32 killed, 110 wounded in double suicide bomb attack in central Baghdad: health ministry
Frantically dashing between hospital beds, Baghdad residents tried to track down relatives who may have died Thursday (January 21) in a twin suicide blast -- the deadliest attack in years.
Forensics teams in war-shattered Libya have discovered 10 more bodies in mass graves in a once militia-controlled town outside the capital Tripoli, the Government of National Accord said on Thursday (January 21).
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday (January 21) called on Egypt to release two journalists who disappeared about two weeks ago on charges including "spreading false news".
Turkey's central bank on Thursday (January 21) kept its main interest rate steady at 17 percent after two consecutive hikes aimed at slowing down inflation and supporting the slumping lira currency.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Planning Dara Rashid said on Thursday (January 21) that a KRG delegation will travel to Baghdad on Saturday or Sunday for meetings with federal officials.
The US dollars to the Iraqi dinar (IQD) exchange rates was up on the Kurdistan Region’s currency markets on Thursday (January 21).
The European Union will on Thursday (January 21) press Turkey to make good on recent gestures from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to calm tensions, as Ankara's foreign minister visits Brussels.
Iraq's Ministry of Health said on Thursday (January 21) that 32 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in a rare suicide bomb attack in central Baghdad.
During a visit to the Kurdistan Region, Federal Minister of Industry and Minerals Manhal al-Khabbaz said on Wednesday (January 21) that his ministry will launch a three-phase plan to improve Iraq’s industrial sector.
Crude oil prices were down on Thursday (January 21) compared with the previous day.
Senior leaders from the Kurdistan Region released congratulatory messages to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday (January 20) as the pair took office at the start of a new administration, a reflection of Biden’s long history of engagement with the Region and its leaders.
Three days after finding approximately $150,000 in cash, a man in Sulaimani was told by police on Wednesday (January 20) that he has to turn the money over to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the event that no one claims it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday (January 20) urged new US President Joe Biden to "strengthen" a long-standing alliance between the two countries, partly to confront the "threat" posed by Iran.
Tehran on Wednesday (January 20) accused Washington "hostage-taking" after the United States arrested an Iranian academic on charges of acting as an agent of the Islamic republic, ISNA news agency reported.
Egypt and Qatar agreed Wednesday to restore diplomatic relations, Egypt's foreign ministry said, after a three-year-long Saudi led freeze on ties with Doha ended this month.
Joe Biden took charge as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday (January 21) with an upbeat call to heal a nation torn by deep schisms as he immediately erased some of Donald Trump's most divisive policies.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Wednesday (January 20) asserted that the KRG has always worked to have excellent relations with the federal government and that he wanted to solve disagreements between Erbil and Baghdad in accordance with the constitution.
Representative of the Communications Department of the Erbil/Koya East Asayish Directorate Darbaz Sabr said on Wednesday (January 20) that a gunman shot up a barbershop at around 03:00 a.m. that morning, spraying it with at least seventeen bullets.
Residents protested in Chamchamal’s Mamostayan neighborhood on Wednesday (January 20) about poor public services, in particular unpaved roads and lack of reliable access to piped water.
Responding to criticism from a human rights group, a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official on Tuesday (January 19) claimed that protesters are allowed to express their views and demands and justified violence against demonstrators on the part of the security forces as necessary to protect the public interest.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday (January 20) hailed the departure of "tyrant" US counterpart Donald Trump, who is due to leave office later in the day making way for President-elect Joe Biden.
Activist Hawre Kurdi was attacked on Tuesday night (January 19) by armed men in Twaraq village near the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil.
Plastic bottles, aluminum cans, clothes, sometimes spaghetti. When a tractor tows in fresh rubbish at a dump in northeast Syria, men, women and children rush to find the best pickings.
Crude oil prices were up on Wednesday (January 20) compared with the previous day.
Qoratu/Khanaqin Court of First Instance on Tuesday (January 19) issued arrest warrants for four men in connection with alleged crimes at the Parwezkhan border crossing with Iran as part of an effort to crack down on smuggling and corruption.
New Generation Movement lawmaker in the Kurdistan Parliament Kawa Abdulqadr warned on Tuesday (January 19) that proposed changes to the Kurdistan Region’s counterterrorism legislation could have a political dimension and be used to stifle free expression.
Qatar has called for Gulf Arab countries to hold talks with Iran, the foreign minister said in an interview aired Tuesday (January 19), after Doha reconciled with its neighbors following a rift.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Tuesday (January 19) and discussed implementation of the Sinjar agreement signed last autumn by Erbil and Baghdad.
An oil pipeline caught fire near Gwer on Tuesday afternoon (January 19) after it was punctured by oil smugglers.
Iraq increased its oil exports to 88.21 million barrels during December, which brought in $4.235 billion, the country’s oil ministry said on Tuesday (January 19) citing final statistics released by the state exporter SOMO.
Iraq’s Council of Ministers voted unanimously on Tuesday (January 19) to delay the country’s early parliamentary elections until October 10.
Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden's choice to be secretary of state, will vow Tuesday (January 19) that the United States will "outcompete" a rising China while reviving frayed alliances, in a sea change from Donald Trump's go-it-alone "America First" approach.
The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said on Tuesday (January 19) that Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has authorized it to extend the deadline for political alliances and candidates by two months in an effort to address readiness concerns about early parliamentary elections.
The US dollars to the Iraqi dinar (IQD) exchange rates was up on the Kurdistan Region’s currency markets on Tuesday (January 19).
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Electricity Kamal Muhammed said on Tuesday (January 19) that a nearly $8 million electricity infrastructure project has been completed in Erbil governorate, adding that the new equipment will increase the number of hours of electricity available on the national grid.
Syrian mother Dahouk Idriss says she can't wait for US President-elect Joe Biden to be inaugurated Wednesday, so she can finally visit her son for the first time in four years.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) on Monday (January 18) characterized a call from Iraq’s oil minister to hand over control of the Region’s oil industry to the federal government as an “unconstitutional request.”
Member of the Energy Committee in the Council of Representatives Amjad al-Oqabi said on Monday (January 18) that Iraq has sufficient natural gas capacity to operate all of its electricity generation plants without needing to import supplies.
Delband Rawanduzi spoke softly to her oak seedlings, as if willing them to grow fast and repopulate forests in the Kurdistan Region depleted by war, illegal logging, and fires.
Iranian Kurdish refugees living in the Kurdistan Region protested outside of the UN office in Erbil on Monday (January 18) about their inability to obtain identity and residency cards issued by host governments Erbil and Baghdad, which are necessary to accomplish basic tasks like receiving medical care, getting a job, or registering property in their names.
Crude oil prices were up on Tuesday (January 19) compared with the previous day.
Deputy Head of Fatah Alliance in the Council of Representatives Hassan Shaker said on Monday (January 18) that his bloc considerers a call by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to delay early parliamentary elections until October as a prelude to further postponements.
An outbreak of bird flu has killed tens of thousands of hens in a rural province north of Iraq's capital, decimating livelihoods overnight as authorities scramble to contain its spread.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Turkish Defense Minister Halusi Akar met on Monday (January 18) and agreed about the importance of addressing “terrorist threats” along their shared border, Kadhimi’s media office said in a statement.
Iranian authorities executed an ethnically Kurdish inmate at Sanandaj Central Prison on Monday (January 18), according to a human rights group.
Head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) caucus in the Council of Representatives Ala Talabani said on Monday (January 18) that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has agreed to transfer 250,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq's oil marketer SOMO in exchange for financial benefits from the federal budget.
Head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Faleh al-Fayyadh said on Sunday (January 17) that the PMF is not an exclusively Shia force, pointing to the Hashd al-Ashairi (Tribal Forces) as evidence.
Some 150 Yemeni pro-government soldiers and Huthi rebels have been killed in a week of fighting south of the strategic port city of Hodeida, military sources said Monday (January 18).
The US dollars to the Iraqi dinar (IQD) exchange rates was up on the Kurdistan Region’s currency markets on Monday (January 18).
Three Syrian soldiers were killed Sunday (January 17) when gunmen attacked their outpost close to the demarcation line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Inmates at Garmian Detention and Transfer Prison staged a protest on Sunday morning (January 17) and set fire to a building at the facility over alleged discrimination in the allocation of privileges and delays in their court cases.
Crude oil prices were down on Monday (January 18) compared with the previous day.
Two tents housing displaced families at the Bajd Kandal Camp in Duhok’s Zakho district caught fire on Sunday (January 17).
Spokesperson for the Change Movement (Gorran) Adnan Osman has stepped down from that position and from the party’s Executive Body citing his opposition to Gorran’s lack of ambition or purpose, according to a letter that released on Sunday (January 17).
Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) revealed on Sunday (January 17) that it has proposed to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi that early parliamentary elections be delayed until October 16 because of problems ensuring that parties and voters are registered ahead of the current June 6 date.
Member of the Council of Representatives’ Oil and Energy Committee Amjad al-Uqabi on Sunday (January 17) claimed that the government is leaving nearly 90 billion Iraqi dinars ($61.43 million) on the table in uncollected electricity fees and other problems with the electricity distribution network in Baghdad.
Chamchamal Mayor Ramak Ramazan said on Sunday (January 17) that $7.5 million in proceeds from local gas sales was deposited in the district’s bank account at the International Kurdistan Bank in Erbil between March 2017 and September 2018 and used to improve local infrastructure.
The world is falling short of promises made under the Paris climate deal to help the most vulnerable nations deal with the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations.
Six Iraqi military personnel were killed and three others were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in Nineveh’s Tal Afar district on Sunday (January 17).
As part of an effort to take advantage of the Kurdistan Region’s potential for harnessing the power of the sun, Sulaimani Electricity Directorate said on Sunday (January 17) that a private company will build a 200-kilowatt solar power station in the governorate.
