A day after an Afghan lawmaker was killed in a suicide blast, Higher Education Minister Obaidullah Obaid survived an assassination attempt after a bomb targeted his motorcade in the country's northern region.

Iran has thwarted a number of assassination plots aimed at killing its scientists, according to Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi.

Ukrainian and Russian security services have uncovered a group plotting an assassination attempt on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the state-run Channel One reported.