Protesters decry 5-year migrant policy
Thousands protested in cities across Australia on Saturday to mark five years of a policy under which asylum-seekers and migrants have been turned away and detained on remote Pacific islands for years.
Messages were read aloud from those still languishing in deteriorating conditions on the islands, years after being detained.
Since 2013, anyone trying to reach Australia by boat has been sent for processing to the islands of Manus, which is part of Papua New Guinea, and Nauru. In 2013, Kevin Rudd, then the prime minister of Australia, unveiled a policy that barred the migrants from being settled as refugees in Australia as part of a resettlement arrangement with Papua New Guinea.
In the years that followed, thousands were sent to offshore detention centers on the small Pacific islands as a result of the policy. Subsequent Australian administrations maintained the policy despite objections from the U.N. Refugee Agency, international human-rights groups and Australian citizens.
The protesters Saturday carried signs denouncing the policy and calling for those still on the islands to be resettled in Australia.
10 Iranian guards die in border attack
TEHRAN, Iran -- At least 10 Iranian border guards were killed in an overnight attack by unidentified gunmen near the Iraqi border, Iranian media reported Saturday.
The attack took place near the town of Marivan, in a Kurdish area of Iran some 385 miles west of the capital Tehran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Fars, close to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, said that all of the casualties were members of the Guard. During the shooting, several of the attackers, described as "bandits and counterrevolutionary terrorists," were killed, and others were injured, Fars reported without giving further details.
It said an explosion in an ammunition depot caused more damage during the fighting.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported 11 guards were killed during the clash and eight others were wounded. The agency identified the guards killed as locals from Kurdish towns.
It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the number of fatalities reported.
New Cuban leader's Cabinet approved
HAVANA -- Cuban lawmakers Saturday approved the Cabinet members named by new President Miguel Diaz-Canel, keeping most of the ministers from Raul Castro's government in place, except for in the key post of economic minister.
At the same time, the national assembly received proposed revisions of Cuba's 1976 constitution that would reshape its government, courts and economy, and pave the way for same-sex marriage, although it would maintain the Communist Party as the sole political force in the country. The charter will be put to a national referendum in the coming months, then return to the assembly.
The main change was the absence of economic minister Marino Murillo, who had accompanied Raul Castro for a decade while he implemented modest openings to private enterprise in the socialist economy. Diaz-Canel replaced Castro in April.
The new charter would create the position of prime minister alongside the president, splitting the roles of head of government and head of state.
Home of ex-Macron bodyguard raided
PARIS -- French investigators Saturday raided the house of one of French President Emmanuel Macron's former top security aides, a man who was caught on camera beating a young protester in May.
Alexandre Benalla's involvement in the beating and questions about the government's handling of the affair is turning into Macron's biggest political crisis since he took office last year.
The presidential Elysee Palace fired bodyguard Benalla a day before police raided his home Saturday morning in the Parisian suburb of Issy-Les-Moulineaux, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Benalla was identified last week by the Le Monde newspaper as beating a young protester during May Day protests while wearing a police helmet. He and a second man are facing potential charges and are in police custody until today.
A Section on 07/22/2018