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U.S. and Iranian negotiators huddled in a venerable lakefront luxury hotel in Geneva on Monday, trying to close the gaps in their positions on what the future of Iran's nuclear program should be and when sanctions against Iran might be lifted.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, led their respective delegations — which featured new faces, in the latest sign that the talks are advancing.

The Iranian contingent featured far fewer reporters and added delegates such as Hossein Fereydoon, a key adviser to President Hassan Rouhani (and Rouhani's brother) and Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akhbar Salehi. The U.S. added Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

The two sides are trying to achieve a framework agreement by next month, and have given themselves until the end of June to flesh out that framework into a comprehensive deal.

Broadly speaking, the U.S. and its five negotiating partners — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — are pressing Tehran to shrink its ability to produce nuclear fuel by enriching uranium, and to dispose of much of the fuel it does produce in order to ease international fears that Iran could covertly refine the fuel to weapons-grade level.

For its part, Iran is demanding an early and permanent lifting of the key sanctions strangling its economy, rather than temporary suspensions or phased-in sanctions relief targeted to Iranian nuclear concessions.

Critics of this nuclear diplomacy are stepping up their attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday that "it's astonishing that even after the recent IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] report determined that Iran is continuing to hide the military components of its nuclear program, the nuclear talks ... are proceeding."

Iranian leader Rouhani said Monday that Netanyahu's claims are "sheer lies," according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

In fact, the IAEA's latest report does not conclude that Iran is hiding military components of its program, as Netanyahu alleged. The agency does say it has longstanding questions about past research and other activities that Iran has yet to explain.

Rouhani's "sheer lies" response, however, side-stepped Netanyahu's claim about military aspects and focused instead on Iran's homegrown uranium enrichment program, which grew by leaps and bounds after nuclear talks collapsed a decade ago.

Criticism of the nuclear talks is expected to ratchet up when Netanyahu travels to Washington to address Congress on March 3 despite the White House's objections. The Israeli leader has made plain his intention to blast any deal with Iran.

Congressional Democrats have said they won't vote on any new Iran legislation before March 24. If negotiators can hammer out a framework agreement laying out the major points of a final deal before then, the White House might be able to persuade Congress not to pass legislation that might jeopardize the talks while there's still a chance of success.

In any event, all negotiating teams say there's no interest in extending the talks past July 1. However, it's worth noting that similar claims were made as previous deadlines approached.

iran nuclear talks

Hassan Rouhani

Secretary of State John Kerry

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Iran

Noting deadly attacks by Russian-backed separatists who have renewed a push near the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine says it can't withdraw heavy weapons from the front lines, as required by a week-old cease-fire.

"Ukraine's military says two government soldiers were killed and about 10 wounded in the past 24 hours," NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow. "A government spokesman say its positions were hit by shelling 27 times in the past day. Meanwhile, of course, the separatists are claiming that the government initiates the attacks."

The observance of the cease-fire that took effect in Ukraine last Sunday remains a subject of debate. Days after it began, separatists fighters surrounded the town of Debaltseve, a railroad hub. Now Ukraine worries that in Mariupol, another strategic area is being targeted.

Despite the cease-fire, "shelling from the Russian side has continued along the Mariupol front," the Kyiv Post reports, "and Ukraine's military expect the Azov Sea port city of 500,000 people will be the target of a major Russian assault within the next weeks."

In some areas, the clash has quieted down. Over the weekend, the two sides performed a prisoner exchange; another is tentatively planned for March. But even as they urge an end to the fighting, the U.S. and its European allies say new sanctions could be announced against Russia if the cease-fire fails.

"Tensions are high in Ukraine, where tens of thousands of people rallied in Kyiv over the weekend," Corey reports. "They were commemorating the deaths of scores of people who were killed by sniper fire at demonstrations a year ago, and the ouster Ukraine's former president."

Late Sunday, two people died in eastern Ukraine, after a bomb went off at a pro-Kiev rally.

Ukraine

Russia

At a camp for displaced people in northern Iraq, you pass rows of tents to reach the clinic run by the International Medical Corps. They have medicines to treat all kinds of problems: diabetes shots, vaccines, heart pills.

