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Many families of protesters fallen during the recent anti-government protests marked the New Year (Nowruz) at the side of the graves of their loved ones this year.

My son was a hero. He was martyred for his country Unity is the key to our victory, said Zhila Khakpour in an Instagram post taken at the side of her sons grave at Tehrans Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on Thursday.

Zhilas 25-year-old son, Ali Seyedi, was shot dead by security forces at a protest rally in Parand, a town 30km to the south of the capital Tehran, on November 4. In the video she posted, she felicitated Iranians for the coming of the new Iranian year and thanked them for supporting the family during their ordeal.

Jila Khakpour at her sons grave vowing to avenge his killing.

Everyone says they will avenge you. God willing, we will avenge the bloods of all of you. My darling, I will never let your blood to be trampled on, she says sitting next to the grave and caressing the image of her son engraved on the stone.

Iranians usually visit the graves of their loved ones on the last Thursday of the year. They wash the graves, adorn it with flowers and candles, and distribute sweets and fruits to those visiting the cemetery but this year the visits have continued into the holiday season with people chanting anti-government slogans and vowing to take revenge in several cases.

Local people and family marking the New Year at Mahsa Aminis grave.

Hours before the turn of the year, a large crowd gathered at the grave of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in Saqqez in northwestern Iran. The twenty-two-year-olds death in the custody of the morality police on September 16 sparked a wave of protests across the country that lasted for months.

Videos posted on social media show participants in the ceremony bearing torches and flowers to her grave, singing Kurdish mourning songs and stamping their feet.

People chanting Down with the Dictator at the grave of young chef, Mehrshad Shahidi in Arak

In photos widely shared on social media, a little girl Bavan is seen standing at her mothers grave in Mahabad at Nowruz. The young woman, Fereshteh Ahmadi, was shot in Mahabad on the roof of her house while watching the protests with her little girl. Her grave, like many others in Kurdish areas of Iran, is draped in red tulle and is adorned with red flowers to show that she was martyred.

Some other photos posted on social media show the friends and classmates of the ten-year-old Kian Pourfalak at the side of his grave thousands of kilometers away, in Izeh in southwest Iran, shortly before the turn of the year Monday.

Kian was shot by plainclothesmen in the family car in November during a night of protests in Izeh. His father, Meysam Pirfalk has been confined to a wheelchair after months of hospitalization and several surgeries but his mother, Zeynab Molaei-Rad and his three-year-old brother Radin were unharmed in the attack.

People in Izeh chanting against Khamenei and IRGC at the grave of Kian Pourfalak before the turn of the year.

The government has arrested several citizens it accuses of terrorism for the shooting, but Zeynab insists it was the security forces that killed her son. In a fiery speech at her sons burial, she said she had no doubt about who had shot her family and implicitly accused Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of responsibility for her young sons killing.

There were dozens of children and teenagers among the over 500 killed during the protests across Iran, either as protesters or bystanders. The deaths of the children caused protesters to dub the regime as child-killer.

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Families Mark Iran New Year At Graveside Of Slain Protesters -

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the multilateral platform that provides the backbone for diplomacy in the Arabian Peninsula, an area in full effervescence that sets the agenda in the Middle East. The Arab forum, divided into blocs since the outbreak of the Arab Spring, remains subject to strong internal tensions despite the diplomatic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other members of the organisation with Qatar, the fractious partner that promoted the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood after the revolutionary outbreak and built bridges with Turkey and Iran, hostile actors for the group's interests.

The Al-Ula declaration, signed in January 2021 by the six GCC members, served to finally bury the hatchet after the protracted boycott of Qatar. Since then, relations with Doha have improved at all levels. They have done so, albeit unevenly. While the Saudis and Qataris have resumed direct flights, reopened land borders - in fact, the only land border that tiny Qatar has - and re-established diplomatic relations, the Emiratis and Qataris are moving more slowly. On the other hand, rapprochement between Qatar and Bahrain is virtually non-existent.

After Al-Ula, a series of contacts began between Iran and the Gulf states aimed at sealing a period of dtente at the regional level, which would accommodate Iran's interests. The surprise announcement last week from Beijing of the restoration of relations between Tehran and Riyadh was the final blow. Therefore, any message from the Gulf Cooperation Council in the coming months will be decisive in taking the pulse of the process. Expectations are high.

The organisation held an important meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday. The Saudi capital hosted the 155th session of the Council of Ministers, the highest authority of the forum after the Supreme Council, the body reserved for the heads of state of the member countries. Its quarterly meetings, except in emergencies and rare exceptions, serve to outline the organisation's policies for the immediate future. Decisions are then passed to the Supreme Council, which is ultimately responsible for their approval.

The Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Bahrain and Oman took centre stage at the summit. The latter, Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by the organisation's secretary general, Kuwait's Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi. The head of Omani diplomacy, who led the preliminary negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, welcomed the China-sponsored bilateral thaw. "This agreement represents an important step in the context of the common goals of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries," he told his counterparts.

"The Council expressed its hope that this agreement will constitute a positive step towards resolving differences and putting an end to all regional disputes through dialogue and diplomatic means," said the organisation's final statement, which recognised "the value of the mediation efforts" that had been made before China by both the Sultanate of Oman and Iraq, in both cases without success. But the Asian giant is not satisfied with that and intends to organise a summit between Iran and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the short term, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Yemen is the only country on the Arabian Peninsula that is not a member of the group. The evolution of the war will depend to a large extent on the recomposition of Iranian-Saudi relations. Tehran has pledged to persuade the Houthis to de-escalate the confrontation. But the Arab organisation, led by Riyadh, remains unwavering in its stance on Yemen. "The Council affirmed its full support for the Presidential Leadership Council [the internationally recognised Yemeni government] and its supporting entities to achieve security and stability," the statement said, calling on the Iranian-backed rebels to "respond to the requests of the Presidential Leadership Council to negotiate under UN supervision with the aim of reaching a political solution".

Another stumbling block to reshaping relations between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council will be the dispute over the islands of Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb. The Arab organisation again condemned "the Iranian occupation of the three islands under the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates" and called on the Islamic Republic to abandon the three islands, and to relinquish territorial waters, airspace, the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone, as well as to resolve the dispute through "direct negotiations" or through the International Court of Justice.

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Dtente between Iran and Saudi Arabia sets the agenda of the Gulf ... - Atalayar

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers his State of the State address

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has positioned himself as the architect of a new conservative vision for the nation during his annual State of the State address. (March 7)

AP

A spike in illegal immigration and victory in a key lawsuithas given Gov. Ron DeSantis ammunition in support of his hardline stance on immigration policies.

Only the southwest border states of Texas, Arizona, California and New Mexico have seen more undocumented immigrants than Florida so far this fiscal year, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Florida ranks just ahead of New York and well ahead of most other states nationwide, with a total of 57,816 contacts with those who have entered the country illegally between October and February. That is more than the number of contacts made in the state during the entire 2022 and 2021 fiscal years combined.

Of those, a total of 5,005 individuals have been apprehended.

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DeSantis and Scott: Two Florida GOP governors with separate paths on immigration and elections

Immigration from four countries has fueled the growing trend, with authorities making contact with 19,442 Venezuelan nationals, 12,840 Cuban nationals, 6,344 Haitian nationals, and 4,201 Ukrainian nationals in Florida between October and February.

However, Cuban nationals account for the bulk of undocumented immigrants who were detained, accounting for 4,398 of the total 5,005 apprehensions this year. Only 349 Haitians were apprehended, and zero Ukrainians and Venezuelans.

On March 8, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump issued a 109-page final order ruling in Floridas favor in a lawsuit against the United States, placing the blame on federal Parole and Alternative to Detention policies for enticing foreign nationals into crossing into the United States illegally under the belief they would eventually be released into the country.

Florida argued that over 100,000 of those immigrants have been released into the state, causing a rise in the cost of public services, citing increases in the amount of undocumented children who attend public schools and costs of other services such as incarceration, unemployment benefits, and emergency Medicaid.

For the most part, the Court finds in favor of Florida because, as detailed below, the evidence establishes that Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country by prioritizing 'alternatives to detention' over actual detention and by releasing more than a million aliens into the country on 'parole' without even initiating removal proceedings, Judge Thomas Kent Wetherell of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida wrote in the final order.

DeSantis touted Floridas legal victory against the Biden Administration during a recent stop in Iowa, where he also trumpeted state-level efforts to bolster enforcement.

When I became governor, we finally banned sanctuary cities in the state of Florida, we recently sued Biden over his catch and release policy and guess what, this week a federal judge in the Florida Panhandle ruled that his catch and release policy is illegal and unconstitutional. So they are going to have to change something, DeSantis said.

On March 9 the Biden administration issued a statement outlining new efforts to bolster border security while also enhancing legal pathways.

"Over the past two years, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured more resources for border security than any of the presidents who preceded him, deployed the most agents ever more than 23,000 to address the situation at the border, prevented record levels of illicit fentanyl from entering our country, and brought together world leaders on a framework to deal with changing migration patterns," his administration said in the media release.

"The Administration has also put in place new measures to enhance security at the border and reduce the number of individuals crossing unlawfully between ports of entry while expanding and expediting legal pathways for orderly migration. The president also outlined new consequences for those who fail to use these new legal pathways."

