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Iran has reported a whopping jump in its oil exports to Asia, emphasizing that its supplies to the world’s largest consumption zone are now much closer to pre-sanctions levels.    Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum in an announcement said exports of crude oil to Asian clients for August stood at around 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d).  The figure showed an increase of 92 percent year-on-year, the Ministry said. It added that Asian countries currently comprise 63 percent of Iran’s oil export destinations.  Earlier, Reuters quoted market data as showing that Iran’s oil sales to Asian clients for July stood at an average of 1.6 mb/d, adding that the figure showed an increase of above 60 percent compared to the same period last year.  China imported 0.56 mb/d which was the largest volume of imports among the four Asian clients of Iran’s oil, Reuters said. India was the second biggest importer of Iranian oil at 0.52 mb/d followed by South Korea and Japan ea...

People in Moldova have started casting their ballots in the country’s first presidential election in two decades, in what is viewed as a battle between supporters of closer ties with Russia and those seeking integration with the European Union. Approximately 2,000 polling stations opened across the country at 07:00 local time (0500 GMT) on Sunday and will close at 21:00 local time (1900 GMT). Moldova last elected a president by popular vote in 1996, after which lawmakers chose the head of state. The country of 3.5 million, which is wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania, is one of the poorest states in Europe and has struggled with a string of high-profile corruption scandals. The central election commission said the vote will be monitored by more than 3,200 Moldovan observers and 562 international ones. Nine candidates are competing in Sunday’s election in the ex-Soviet republic, with polls showing a possible run-off between the pro-Russian Socialist Party’s I...

An Iranian Navy fleet has docked at Tanzania’s Port city of Dar es Salaam in line with the Islamic Republic’s strategy of expanding its naval presence in the high seas. The 44th flotilla of the Iranian Navy, consisting of the Alvand destroyer and the Bushehr logistic vessel, berthed at the African port on Saturday. It embarked on a voyage for the high seas on October 5 to safeguard maritime routes used by the country's vessels and oil tankers operating in the Gulf of Aden and the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait against pirates. The fleet docked at Dar es Salaam in line with the consolidation of the cordial relations and diplomatic ties between Iran and Tanzania and the expansion of maritime interaction with the purpose of conveying the Islamic Republic’s message of peace and friendship. It will stay in Tanzania for three days and then depart for South Africa. The 44th flotilla successfully saved two Iranian ships from three pirate attacks on October 17 in the Gul...

Volunteer fighters from Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units say they will join the Syrian government and its allies in the ongoing fight against terrorists. A spokesman for the forces said on Saturday that they plan to cross the border into Syria to fight alongside President Bashar al-Assad after clearing northern Iraqi territories from the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. "After clearing all our land from these terrorist gangs, we are fully ready to go to any place that contains a threat to Iraqi national security," Ahmed al-Asadi said during a briefing with journalists in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The Popular Mobilization Units, generally known by the Arabic title Hashd al-Shaabi, are currently contributing to Iraqi military’s large-scale operation to liberate the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh. The Shia fighters have announced that they would mostly help the drive around Mosul and not enter the city to avoid accusations of sectarianism. The voluntee...

Two bomb explosions, blamed on the Boko Haram terrorist group, have killed at least nine people and injured 24 others in Nigeria’s northeastern restive province of Borno, officials say. The almost simultaneous blasts rocked the provincial capital, Maiduguri, at around 0600 GMT on Saturday, said military spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka in a statement released in the wake of the deadly incidents. In the first attack, he added, a female bomber, detonated her explosive vest in front of the Bakasi camp, set up for internally displaced persons (IDP), on the outskirts of the city, killing five men and injuring 11 women. The second explosion, which claimed the lives of four people, occurred about one kilometer away from the first one, when a tricycle taxi was exploded outside a fuel depot of state oil firm NNPC, when the driver failed to enter the facility, Anka further said. He added that the bomber was following a fuel tanker “with the sole aim of gaining entry to cause maximum ...

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s national lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump has shrunk to 2 points with the Election Day just 10 days away, a new poll shows. The former secretary of state has the support of 47 percent of likely voters, while the billionaire businessman has 45 percent support, according to the ABC News/ Washington Post  tracking poll released on Saturday. Only a week ago Clinton was holding a 12-point lead over Trump nationally in the ABC News/ Washington Post  tracking poll. Since that time, she has lost three points while her opponent has gained seven points,  as core Republican groups have returned to Trump’s fold. However, according to the poll, 59 of likely voters still expect Clinton to win the November 8 election. The survey was conducted Monday through Thursday among 1,148 likely voters, and it has a margin of error of three points. Interestingly, the poll was taken before Friday’s exposure that the Fed...

Secretary General of the Hezbollah resistance movement, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, says the Lebanese group has managed to protect Lebanon against the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East region, stressing that efforts must be made in to order to safeguard such stability. Addressing people in a televised speech from the eastern town of Hermel, Nasrallah stated that security must be beefed up inside Lebanon in order to allow people run a normal life and let job opportunities emerge and economy flourish. He described the recent activities of Takfiri terrorist groups in the restive Beqaa Valley as a source of grave concern, stating that both the Lebanese government and nation must shoulder their share of responsibilities to establish security there. “Some of the developments are related to economic situation and standard of living, but poverty is not the primary motive behind crimes but greed. If we go back to the root causes of crimes in Lebanon, we see that t...