Bulent Pekerman, a 45-year-old Kurdish politician with the Green Liberal Party of Switzerland (GLP), has been elected president of the Basel Canton in Switzerland, Pakerman got 87 votes out of 99 votes.

Pekerman replaced Jo Vergeat (GAB) as the newly elected president of the Grand Council in Basel Canton, he is the first migrant to take the office.

The president elect was a member of the Basel Regional Supreme Council in 2021 and a member of the Basel Regional Parliament from 2009 to 2013. He is currently elected president of the region for a one-year term, effective February 2023.

Bulent Pakerman has been living in Switzerland since he was 15 years old, he is from northern Kurdistan.  

Soran District Department of Civil Defense said today that two people were injured in a landmine explosion in Gornok (Bekhal) mountain in the district.

The two citizens were hospitalized Rawanduz, and one of them lost his leg and was seriously injured, and was transferred to Ashti Hospital in Soran, the department added.

Soran Civil Department revealed the identities of the victims. One of the injured is a 25-year-old from Rawanduz with a head injury and is in stable condition, the other is Rawanduz-based, 32-year-old and is married, the department explained.

According to Soran Civil Defense Department the injured mountaineers did not follow the group of mountaineers whom they initially joined and went on a wrong way that was placed with landmines.

Landmine incidents often claim lives in the Kurdistan region, as landmines were places on many region on the Kurdistan region-Iran border during the Iran-Iraq war.

Planting trees continues Sulaimani, Chanakchian in Sharazoor, Khalkan, Karadag tree planting campaign continues following PUK President Bafel Jalal Talabani’s declared campaign to plant one million trees in the Kurdistan region.

Sulaimani Forests Managing Director Hawkar Jalal said the work of the national campaign to plant one million trees that the Sulaimani Forestry and Resources Directorate is implementing is going very well. Today they are planting saplings in Azmar, Chanakhchiyan, Kalkan, and Qaradagh regions.

According to the director, they plan to make other forestry projects in other areas of the Kurdistan region.

The Kurdistan region needs more vegetation per global standards. Yet, the declared camping could help the part restore and even gain green areas.

Today, the reunification Ceremony of Kurdistan Veterans Organizations and the Committee for the Advocacy of Veteran Organizations of the PUK was held at Shazad Saib Hall at the headquarters of the Political Bureau.

PUK politburo and leadership council members attended the unification, and President Bafel Jalal Talabani congratulated the two groups for forming a more robust and effective front to defend the veterans' rights, lives, and welfare of Peshmergas.

President Talabani highlighted the role of political prisoners and strugglers. The president was referring to Kurdish revolutionaries imprisoned by the Baathist regime.

You have been a strong pillar of the new struggle and revolution, and your history will be written with pride. We have not forgotten your hard work and sacrifices.

 "With your support and unwavering strength, we will continue the wise and national policy of President Mam Jalal and protect the unity within the PUK as our eyes," President Talabani told the audience in the unification ceremony.

Turkish Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told reporters at a news conference that Turkey supports the political process that began in late December [2022] with a meeting of Turkish and Syrian defense ministers in Moscow.

"There is still a possibility of a ground operation in Syria at any time, depending on the level of threats," Kalin added.

Last year, Turkey launched an air operation in Rojava and threatened to launch a ground attack; the air strikes claimed tens of lives and displaced hundreds. Warnings and protests from the United States and Western countries stopped Turkey from launching a ground invasion at the time.

Turkey plans to create a "Safe Zone" in Rojava that would threaten the existence of the Rojava administration, one of the most democratic, women-led places in the world.

Halabja Health Department Director Azad Mustafa said today that their food monitoring units found 100 boxes of biscuits and 24 tons of juice at the Pishta Border Crossing with Iran that were following safety regulations. The biscuits and the juice did not follow safety regulations, the director added.

Also, over 100 cake boxes were seized because they were imported contrary to the Iraqi safety regulations, Mustafa said.

Authorities in Halabja and the Kurdistan region often seize batches of food that are not safe too eat or fail to meet food safety regulations.

Two people were killed and two others injured after returning from a funeral in a shooting incident in the town of Hazo in Batman province, KurdSat English reporter in northern Kurdistan said.

He said the victims were all Kurds and were in a mini-bus when they were shot. Two of the injured are in critical condition, the reporter added.

According to people familiar with the matter, familial problems has led the shooting.

Iranian Judiciary hanged two Kurds in the Bandar Abbas and Karaj prisons on “drug trafficking charges.”

Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported that 32-year-old Khaleq Khizrzadeh, from Piranshahr in Iranian Kurdistan, was sentenced to death in Bandar Abbas Central Prison, and Rashid Lawandpour, from Urmia, hanged in Rajai Prison in Karaj.

According to the Human Rights Watchdog, Khaleq Khazzadeh was arrested two years ago and Rashid Lavandpour several years ago on charges of drug trafficking and was sentenced to death by the Iranian Judiciary.

