European Kurds swap violins for Kalashnikovs
Hundreds of Kurds from across Western Europe are returning to Iraq’s Kurdistan region to join the peshmerga's ranks and help defend their ancestral lands from the jihadist threat. As the sun dips into the dusty horizon, Lukman Hassan and Hussein Mohammad emerge from their armoured personnel carrier emblazoned with the official flag of Iraq’s Kur…
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HIV epidemic in iraqi kurdistan?
Figures show that those infected with HIV/AIDS in Iraqi Kurdistan have increased from two to 107. And international experts warn that locals need to discuss topics like this more openly, or risk an epidemic. Three days after the 41-year-old man from Cameroon arrived in the semi-autonomous state of Iraqi Kurdistan who was deported. His crime? The m…
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Killing is the talk of US Iraqis'
This day's English lessons for Iraqi immigrants at Cuyamaca College involved learning how to talk about bad news. From their text, "Day by Day: English for Employment Communication," the 25 students repeated dialogue wrapped around common occurrences: "I lost my wallet" and "My husband got fired from his job." But the stud…
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PTSD: The pain of reliving trauma
One of my first experiences of PTSD came as a psychologist working with African and Kurdish refugees. Many had fled oppressive regimes and been referred to our service by their GP suffering severe anxiety, depression and stress. We discovered the root of the problem often lay in terrible personal experiences including rape, torture and witnessing the mur…
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Kurdish unrest in Iraq
Masked attackers burned tents of protesters overnight in the main city of Iraq's Kurdistan region, police said Sunday.Hundreds of demonstrators gathered later in the day in Sulaimaniya for another protest against Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government, witnesses told CNN.The unrest in northern Iraq that erupted three weeks ago h…
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Kurds send in militias
Tensions are high in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as the head of Kurdish autonomous region has deployed new units of his Kurdish militias known locally as Peshmerga. Massoud Barzani, in comments on his decision to send in his militias, said he wanted to protect the Kurds in the city. However, he did not say from whom.The presence of Kurdish militias has igni…
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Kurdish club scene booming
Dozens of men gathered in the smoky little club to watch five scantily clad dancers sway their hips to the beat of a drum and the grooves of an electric piano. Once a common sight in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, the scene can now only be found in the more liberal Kurdish north. Dozens of dance halls and clubs have opened across the Kurdish region during the…
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