Iraqi Parliament Elects Kurd As President, While Saddam Hussein Watches From His Jail Cel
By MARIAM FAM Associated Press Writer

08/04/2005 (KurdishMedia) IWPR -By Kamran Al-Karadaghi in London (ICR No. 120, 07-Apr-05)
The debate over the new constitution could turn into the real “mother of all battles”. The National Assembly this week made history more than once. Members chose a Kurd as the first ever democratically elected president of the country.

ISTANBUL, April 7 (AFP) - 17h02 - Turkey will not bow to European Union pressure to recognize the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide as a condition for joining the EU, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said Thursday.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) - Iraq's transitional National Assembly chose a president and two vice presidents Wednesday in a televised session reportedly watched by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein

By Mariam Karouny BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new president on Wednesday, breaking a political impasse and paving the way for a new government more than nine weeks after historic elections.

From correspondents in Damascus, Syria March 31, 2005
SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad, in a bid to fortify national unity, today pardoned 312 Syrian Kurds accused of taking part in riots.

DAMASCUS, March 24 (AFP) - 15h32 - Syrian authorities arrested more than 40 Kurds following Kurdish New Year celebrations in the northern city of Aleppo, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said Thursday.

- 2005/03/16- Iraq's political and ethnic rivalries have long converged on Kirkuk, the northern city that commands the country's biggest oilfields. The Kurds of northern Iraq see it as a potential seat of power, a site of emotional as well as economic significance.

Meanwhile real power, until recently, has rested with the city's Arab population, boosted by migrants from the south under Saddam Hussein's "Arabisation" programme.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 13/010/2005 (Public) - News Service No: 052 - 3 March 2005

Amnesty International is alarmed at reports that human rights defenders in Sanandaj, Iranian Kordestan, working on children and women's rights are facing threats in connection with their human rights work. It is feared that such harassment may increase towards International Women's Day on 8 March.

By Jonny Dymond - BBC News, Istanbul

The trial has started in Turkey of four policemen accused of the unlawful killing of a man and his child in the south-eastern province of Mardin.
Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz were shot and killed in what security forces said was an anti-terrorism operation.