The ordered departure of non-essential US personnel from Iraq also applies to staff at the US Consulate General in Erbil, the US Embassy in Baghdad confirmed to Rudaw English on Thursday, as regional tensions continue to boil over.

A German politician criticized Berlin’s move to tighten migration policies and speed up deportations, and warned against mainstreaming the term “illegal migration.”

The Bavarian Supreme Court held a trial for a Kurdish couple accused of the Islamic State (ISIS) links on Monday, more than a year after their detention for several charges, including crimes against Yazidis.

Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government Deputy Prime Minister and leading member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), expressed optimism about the process of forming a new coalition government with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The process will be “different” this time, he stressed.

The city of Paris celebrated Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, for the first time at city hall on Thursday, with Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representative to France Ali Dolamari in attendance.

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