India started counting votes Tuesday from its staggered, six-week election that was seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decade in power and was expected to give him a third term in office.

Early leads showed fewer seats for Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party than expected. BJP is part of the National Democratic Alliance, whose parties were leading in 224 constituencies according to an early count. The Congress party is part of the INDIA alliance, which was leading in 290 constituencies.

Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri said his government was engaged in negotiations with arch-foe the United States hosted by the Gulf sultanate of Oman.

Asked about the issue at a news conference during a visit to Beirut Monday, Bagheri said "we have always continued out negotiations... and they have never stopped."

Iran's acting foreign minister dismissed a Gaza cease-fire deal proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden and warned Israel against launching an all-out war on Lebanon during a visit to Beirut Monday, his first official diplomatic visit since his predecessor died last month.

Ali Bagheri Kani replaced Hossein Amirabdollahian, a hard-liner close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19 in a mountainous area near Iran's border with Azerbaijan, along with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and a delegation of other officials.

South Korea announced Monday it'll suspend a rapprochement deal with North Korea to punish it over its launches of trash-carrying balloons, even after the North said it would halt its balloon campaign.

Over several days, North Korea flew hundreds of balloons to drop trash and manure on South Korea in an angry reaction against previous South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. On Sunday, South Korea said it would take "unbearable" retaliatory steps in response, before North Korea abruptly announced it would stop flying balloons across the border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in the Philippines on Monday in a rare Asian trip to urge regional leaders to attend a Swiss-organized global peace summit on the war in Ukraine that he accuses Russia, with China's help, of trying to undermine.

Zelensky arrived unannounced and under heavy security in Manila late Sunday after speaking over the weekend at the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore. He was given a red-carpet welcome with military honors Monday at the presidential palace before meeting with Marcos.

The world's largest election could also be one of its most consequential.

India has close to 970 million voters among its more than 1.4 billion people, and its general election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist, against a broad alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to play catch up.

Mexico's projected presidential winner Claudia Sheinbaum will become the first woman president in the country's 200-year history.

The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor said Sunday night that her two competitors had called her and conceded her victory.

Iran's hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country's top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation's president.

The populist former leader's registration puts pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities.

Iran on Saturday criticized the European Union's imposition of new sanctions on high-ranking officials and the Revolutionary Guards for supplying drones to Russia and its Middle East allies.

France authorities have banned Israeli defense firms from exhibiting at a trade show next month near Paris, organizers said on Friday.

"By decision of the government authorities, there will be no stand for the Israeli defense industry at the Eurosatory 2024 fair," organizers Coges Events said.