AUSTRALIA: Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras organisers agreed today to relax their ban on police marching in their annual parade, on the condition officers do not wear uniforms.

The decision comes a day after Australian police found the bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, allegedly shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend, Beau Lamarre-Condon, who happens to be a police officer.

Mr Lamarre-Condon admitted to killing the couple and hiding their bodies under rocks and debris on a rural property.

RUSSIA: The funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died earlier this month in a remote Arctic penal colony, will take place on Friday in Moscow, his spokesperson said yesterday.

His funeral will be held at a church in Moscow’s south-east Maryino district on Friday afternoon, Kira Yarmysh said.

EUROPEAN UNION: The number of asylum-seekers in Europe reached a seven-year high last year, with more than 1.1 million people applying for international protection in 2023, most of them Syrian nationals, the European Union said today.

The agency said 181,000 Syrians sought asylum last year, a 38 per cent rise from 2022. Afghan nationals made up the second biggest group, with 114,000 claims filed, though the number of Afghans was 11 per cent down compared to 2022.

TURKEY: Turkish drone strikes in north-eastern Syria today killed at least three members of a local Christian force and wounded others, including civilians, a Kurdish official and a Syrian opposition war monitor said.

There was no immediate comment from Ankara on the air strikes.