Capsized boat was carrying 23 Cubans
MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard says crews from an airplane and a cutter were searching Monday for nearly two dozen Cuban migrants who were on board a makeshift vessel that capsized last week off the Florida Keys.
Three migrants were found Monday on a smaller island near Big Pine Key, Coast Guard spokesman Eric Woodall said. The men said they left Cuba last Tuesday with 23 people aboard the vessel, which capsized Wednesday evening. Mr. Woodall said they didn’t have details about the vessel, but it apparently had a motor.
On Saturday, three bodies were discovered 23 miles southeast of Islamorada, Fla. Officials weren’t immediately sure if those people had been on the capsized vessel.
Hollande: Dismantle camp
CALAIS, France — President Francois Hollande of France pledged Monday to dismantle a vast refugee camp in this northern French port at the edge of the English Channel.
Almost 100 migrants a day from Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere arrive at the ramshackle camp, known as the Jungle, just 31 miles from Britain, their ultimate destination.On a visit to Calais, Mr. Hollande said Britain’s vote to leave the European Union doesn’t end its responsibility to migrants trying to reach its shores.
He is trying to nudge the British government into helping more with the Calais situation as his potential rival in next year’s presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy, threatens to tear up the Touquet Accord, which has resulted in would-be migrants massing on the French side of the border.
No challenger for leader
TEHRAN — Iran’s most powerful figure Monday ruled out a return to politics by the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known in the West for his denial of the Holocaust and for bombastic threats against Israel.
The decision by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported by the semiofficial Fars news agency, means that the country’s hard-line faction lacks a serious candidate to challenge the incumbent president, Hassan Rouhani, during elections in May.
Party wins regional ballot
Caretaker Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s bid for a second term in Spain was strengthened after his party won a regional election in his home region on Sunday.
Mr. Rajoy’s People’s Party claimed 41 of the 75 seats in Galicia’s regional assembly, while his main rivals at the national level, the Socialists, suffered losses, according to data released by the local administration.
Disappearance marked
Protesters marked the two-year anniversary Monday of the disappearance of 43 students from Mexico’s Guerrero state, an unsolved crime that critics say highlights impunity in Mexico and has sullied the image of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Two years later, what exactly happened to the missing students remains unclear.
Also in the world …
Japan sent out jets Sunday after a fleet of Chinese aircraft flew into a strategically important strait near disputed islands in the East China Sea. … Russia’s food safety watchdog has revised its ban on imports of fruit and vegetables from Egypt after the lifting of Egyptian wheat import restrictions that have hurt Russia.