The state court in the western city of Koblenz convicted the 37-year-old of crimes against humanity, membership in a foreign terrorist organization and being an accessory to genocide, German news agency dpa reported. Authorities have identified her only as Nadine K. in line with German privacy rules.

The court found that the defendant for three years abused a young Ezidi woman “in her own interests as a household slave.” It said that her husband brought the woman to their home and regularly raped her, and that the defendant enabled those assaults and should have intervened.

Prosecutors have said that the defendant traveled to Syria with her husband in 2014 and joined IS. In 2015, the couple moved to the Iraqi town of Mosul, where they allegedly kept the Ezidi woman.

The defendant was arrested in March 2022 after being brought back to Germany from a camp in northeastern Syria where suspected members of IS have been held.

In a statement read out at her trial by a defense lawyer, she denied having coerced the Ezidi woman at any point. She said there had been frequent arguments with her husband over the woman’s presence and she was ashamed of not having done more for her.

In February, the Ezidi woman testified at the trial and said she recognized the defendant.

She traveled to Koblenz again for the verdict. “She hopes that others follow her example” and that all who committed similar crimes face trial, said her lawyer, Sonka Mehner.

The trial is the latest of several in Germany involving women who traveled to regions controlled by the IS group in Syria and Iraq.

In one case, a German convert to Islam was convicted in 2021 on charges that she allowed a 5-year-old Ezidi girl she and her husband kept as a slave to die of thirst in the sun. Her husband was subsequently convicted as well.

Earlier this year, an appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for the woman, who was given a 10-year sentence. She now risks a longer prison term.

According to statistics released today by the foundation, the incidents that occurred in the past few days in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea did not include any Kurdish or Iraqi migrants.

Ari Jalal, head of Lutka, said 555 migrants have died in the past seven years, of whom 319 have been returned and 236 are missing.

According to the head of the foundation, the number of Iraqi refugees who migrated ranks 12th in the world.

From 2014 to June this year, 345,305 Iraqi refugees applied for asylum in Europe and around the world, but their applications have not yet been answered.

Iraqi Oil Ministry Spokesman Assem Jihad told Kurdsat News that the meeting between Iraq, Turkey and the Kurdistan region began in Baghdad this afternoon to discuss the issue of oil exports.

He said the issue of oil exports between Baghdad and Ankara will not be resolved in a single meeting, so today's meeting is the beginning of a series of other meetings on the same issue.

The oil ministry spokesman said today's meeting will be held in Baghdad and the next meeting will be held in Ankara.

The Oil and Gas Committee of the House of Representatives has submitted two new proposals to the Oil Minister to resume the export of oil of the Kurdistan region as it has been stalled for the past months.

Ali Mashkur, a member of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee, told the official Sabah newspaper that Oil and Gas Committee has proposed two new ways to export Kurdistan oil to the Iraqi Oil Minister, and these include exporting the oil through State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) through the south, with exports through the Iraq-Banyas pipeline through Syria.

He added that Iraq will take all diplomatic measures to resume the process of exporting Kurdistan oil through the Turkish port.  Because the stagnation of the process will cost Iraq millions of dollars every day.

If Turkey continues to delay the resumption of Kurdistan's oil exports, Iraq will use southern routes to export the region’s oil.

Journalist and activist Ranj Pishdari said on Facebook Monday morning that among the survivors were pregnant women and children.

"There are 64 migrants and our yacht has broken down," one of the migrants said in a video posted before the rescue.

Ranj Pishdari said that after holding a telephone call with the Greek police through 112, they went to the migrants and after several hours all the Kurdish migrants were rescued.

“According to the information, all the migrants are safe,” Ranj Pishdari said.

In the past eight years, 548 Kurdish citizens have died on their way to Europe and the bodies of 234 people have not been found, according to statistics from the Lotka Agency for Refugee Affairs.

In 2022 alone, 17 people died and seven are still missing.

More than 300,000 migrants entered Europe by 2022, despite the lack of eligibility for asylum. 

