U.S. government

Hundreds of people are rolling up their sleeves in countries across the world to be injected with experimental vaccines that might stop COVID-19, spurring hope maybe unrealistic that an end to the pandemic may arrive sooner than anticipated.

Turkey on April 29 slammed a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom which recommended the U.S. government include Turkey on its "Special Watch List" (SWL) for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.

Fear of the coronavirus could have been keeping North Korean leader Kim Jong Un out of public sight, a South Korean minister and U.S. sources said on April 28, following intense speculation and concern as to his whereabouts and health.

The U.S. ambassador to Ankara on April 28 thanked Turkey for sending medical equipment to the U.S. to help with the country in its fight against the coronavirus.

In a written statement, Ambassador David Satterfield hailed relations between Ankara and Washington, saying that Turkey is one of the most important allies of the U.S.

Almost 170,000 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and at least 6,509 have died, with cases and deaths outside China overtaking those in the country where the outbreak began, according to a Reuters tally.

Judges at the International Criminal Court on March 5 ruled that an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan military and U.S. forces may proceed.

Ten more people on a quarantined cruise liner in a Japanese port have tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Feb. 6, as the virus death toll in mainland China hit 563, with almost 3,000 new cases reported.

The global debt-to-GDP ratio hit a new all-time high of over 322 percent in the third quarter of 2019, with total debt reaching close to a record $253 trillion, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) has said.

Total debt across the household, government, financial and non-financial corporate sectors surged by some $9 trillion in the first three quarters of last year.

The U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co's $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. government has approved the sale of $800 million worth of helicopters to South Korea, the Pentagon announced on Aug. 7, hours after President Donald Trump said Seoul had agreed to pay more for the U.S. military presence in the country.