, angering Israel and prompting a Palestinian threat of legal action against the firms.   

A diagnostic kit developed by Turkey to identify coronavirus cases will be sold abroad, Turkey's health minister said on Feb. 12.

"It is also planned as a commercial kit and will be sold abroad," Fahrettin Koca told reporters in parliament, underlining that the team who developed the kit had focused on cutting down the time needed for diagnosis.

MEP Vincze Lorant has been appointed as permanent rapporteur by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament for the negotiations on the new EU-UK collaboration framework.

Turkey will be one of post-Brexit Britain's top destinations for a trade deal after the European Union and the U.S., but despite the strong bilateral desire to strike a trade pact, experts are cool on the prospects of it happening anytime soon.

The U.K. formally left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020 but will remain in a transition period with the EU and Turkey until Dec. 31 this year.