Ministry of Electricity of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq said in a statement, until now they have installed 1.3 million smart electricity meters, which is 92 percent of the Kurdistan region, adding that smart meters have reduced electricity waste by 30 to 40 percent.

Kamil Qazaz, Deputy Minister of Electricity, said in a statement that 92% of the smart meter project for control and electronic electricity has been completed, which has reduced the burning of electricity transformers.

Demand has reached 4,541 MW, while production is only 3,500 MW due to the repair process.

Kamil Qazaz said that the demand for electricity will increase to 6,000 MW in the summer season.

Khanzad is a novel authored by Arez Abdullah that stresses the importance of women’s role in Kurdish society.

Arez Abdullah said, “I have highlighted the role, heroism and reign of the ruling Emir Khanzad who played a great role in terms of politics, justice and self-reliance in the region.”

Khanzad is a historical novel, the author depicts the Soran Princedom four hundred years ago and the hidden aspects of the female revolution and the rule of the princedom.

The Kurdistan Region Security Agency (KRG) said today in a statement that close monitoring of a band, the Asaysh forces of Sulaimani’s Raperin Asaysh Department arrested a gang of three people who were selling counterfeit Iraqi currency before in the market.

The suspects are residents of the Kurdistan Region and have been detained under Article 281 of the Iraqi Penal Code, the Asaysh said.

According to the statement the group has tried to throw 2 million Iraqi Dinars into circulation, about $1,200 US, the security agency noted.

In a Twitter post Tuesday, the US military said it was investigating the cause of the crash and there was no indication the helicopter had been hit by a hostile attack.

The US military's Central Command said 10 service members were evacuated to higher-level care facilities outside the region.

Central Command, which oversees US troops in the Middle East, said no enemy fire was reported but added that the cause of the incident was under investigation.

There are about 900 U.S. personnel deployed to Syria, most of them in the east, as part of a mission fighting the remnants of Islamic State. American troops there have come under repeated attacks in recent years by Iran-backed militia.

A high-level delegation of US industry and agriculture is visiting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG).

A senior source at the US Consulate in the Kurdistan Region told KurdSat that, the delegation's visit is organized by the US Chamber of Commerce and will be attended by 10 major US companies.

He said the delegation will hold several meetings in the Kurdistan Region to closely monitor industry and agriculture in the region and encourage US companies to invest in region.

The delegation will arrive in the Kurdistan Region on November 18 and will stay there for three days, the source added

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Sahaf said that Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Security Advisor, Missions and Humanitarian Organizations in Iraq have met to discuss the Iraqi government's views on Camp Hall in Syria and wants to bring back Iraqi citizens living in the Camp Hall.

The spokesperson also said they have called on countries that have citizens in Camp Hall should move them back to their countries and close the camp because it has become a dangerous place.

He said the Iraqi government has provided 10 loads of food for Iraqi families who have returned from Camp Hall. The Iraqi government has returned 1,393 families that are 5,569 people.

According to the Syrian news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Special Affairs Asghar Khaji to discuss coordination on the basis of the Astana quadrilateral meeting where they discussed the withdrawal of the Turkish army from Syria, fighting terrorism and other issues.

At the meeting, Bashar al-Assad called for a joint strategy for dialogue and upcoming negotiations on the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syrian territory.

The Iraqi Security Media Cell said militants belonging to the extremist group late Saturday targeted the military position in the district of Dibis with light and medium weapons but did not provide further details.

The statement said that Iraqi authorities held a meeting to investigate the attack.

ISIS, in a late Saturday statement, claimed responsibility for the attack on their website.

This comes as the Iraqi military has cracked down on ISIS sleeper cells near the country’s borders over the past month. Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service launched airstrikes targeting the group’s positions in the western desert of the Anbar province and in the Hamrin mountains near Kirkuk, killing 27 militants.

The militant group in recent years has targeted Iraqi army positions in the governorate of Kirkuk. In November 2022, ISIS militants killed four Iraqi soldiers in the governorate’s district of Dibis , and took their weapons and communications gear.