But it's harder to cure what's afflicting this woman.

"The pain inside of me is so deep," she says. "I just cry every day."

Militants from the group that calls itself the Islamic State kidnapped the woman's adult son in June, and she doesn't know his fate.

Her husband expresses the loss in more destructive ways.

I've totally changed. I'm not like normal people any more. I don't expect to be fixed.

- A 29-year-old man who watched extremists cover his friend in kerosene and set him on fire

"I've become mentally ill," he says. "When my wife tries to talk to me, I just lash out. I hit her."

People in Iraq have lived with war for more than a decade. But aid workers say the ISIS practice of public beheading and other brutal forms of mass violence is creating new levels of psychological trauma among the Iraqi people.

During one afternoon in Baharka camp clinic, a parade of people came sharing their stories of trauma. We're not using the names of these patients, because they still have family in areas controlled by ISIS, and they fear for their relatives' safety.

One man says ISIS extremists forced him to dig his own grave with a shovel. Another describes watching militants cover his friend in kerosene and set him on fire.

"I've totally changed," says the 29-year-old man. "I'm not like normal people any more. I don't expect to be fixed."

Overcoming Stigma, Overwhelming Numbers

It's the job of Stacy Lamon to try to fix him. Lamon is director of mental health for Iraq with the International Medical Corps.

i

Only a tiny fraction of the people at Baharka camp who need counseling and other help are receiving it. Ari Shapiro/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Ari Shapiro/NPR

Only a tiny fraction of the people at Baharka camp who need counseling and other help are receiving it.

Ari Shapiro/NPR

"I wish I had a vaccination, that I could give people a quick shot and they'd be better," Lamon says. "It doesn't work that way."

The mental health staff at this camp gives their patients counseling, and sometimes pills.

Dr. Omed Khadir Taha, one of the psychiatrists here, says he also has to tackle the stigma that goes along with mental health problems in Iraq.

"They cannot express, you know," Taha says. "Sometimes they perceive that as just a kind of weakness."

This is slow, arduous work. And only a tiny fraction of those who need help are getting it, says Lamon.

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"There [are] 3,000 people in this camp, and this is one of the smaller camps," he says. "And of the 3,000 there's only a very small portion that are being treated."

He says Iraq could be looking at a traumatized generation. But some patients give the staff reason to hope.

Imagining A Day With Less Pain

One man at the camp watched his 7-year-old son killed in front of him.

The man scrolls through images on his phone — his son, as a newborn, as a toddler. The boy is adorable, all smiles.

The man says he looks at these more times each day than he can count.

Before, he says, he was more than 90 percent in pain. Now, he says, it's decreased to 50 percent.

He is only beginning to recover.

But when asked, he says he can imagine a day when his pain diminishes even more — Inshallah, or God willing, he says.

At the end of the day, we leave the camp, and pass by this man again.

He doesn't notice us. He's sitting by himself, staring at the pictures on his phone.

Islamic State

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

mental health

Iraq

A ferry carrying more than 100 passengers capsized in Bangladesh after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing more than 30 people. At least 50 others have been rescued, officials said.

However, the death toll from the accident, which occurred about 25 miles northwest of the capital, Dhaka, was expected to rise.

The Associated Press says 31 are confirmed dead, while Reuters says 33 bodies have been recovered. Bdnews24.com, a Bangladesh news website, says 37 bodies have been found, including women and children, "with many others unaccounted for."

According to Reuters:

"The ... bodies retrieved so far from the water include a baby, Tripura said. Police have seized the trawler and arrested two of its crew, he said.

"Another police team, assisted by firemen and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, is trying to salvage the ferry, he said."

The AP reports: "The ferry was struck by the cargo vessel at the Daulatdia-Paturia crossing on the Padma River on Sunday afternoon, said fire department official Shahzadi Begum."

Bdnews24.com says the master of the cargo vessel has been arrested "along with two others" in connection with the disaster.

ferry disaster

Bangladesh