HUNDREDS of thousands of people poured onto the streets of Iran to mark the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In Tehran, despite rain, crowds streamed in from the capital’s far-flung neighbourhoods to mass in the central Azadi, or Freedom Square, waving Iranian flags and chanting “death to America”.

Chants of “death to Israel” and “death to Britain” followed, and demonstrators burned US and Israeli flags.

Iranian state TV, which said millions participated in the celebrations, ran archive footage of the days of the uprising and played revolutionary songs.

MEANWHILE, Beijing has condemned Turkey over its claim that a celebrated musician from China’s Turkic Muslim Uighur ethnic group has died in custody.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said a brief video clip of Abdurehim Heyit (left) issued by state media proved he was alive and in good health and showed Turkey’s statement was an “absurd lie”.

China has filed a formal complaint and called on Turkey to reveal the source of its information, she said.

Heyit had reportedly been sentenced to eight years over one of his songs, and doubts remain over whether the words in the video were his own.

Turkey’s claim of Heyit’s death came in a foreign ministry statement on Saturday calling China’s treatment of Uighurs “a great cause of shame for humanity”.

China has interned an estimated 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in re-education camps, where they are forced to renounce Islam and swear fealty to ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.

IN Germany, Kim Phuc, known as the “Napalm Girl” in an iconic 1972 Vietnam War photo, is receiving a 10,000 euro (£8,700) award for her work for peace.

Organisers of the Dresden Prize say the 55-year-old, who now lives in Canada, is being honoured for her support of Unesco and children wounded in war, and for speaking out against violence

and hatred.

AND finally, Indonesian police have acknowledged officers terrorised a Papuan man with a live snake after a video of the incident circulated online.

They attempted to justify the officers’ actions by saying the snake was not venomous and that they had not resorted to beating the man, who was suspected of theft.

The one minute and 20 second video shows the dark brown snake, at least two metres long, wrapped around the handcuffed suspect’s neck and waist and an officer pushing its head into the man’s face as he becomes increasingly hysterical.

The officers were “disciplined” by being given ethics training and moved to other locations.