The world powers and the Iranian regime will resume nuclear talks in Geneva next Wednesday, the state-run news agency IRNA reported on Friday.
Before the talks, bilateral meetings at deputy minister level between Iran and the P5+1 group, including Britain, France, the United States, Russia, China plus Germany, will also be held in Geneva, said Abbas Araqchi.
The latest round of the nuclear talks ended in Vienna on Nov. 24 without a permanent agreement. However, both sides agreed to extend the talks until July 1, 2015.
The Iranian regime has been a target of UN sanctions due to its attempts to build nuclear weapons. The latest round of the nuclear talks ended in Vienna on Nov. 24 without a permanent agreement. However, both sides agreed to extend the talks until July 1, 2015.
The Iranian regime agreed to negotiate due to mounting international pressure. However, has stalled on signing a permanent agreement due to West’s concessions
Posted: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 2:02 pm | Updated: 2:30 pm, Tue Oct 21, 2014.
By Nancy McCleary Staff writer
LUMBERTON - A Lumberton man traded gunfire with three men who forced their way into his home, robbed the family, tried to rape his granddaughter and stole his car Monday, Robeson County authorities said.
One of the men, identified as Jamie Faison, 20, was shot and found dead in the stolen Cadillac parked at his home on the 600 block of Singletary Church Road, Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said in a news release.
The two other men turned up at area hospitals with gunshot wounds.
The homeowner, Kenneth Byrd, 67, was shot multiple times, the release said.
Authorities received a call about 10 p.m. that someone had been shot at a home on the 100 block of Yedda Road, east of Lumberton.
Deputies responded and found Byrd, his wife, Judy, 65, and his 19-year-old granddaughter at the home.
The family told them that a man came to the door and said he was having problems with his vehicle and needed water.
Two men wearing black clothing, ski masks and gloves forced their way into the home and demanded money, Sealey said.
All three of the men had guns.
The Byrds were pushed to the back of their home and instructed to open a safe.
When the men tried to rape the couple's granddaughter, Byrd grabbed a gun and exchanged shots with the assailants, Sealey said.
The men fled in Byrd's car.
Byrd was taken to Southeastern Regional Medical Center and later airlifted to an unidentified hospital.
Later, the Sheriff's Office was notified that two people who had been shot came to McLeod Medical Center in Dillon, South Carolina.
Both were airlifted to an unidentified hospital for emergency surgery, Sealey said.
The Sheriff's Office identified them as Brandon Carver Stephens, 28, whose last known address was N.C. 130 East in Fairmont, and Jamar Hawkins, 17, of Old Whiteville Road in Lumberton.
They will be charged upon their release from the hospital, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said.
Faison, Stephens and Hawkins are believed to have been involved in other home invasion robberies, Sealey said.
Anyone with information should call the Sheriff's Office at 910-671-3100 and ask for the Homicide Division.
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian police on Wednesday busted a violent gang comprising at least five police officers that controlled three Rio de Janeiro shantytowns.
Authorities said 15 suspected gang members were arrested in the first few hours of the operation, among them Rio de Janeiro state police Pvt. Carlos Roberto Bernardo.
The gang, according to authorities, employed torture, homicide, assaults and threats to hold sway over the Campinho, Fuba and Caixa D’Agua “favelas,” all located on Rio’s north side.
Police Inspector Alexandre Capote described the gang as “extremely violent” and said members would post photos of their dead victims on the Internet.
The gang extorted “security fees” from favela residents and merchants and maintaining monopolies over utilities, cable television and Internet and public transportation.
About 450 police officers were deployed for the operation that closed two gambling parlors and seized a sizable arsenal of firearms and ammunition.
At least three suspected gang members resisted and attempted to shoot at arresting officers.
In recent years Rio de Janeiro has seen the emergence of self-proclaimed “militias,” usually made up of current and former cops.
Militias have expelled drug trafficking gangs from tens of favelas only to impose their own criminal rule over the neighborhoods.
MEXICO CITY – A federal judge has been removed from the bench after he was found to have engaged in sexual and workplace harassment, the Mexican Federal Judiciary Council said.
Rafael Zamudio Arias is also being investigated in connection with financial transactions totaling more than 4.49 million pesos ($326,453), a sum that cannot be accounted for based on his salary as a judge, the CJF said.
Zamudio Arias was the senior federal judge in the Second Circuit in Toluca, a city located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Mexico City.
The judge was found to have engaged in the “serious conduct” of sexual and workplace harassment “against several and different public servants,” the CJF said.
Zamudio Arias’s banking transactions are under investigation because the funds could be related to illicit enrichment and illegal transactions, the Federal Judiciary Council said.
Iran's hosting of Asian Men's Volleyball Championship has been cancelled, the Iranian Volleyball Federation has acknowledged.
