Following is a summary of current world news briefs. U.S. ambassador says Turkey ignores pharma debt at its peril

The U.S. ambassador to Turkey said on Wednesday companies will consider abandoning its market if it fails to fully meet debt payments to American pharmaceutical firms, and he criticised a new Turkish law clamping down on big social media sites. Addressing a trade conference streamed online, David Satterfield said debts owed by government hospitals to pharmaceutical companies in the United States and elsewhere had risen to around $2.3 billion from some $230 million a year ago. Thousands protest after Belarusian leader hastily sworn in

Belarusian security forces detained protesters and fired water cannon to disperse crowds as thousands took to the streets of Minsk against the abrupt inauguration of veteran President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday. Ignoring calls for an end to his 26-year grip on power, Lukashenko was sworn in for a sixth term after an election that the opposition and several foreign governments say was rigged. Saudi King Salman assails Iran in United Nations debut

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz took aim at Iran during his debut on Wednesday at the annual United Nations meeting of world leaders, calling for a united front to contain Riyadh’s rival and stop it from getting weapons of mass destruction. He said Iran exploited a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers “to intensify its expansionist activities, create its terrorist networks, and use terrorism,” adding that this had produced nothing but “chaos, extremism, and sectarianism.” Pompeo warns U.S. politicians to be alert to Chinese ‘influence and espionage’

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday warned U.S. politicians at the state and local level to be vigilant around Chinese diplomats who he said could be trying to woo them as part of Beijing’s propaganda and espionage campaign. Speaking in the Wisconsin state capitol, Pompeo said the State Department was reviewing the activities of the U.S.-China Friendship Association and the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification over suspicions they are trying to influence U.S. schools, business groups and local politicians. Canada’s COVID-19 testing system overwhelmed after slow move to new tests

Canada’s recent spike in COVID-19 cases has created day-long lines at testing centers and prolonged waits for results, highlighting gaps in a system that leans heavily on traditional laboratory tests in a nation that has been slow to adopt newer, faster diagostic technologies. While other countries have approved new ways to test for COVID-19 in recent months, like rapid point-of-care tests, much of Canada stuck with the basics: deep nasal swabs collected by healthcare workers and sent off to labs. Trump imposes new bans on Cuban rum, cigars, hotels

President Donald Trump on Wednesday banned U.S. citizens from bringing home rum or cigars from Cuba and from staying at Cuban government-owned hotels, as he sought to lock in the Cuban-American vote in the swing state of Florida ahead of November’s presidential election. Since Trump took office in January 2017, he has been rolling back a detente with America’s old Cold War foe pursued by his Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama. South Korean official may have been killed trying to defect to North: Yonhap

A South Korean fisheries official who went missing on Monday may have been shot dead by North Korean troops and later cremated after attempting to defect to the North, Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed intelligence sources in Seoul. The official was reported missing from a South Korean fisheries patrol boat when it was about 10 kilometres (6 miles) south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed line of military control that acts as the de facto maritime boundary between North and South Korea. Venezuela’s Maduro calls on U.N. members to rally against U.S. sanctions

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday all “countries that defend peace” should rally against U.S. sanctions clamped on the South American country and its allies like Cuba, Nicaragua and Syria. The Trump administration has ramped up sanctions against Venezuela in the past two years as part of an effort to oust Maduro, who it accuses of corruption, human rights violations, and rigging his 2018 re-election. U.S. blacklists individuals, entities linked to leader of Russia’s IRA

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday said it imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the leader and financier of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a “Russian troll farm.” The Treasury in a statement said it imposed sanctions against “the network of Kremlin-connected Russian operative” Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and leader of the IRA. Lebanon’s fractious politics puts French lifeline at risk

Lebanon’s sectarian politicians have overshot one deadline they had agreed with France and missing more may put at risk a French lifeline to haul the Middle East nation out of its worst crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war. France has drawn up a timeline for Lebanon to tackle corruption and deliver reforms to help secure billions of dollars in foreign aid to save a country drowning in debt.