Asia

While people in Iran will start voting in the country's presidential election in coming hours, Iranian expats in New Zealand have already queued up to vote for their favourite candidates due to the time difference.

Pyongyang will have dialogue with the United States if conditions are right, a senior North Korean diplomat announced.

A 19-year-old girl was rescued after she was left to die in a sand pit following an alleged property dispute in India.

Iran’s president congratulated his Uzbek counterpart on the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, describing the “deep and unbreakable bonds” as an asset to the bilateral relations between Tehran and Tashkent.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman says Iran and its eastern neighbour Afghanistan have drawn up draft documents on long-term strategic cooperation on a range of issue during a recent bilateral meeting.

Abdul Hasib, the head of ISIS in Afghanistan, was killed in a joint operation conducted by Afghan and US Special Forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, during his official visit to Kabul on Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will leave Tehran for the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday, the ministry’s spokesman said.

Iranian foreign minister, who is in Islamabad to particularly discuss the security of Iran-Pakistan borders, met high-ranking Pakistani officials including Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

The ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on NATO convoy in Kabul, which killed at least eight people.

The Iranian foreign ministry strongly denounced the deadly attack on a number of Iranian border guards in the country’s southeast, and summoned the Pakistani envoy to protest over the massacre of the guards by Pakistan-based terrorists.

In another move to tighten its grip on Muslims in western China, the Chinese government has banned parents from choosing certain Islamic names like “Muhammad” for their children.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a meeting with Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan Sardar Ayaz Sadiq underlined that Iran attaches importance to security in the neighboring country.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly denounced a suicide attack on a military base in Afghanistan, which killed and wounded dozens of people.

While Russia has repeatedly backed Iran’s full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), some other members, particularly Tajikistan, seem to be opposed to the accession.

Afghanistan’s government says over 140 have lost their lives following Taliban terrorists’ assault on an army base in the northern Balkh province.

The “world’s heaviest woman”, a 500-kg Egyptian, has lost half her weight in the two months she’s been in India for treatment, doctors said.

At least 44 have lost their lives after a bus carrying over 50 passengers fell into a river in northern India, according to media reports.

Iran’s foreign minister and Kyrgyzstan’s president explored the avenues for promoting bilateral relations in a meeting held in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Republic sees no limit to the reinforcement of its ties with Kyrgyzstan, and is prepared to promote mutual cooperation in all fields.

Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili hailed the growing trend of relations between his country and Iran, saying Tbilisi is keen for further development of the ties.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili will pay an official visit to Tehran in coming days.

South Korean sources claim that US President Trump’s administration has started secret talks with North Korean officials in New York in an attempt to ease the escalated tensions between the two sides.

Iran has censured a terrorist bomb blast near a mosque in Pakistan, saying “steely determination” and “collective cooperation” are required to eliminate terrorism and extremism at both international and regional levels.

A bomb targeting a mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Parachinar killed at least 22 people on Friday and wounded dozens in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.