Australia intercepts boat of Iranian asylum-seekers, denies them entry

Al Jazeera reprots that a boatload of 89 asylum-seekers has been intercepted off the coast of northern Australia, a day after the Australian government announced that boatpeople will no longer be resettled in the country. Tony Burke, the immigration minister, said on Saturday that the group – “entirely or almost entirely” Iranians – would be offered the choice of either pressing ahead with an asylum claim and being sent to Papua New Guinea, or transfer to another country. Earlier, a protest at an Australian-run immigration detention camp in Nauru turned violent, with some of the asylum seekers injured, officials and witnesses said. Read article