Near-final results showed the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) wresting the main cities and Anatolian provinces that were strongholds for Erdogan's Islamic conservative AKP party.
The country is to hold general elections on May 29 in what is expected to be the most competitive vote since the advent of democracy in 1994.
Surrounded by cheering supporters, the leaders of the country's two major parties staged rival events in the capital Seoul to begin just under two weeks of campaigning before the April 10 vote.
The secular opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) seized back control of the city -- Turkey's economic powerhouse -- in 2019 for the first time since before Erdogan ruled it as mayor in the 1990s.
Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an opposition alliance formed to compete against Modi in the polls, was detained on Thursday in connection with a long-running corruption probe.
The United Kingdom and Australia inked a new defense agreement in Canberra on Thursday, as they try to boost a fledgling nuclear-powered submarine program with the United States.
US President Joe Biden unveiled almost $20 billion in grants and loans Wednesday for Intel's domestic chip-making plants -- his administration's biggest investment yet in the sector as he takes on China's chip dominance and sells his economic achievements over election rival Donald Trump.
Indonesia's Prabowo Subianto has been elected president of the world's third-biggest democracy, the elections commission said Wednesday, beating two rivals who have vowed to file legal complaints about the vote.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to return Wednesday to the Middle East in a new bid to secure a truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
China and Australia claimed to have stabilised long-strained relations after talks in Canberra on Wednesday, despite tensions over a high-profile prisoner, trade and China's crackdowns in Hong Kong and elsewhere remaining evident.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a successful test of a solid-fuel engine for a "new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile", Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday.
South Africa's top diplomat on Tuesday accused Israel of setting a precedent for leaders to defy the top UN court, as she again alleged a campaign of starvation in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden accused election rival Donald Trump of despising Latinos as the incumbent visited the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona on Tuesday, seeking to shore up support from the crucial demographic himself.
Trump -- the Republican candidate for November's US presidential election -- intends to challenge the judgment imposed by a New York civil court in February, which would force an automatic stay of enforcement.
Seoul's Unification Ministry on Monday added its voice to growing speculation around Kim Jong Un's succession plans, saying they have not "ruled out" that his daughter could be next in line to lead North Korea.
Fighting disinformation including AI-enabled content is a "vital" national security interest and diplomatic priority for the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday at a democracy summit in Seoul.
Thousands thronged the streets of the capital Dakar in the early hours between Thursday and Friday, singing and dancing as the two men were driven away from the city's Cap Manuel prison.
In power as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, the former KGB agent is casting the election as a show of Russians' loyalty and support for his military assault on Ukraine, now in its third year.
Eight months ahead of the US presidential election, the campaign moves from the parties' nominating contests to the trench warfare of what promises to be one of the longest, most brutal head-to-head showdowns in memory.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is pushing forward on the presidential campaign trail, traversing the country to energize supporters despite having little chance of overcoming the hurdles the state has placed in her way.
The former KGB agent is set to secure another six-year term this weekend in a vote the Kremlin says will show society is fully behind his assault on Ukraine.
Volkov vowed to continue his struggle against President Vladimir Putin in a video posted on Telegram early Wednesday after he was discharged from hospital.
The result marks another advance for the populist far right in Europe, where they already govern -- often in coalition -- in countries such as Italy, Hungary and Slovakia, or are steadily gaining, as in France and Germany.
In power as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, Putin has quashed all forms of opposition and dissent, exerting a level of domestic control that ensures the result is in no doubt.
Confusion had reigned late Wednesday after President Macky Sall set March 24 as the date for the postponed election, while Senegal's Constitutional Council said it should take place on March 31.
Fifteen states and a US territory staged nominating contests on the biggest day of the 2024 race so far, with both candidates coveting a second term in the White House.
In poll after poll, a majority of Republican voters across the country continue to regard Joe Biden as an illegitimate president.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has called for a strong turnout, was the first to cast his ballot, at a polling station in central Tehran, state television reported.
The vote comes amid mounting economic difficulties in Iran, which has also been grappling with the aftershocks of mass protests triggered by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
The 81-year-old told the host he was a better bet than "the other guy" -- 77-year-old Donald Trump, the Republican former president he is almost certain to face in a bitter rematch of their 2020 contest.
