Iran is ready to take military action in self-defence, Defence Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has said in response to the US plan that "all options" are open in dealing with Tehran, a media report said Friday.

Sixteen new political parties in Myanmar have sought registration with the Union Election Commission for the upcoming general election in the country, Xinhua reported Friday.

Calm returned to the capital of Kyrgyzstan Friday after an uprising toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and led to an interim government installed in his place.

US President Barack Obama said Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has made "an unacceptable omission" when he chose April as the "Confederate History Month" without a mention of slavery, a media report said.

Iran Friday tested its first indigenously built third generation centrifuges, a media report said.

President Asif Ali Zardari Friday expressed the hope that the recently concluded Pakistan-US strategic dialogue would help translate their bilateral relationship into a long-term partnership based on mutual respect and trust.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit has reiterated that the country's nuclear arsenals are fully secure as it would remain the center of attention at the forthcoming nuclear security summit in Washington.

Sri Lanka's ruling party, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, won the first parliamentary elections held since last year's end of the country's 26-year civil war, election officials said Friday.

A Senate standing committee has postponed its meeting scheduled for Saturday to discuss the manner in which cricketer Shoaib Malik was treated in India after it became known that he and tennis star Sania Mirza were to wed.

Official documentation to rename Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would cost the provincial government more than Rs.5 billion and the federal government Rs.3 billion.