Kirkuk’s governor, Rakan Saeed al-Jiboury, told The Associated Press at the time that the attack happened in an area divided between the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga forces who don’t coordinate their actions “and (IS) takes advantage of this.”

ISIS’s territorial control in Iraq and Syria was crushed by a years-long U.S.-backed campaign, but its fighters continued with sleeper cells that have killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.

US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski in a press conference in Sulaimani said that the United States has played a role in resolving the differences between the PUK and KDP and stressed the importance of holding elections on time.

In response to KurdSAT reporter Romanowski said, the United States has played an important role in cooling down and resolving the conflicts between the PUK and KDP, and she urged Iraqis to resolve conflicts and face challenges.

He hoped for free and democratic elections in the Kurdistan region and stressed the importance of approving the budget bill in such a way that the interests of the people are taken into account.

The US ambassador said that Washington has not hidden its concern about security violations on the territory of the Kurdistan region and Iraq.

She said the United States considers human rights, freedom of expression and press in the Kurdistan region important.

The imprisonment of journalists for freedom of expression is worrying, the top US diplomat in Iraq said.

The ambassador also expressed her support and coordination for the reform and unification of the Peshmerga forces.

In the first session of the meeting, which was held on Thursday, June 8, 2023, in the presence of US Consul General Irvin Hicks, the US Ambassador spoke about her visit to Sulaimani and meetings with civil society organizations. In this regard, the Deputy Prime Minister congratulated the US Ambassador for meeting with the organizations and hoped that the US Embassy will work more closely with these organizations in the future and further assist in the development of civil society in Kurdistan.

Qubad Talabani said that allied countries and international organizations should not only pay attention to the organizations of the big cities, but should also cooperate with the organizations of the other cities to develop civil society in a balanced manner in all the areas of Kurdistan region.

In another part of the meeting, the political situation in the Kurdistan region was discussed and both sides agreed that all issues should be resolved through dialogue. Qubad Talabani expressed his concerns about the continued political conflicts, as it has had a negative impact on the lives of citizens and weakened the position of the Kurdistan region in Baghdad.

Regarding the Kurdistan parliamentary elections, the Deputy Prime Minister said there should be coordination so that the elections can be held in the near future and in the best way. He called on the United States and its allies to cooperate and play their role in bringing the parties closer together.

Both sides also discussed the Iraqi budget bill, Talabani hoped that the law will be passed in a way that is in the interest of the citizens of the Kurdistan region and the whole of Iraq. He called on Iraqi lawmakers to take into account the interests of all Iraqi citizens when voting on the bill.

Hawkar Abdullah Rasoul, known as Hawkar Jaff, was a colonel in the ranks of Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG), but was assassinated in 2021.

Jaff was killed in Erbil’s 32 Park neighborhood on October 7, 2021 after a sticky bomb, attached to his vehicle, detonated. 

His brtoher, Sirwan Jaff told a news conference on the grave of Hawkar Jaff on Wednesday (June 7), and said that they have undeniable evidence on the perpetrators behind the assassination of Hawkar Jaff and the names of those who are the real killers of his brother.

“Opportunists have not stopped after martyring Hawkar Jaff, they rub salt in our wounds and deal with his case seeking to obtain positions and ranks," Sirwan Jaff said.

He revealed that some people try to create divisions among his family, but they are forever members of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and consider themselves as the party fellows.

Hawkar Jaff's brother called on the consulates and representatives of foreign countries to come forward and investigate the case alongside an international committee.

The Kurdistan Regional Government department of media and information said in a statement on Wednesday that the KRG Council of Ministers will meet on June 7, 2023 to discuss the latest developments in the Iraqi federal budget bill for 2023-2024, the issue of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region, and other issues.

The ministers will draft the building code in the Kurdistan Region and the new guidelines of the Ministry of Municipalities for planning and electronic registration of state property in the Kurdistan Region, the statement added.

The meeting also discussed putting of the previous decision of the Council of Ministers on unregistered cell phone carriers into effect.

The meeting will also touch upon unregistered vehicles in the region, according to the statement.