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Illegal immigration in Florida: A by-the-numbers look at a surge - Tallahassee Democrat

Border Patrol agents apprehended 17 undocumented non-citizens from a single home in Lisbon Falls on Tuesday. (WGME)

LISBON FALLS (WGME) - A hit-and-run being investigated by Lisbon police led to a month-long operation that ended Tuesday night with 17 undocumented migrants being removed from aLisbon Falls home.

Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee says in February, their station responded to a hit-and-run crash in Lisbon Falls.

With that investigation, police say they learned that those involved in the hit-and-run may have been in the United States illegally.

Police reached out to Border Patrol and figured out the suspects were connected to 93 Main Street in Lisbon Falls.

Lisbon police arrested 17 illegal and undocumented immigrants at 93 Main Street in Lisbon Falls. (WGME){p}{/p}

The investigation led to a house in Lisbon Falls where 17 undocumented non-citizens were discovered Tuesday night.

The agents say they determined the undocumented non-citizens worked for a Massachusetts-based company. The company rented the house to provide a residence for the migrants.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 17 undocumented non-citizens from a single home in Lisbon Falls on Tuesday. (US Border Patrol Houlton Sector)

Border Patrol says the subjects, from Nicaragua and Guatemala, add to a growing trend of undocumented non-citizens transiting in and out of Maine.

Border Patrol officers took the undocumented non-citizens to Rangeleyfor processing.

McGee says before the Androscoggin County Sheriffs Office and the Oxford County Sheriffs Office showed up with transport vans, the arrested individuals were sat on a town bus to wait and stay warm.

"They were cooperative, everything went very peacefully," McGee said.

Lisbon Police arrested 17 illegal and undocumented immigrants at 93 Main Street in Lisbon Falls. (WGME){p}{/p}

During processing, Border Patrol says two of the subjects from Guatemala were found to have re-entered the United States after being previously removed. Reentering the United States after removal is a felony crime, punishable by a fine and not more than two years of prison.

Four undocumented non-citizens were found to have entered the United States illegally along the southwest border and were already in removal proceedings. Those subjects were released to await immigration proceedings.

The other subjects from Nicaragua and Guatemala were entered into removal proceedings, according to Border Patrol.

This incident remains under investigation.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 17 undocumented non-citizens from a single home in Lisbon Falls on Tuesday. (US Border Patrol Houlton Sector)

CBS13 spoke with two people who say they live at the address and own a construction company.

They didn't want to go on camera but said the people taken into custody were hard workers.

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17 undocumented migrants removed from home in Lisbon Falls - WGME

Police in Lisbon, Maine, said they arrested 17 undocumented immigrants on Tuesday following an investigation involving the U.S. Border Patrol.

Lisbon police said they made the arrests around 8 p.m. Tuesday at an address on Maine Street in Lisbon Falls. The arrested individuals are from Guatemala and Nicaragua, police said.

The U.S. Border Patrol said in a statement that the building they raided was being used as part of an "elaborate human smuggling scheme." They became aware of the operation as a result of a hit-and-run crash in Lisbon on Tuesday.

The undocumented immigrants were working for a Massachusetts-based company that had rented the house to provide them with a residence. No information was released about the company's name or whether they might face any penalties.

We are seeing a sharp increase in the flow of illegal labor in and out of Maine, William J. Maddocks, chief patrol agent with the U.S. Border Patrol in Maine, said in a statement. Housing 17 people in one house is unsafe and degrading. The exploitation of the undocumented population will continue as long as there is no consequence. We will do all we can to remove the incentives that drive such exploitation, including the continued issuance of civil penalties, fines, and seeking federal criminal prosecution through the U.S. Attorneys office for every criminal law violation we encounter.

Androscoggin County and the Oxford County sheriffs assisted in transporting the 17 people to detention centers in Rangeley for processing. Two of the subjects were found to have re-entered the U.S. after having previously been removed. Four others were found to have entered the U.S. illegally along the southwest border and were released to await immigration proceedings. The other subjects were entered into removal proceedings.

The incident remains under investigation, the U.S. Border Patrol said.

Federal authorities added 25 border patrol agents at the northeastern U.S. border with Quebec earlier this month in response to a recent spike in illegal crossings.

Statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that agents in the sector apprehended 1,513 illegal border crossers between Oct. 1, 2022 through Jan. 31, 2023, up from 160 in the same period the year before. But the total number apprehended along the entire northern border this fiscal year, 2,227, is a small fraction of those apprehended along the U.S.-Mexican border during that same period, 762,383.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Lisbon Maine Undocumented Immigrant Arrests - NECN