The prestigious men's event will instead be held in Taipei in August, and the 1st Asian Men's U23 Championship will be held Nay Pyi Taw city in Myanmar in May, the Asian Volleyball Federation has ruled.
An Iranian Volleyball Federation official told the state-run news agency ISNA that he did not know why the games had been axed and accused the head of AVC of 'lacking firmness'.
Saeed Derakhshandeh added: "I do not know why they have taken back the hosting of these games and transferred to Myanmar. I think the head of AVC lacks firmness."
Last month the International Federation of Volleyball (FIVB) sanctioned Iran from hosting international events for as long as women are not allowed to watch the games.
The announcement from FIVB came a week after a woman was jailed in Iran for trying to attend a volleyball match.
Maryam Rajavi: West must show resolve if it is to stop Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear bomb
Cooperation with Iranian regime under pretense of fighting ISIS is not a solution but a recipe for disaster
Maryam Rajavi, Iranian Resistance President-elect Maryam Rajavi told a conference at the European Parliament on Wednesday, December 10: "The West needs to show resolve to stop Iran from obtaining the nuclear bomb."
She stressed: "This nuclear program enjoys no legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people. According to government figures, 12 million Iranian people are suffering from hunger. They do not want this program to continue."
Rajavi pointed to the increase in atrocities by the fundamentalists in Syria and Iraq, and asked: "Why are Western governments not standing up to a regime that is the 'Godfather of ISIS' with a record a hundred times worse than ISIS. How can European governments justify their silence vis-à-vis the regime’s suppression? More regrettable is the fact that the regime’s lobby has been encouraged to promote collaboration with the Iranian regime as the solution to defeating ISIS. This is not a solution, but a recipe for disaster."
In the conference held on the internationally recognised Human Rights Day, Mrs Rajavi referred to the bloody record of the velayat-e faqih regime and the gloomy record of its so-called moderate President Mullah Rouhani with atrocities such as the splashing of acid on defenseless women or the stabbing of female students and said: "The regime of velayat-e faqih lacks any capacity to reform. Since Rouhani became President, at least 1,200 have been executed. In the past 25 years, we have not seen as many executions as in the first year of Rouhani’s presidency. Nor have we seen so many opposition members being massacred or taken hostage. Nor have we seen Iranian women being the target of criminal campaigns to this extent.
Mrs Rajavi condemned the conduct of some Western governments that sacrifice human rights in Iran for their relations with the religious dictatorship and said: "Look at the bitter outcomes of European delegations’ visits to Tehran in the past year. The mullahs used each and every one of them to increase executions."
This conference was held with the participation of senior representatives of the European Parliament from various political groups. In another part of her speech Mrs Rajavi said "Now is the time to intensify the pressure on the regime. The mullahs agreed to negotiate due to mounting pressure. They stalled on signing the agreement due to West’s concessions. The only way forward is more pressure and more sanctions.
"There is no light at the end of tunnel of marathon talks. There is a nuclear bomb at the end of the tunnel."
Mrs Rajavi said in another part of her speech: "The regime is entangled in a destructive power struggle at the top, while Iranian society is deeply discontent and on the verge of another uprising."
Mrs Rajavi expressed her abhorrence for the continuation of the six-year siege against Iranian dissidents in Iraq (Camp Liberty) and urged the EU to 'change its policy and show resolve in face of the brutal theocracy ruling Iran'.
She said that in this new policy:
Any ties with the Iranian regime should be linked to the improvement of the situation of human rights; the leaders of this regime should face justice; the regime should be forced to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions, halt the uranium enrichment, and accept international inspection of all suspect sites and centers.
And the siege on Camp Liberty, especially the medical blockade, should be completely lifted and the Camp Liberty file should be handed over to institutions with no ties to this regime instead of the Iranian regime’s agents.
This conference that was presided over by MEP Gerard Deprez, Belgian State Minister and EP representative, a number of political figures also spoke at this conference including Howard Dean, former U.S. Presidential candidate and former Chairman of the Democratic Party; Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of European Parliament (1999-2014) and President of International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) ; Struan Stevenson, President of European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA); and a number of European Parliament legislators, including Mairead McGuinness, Vice-President of European Parliament; Patrizia Toia, Eduard Kukan, José Bové, Anna Záborská, Julie Ward, Tunne Kelam, José Manuel Fernandes as well as former MEP, Stephen Hughes and Paulo Casaca, former members of the European Parliament.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian police on Wednesday busted a violent gang comprising at least five police officers that controlled three Rio de Janeiro shantytowns.
MEXICO CITY – A federal judge has been removed from the bench after he was found to have engaged in sexual and workplace harassment, the Mexican Federal Judiciary Council said.
