ndia starts a mega-election on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his formidable campaign machine taking on not one but two Gandhis in the world's biggest vote.

Tea-seller's son Modi, boosted by February's bust-up with Pakistan, remains popular, but he is vulnerable on the economy and his re-election depends on several key regions.

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas early Tuesday at thousands of anti-government protesters who had been demonstrating outside army headquarters for a third straight night, but soldiers intervened firing in the air, witnesses said.

Thousands of protesters have massed at the Khartoum complex since Saturday, urging the military to back them in demanding the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir and the formation of a transitional government.

The head of the Secret Service, which guards President Donald Trump and visiting heads of state, is stepping down, the White House said Monday in the administration's latest sign of turbulence.

Paris prosecutors Monday opened a probe into alleged false testimony in the case of French President Emmanuel Macron's former bodyguard who was filmed hitting protesters at last year's May Day rally.

Iran declared the United States a "state sponsor of terrorism" and its forces in the region "terror groups," in a tit-for-tat response to a similar U.S. move on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart on Monday discussed a missile deal slammed by the U.S. as well as closer military cooperation during a visit by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Moscow.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday questioned the results of Istanbul's mayoral elections which his party candidate narrowly lost, saying there had been "theft at the ballot box".

President Donald Trump on Monday announced the United States is designating Iran's elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organization.

Trump said in a statement that the "unprecedented" move "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

Italy's Matteo Salvini gathered a handful of European far-right parties in Milan on Monday in a bid to forge an unlikely alliance of nationalists ahead of next month's European parliament elections.

The French government must implement bold tax cuts, the prime minister said Monday, after a mass public consultation called in the wake of "yellow vest" protests that shook President Emmanuel Macron.