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Iran Opposition Protests in Washington for Regime Change

Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)
Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)
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Iran Opposition Protests in Washington for Regime Change

Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)
Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)

Hundreds of people protested in Washington Friday against Iran, demanding a change in its regime and denouncing its "atrocity toward the people".

Protesters waved Iranian flags as they chanted for "regime change now" -- with some holding portraits of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the People's Mujahedin, an Iranian opposition group banned in the country, reported AFP.

"The regime inside Iran is doing so much atrocity toward the people. Iran whole has been destroyed by this regime," said Michael Passi, an Iranian-American engineer.

"There are a lot of executions, a lot of tortures and a lot of export of terrorism by this regime," he alleged.

"We want separation of religion and the state," added Mina Entezari, an Arizona-based designer who was a political prisoner in Iran for seven years. "We want freedom for people."

The administration of US President Donald Trump consistently blasts a lack of freedoms in Iran and its "destabilizing" influence on the Middle East.

A firm adversary of Tehran, he has re-implemented harsh economic sanctions -- but Washington insists it is not pushing for regime change, only a change to Iran's policy in areas including missile development and support for militant groups.

"I'm 100 percent behind President Trump's policy," Passi said. "The only language that this Iranian regime understands is a language of force."

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Myanmar Quake Death Toll at 3,354, Junta Leader Returns from Summit

Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)
Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)
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Myanmar Quake Death Toll at 3,354, Junta Leader Returns from Summit

Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)
Rescue workers stand on the street next to a collapsed building in Mandalay on April 5, 2025, following the March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Zaw Htun / AFP)

The death toll from Myanmar's devastating earthquake climbed to 3,354, with 4,850 injured and 220 missing, state media said on Saturday, as the visiting U.N. aid chief praised humanitarian and community groups for leading the aid response.
The leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, was back in the capital Naypyitaw after a rare foreign trip to attend a summit in Bangkok of South and Southeast Asian nations, where he also met separately with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and India.
Min Aung Hlaing reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta's plans to hold "free and fair" elections in December, Reuters quoted Myanmar state media as saying.
Modi called for a post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar's civil war to be made permanent, and said the elections needed to be "inclusive and credible", an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday.
Critics have derided the planned election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.
Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including healthcare, in tatters, a situation exacerbated by the March 28 quake.
The civil war that followed the coup has displaced more than 3 million people, with widespread food insecurity and more than a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN says.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher spent Friday night in Myanmar's second-biggest city Mandalay, near the epicenter of the quake, posting on X that humanitarian and community groups had led the response to the quake with "courage, skill and determination".
"Many themselves lost everything, and yet kept heading out to support survivors," he said.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday the junta was restricting aid supplies to quake-hit areas where communities did not back its rule. The UN office said it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against opponents, including airstrikes, of which 16 were after the ceasefire was declared on Wednesday.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.