Today, Piaman Aarab from Urumia was sentenced to death also on “drug trafficking charges,” according to the authorities, bringing the total of executed Kurds to 7 in less than ten days, according to Hengaw. 

Iran remains one of the few countries where its courts issue the death penalty. Sometimes the convicts are executed at the spot where the crime was committed.

The Turkish constitutional court will convene a hearing today on Tuesday (January 10) to decide whether to close the HDP six months before the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

The court hearing comes five days after it decided to suspended funding for the country’s main majority-Kurdish party over alleged ties to “terrorism.”

However, a spokesman for the party said the decision was illegal and Turkey does not respect constitutional and human rights.

In December, Turkey’s chief prosecutor Bekir Sahin asked Turkey’s Constitutional Court to block bank accounts from which the Treasury disburses funds to the HDP.

The Constitutional Court gave the HDP a month to present arguments against the prosecutor’s demand.

The Treasury provides financial assistance to political parties represented in parliament, and the HDP was set to receive 539 million Turkish lira (some $29 million) this year, according to media reports.

HDP spokeswoman Ebru Gunay criticized the court’s decision, accusing it of “being a tool” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign to “seize the will of the peoples of Turkey.”

Qubad Talabani met with Sulaimani's security agencies today, including the police, traffic police, Security (Asaysh), and other law enforcement agencies. Talabani praised the efforts of the security forces in keeping Sulaimani safe and secure in a post on Facebook.

"We expect more from them for this year; By coordinating their efforts to better consolidate stability and prevent crime," Talabani added.

Sulaimani security forces are known for their efficiencies as they have kept the city secure from crime and terrorism for decades.

The website Safetrave-abroad ranks Sulaimani (Sulaimaniyah) as one of the safest cities in Iraq and the Kurdistan region, giving it a 66% grade that is similar to or better than most European cities such as London or Paris.  

7, 678 crimes were committed in Erbil last year, Erbil Police Spokesperson Hogir Aziz told reporters in a press conference today.

Of these, 6,894 cases have been brought to court, while the authorities work to close the rest of the cases.

According to the police spokesperson, 62 murders were committed last year and 79 people were arrested on murder charges.

Erbil Police department also recorded 77 suicides last year, Aziz added.

According to the figures, crime has increased in Erbil and the Kurdistan region compared to the previous years.

"11,000 graduates of agriculture department from across the Kurdistan region will begin their training courses, and successful graduates will be employed as agricultural project supervisors, Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources Spokesperson Hiwa Ali told KurdSat English.

Training has begun in several cities, and this week will begin in several other provinces and autonomous administrations to conduct training for the 11,000 graduates of universities and colleges that have filled out forms and are to be employed in the private sector to oversee their agricultural projects.

On June 28, 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture opened application forms for graduates of agricultural and veterinary colleges in the Kurdistan Region, and over 11,000 people filled out the form.

According to Ali, over 5,000 people will be employed in the agricultural sector of the Kurdistan region.

The region has large swathes of fertile farmland that could help the region diversify its economy and lessen its dependence on volatile revenues from hydrocarbon reserves.

If a person in Erbil looks for renting a house, they would need two months to find one, and Kurds in Erbil complain that Arabs can rent or buy a property with less difficulty.

“If one wants to rent a house, they would need to look for two or three months, and now the rent for 100-meter square home is around 450 thousand Iraqi Dinars per month,” an Erbil resident told KurdSat English. 450 thousand Iraqi Dinars is the over 70 percent of average monthly income of many people in the Kurdistan region as per capita income is $5,000 US.

I have looked into many leased homes and they demand 400 thousand Iraqi Dinars per month, which is a lot, that is almost all of my salary, I hardly can pay my rent now, what about the other bills?” a woman complained.

According to Tent Rights Advocate Group’s figures, only in Erbil, 680 thousand Arabs own property and the group’s director says that tenants now live a very harsh life. The data we are looking at is dangerous, the group director told KurdSat English.

Arabs are willing to pay higher prices for rents or buying property, accommodation prices has gone up, for instance, a Kurd has gone to rent a house but was refused while an Arab was allowed to rent the same property, the group added.

There are over 80 thousand tents in Erbil downtown, while in the past decade thousands of residential units have been erected, but it still has not helped tenants.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia will visit Washington to discuss the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the Prime Minister's Press Office said.

The press office said that the premier would visit Washington soon to discuss the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq without stating the precise date of his visit.

The Iraqi government and the US Embassy in Baghdad have discussed the issue several times before, and there is full coordination between them, but they have not reached a settlement yet.

There are remaining issues that need to be addressed directly with US officials, a source within the PM's press office said.

On January 5, 2020, the Iraqi Parliament passed a resolution to "expel" the US and coalition forces from Iraq following a White House-ordered drone strike on Iraqi Revolutionary Guards Corpus Commander Qassem Solaimani and Popular Mobilization Forces Deputy Commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

A young man was shot dead inside a cafeteria near the Khasrokhal Bridge in Sulaimani tonight, KurdSat reporter in Sulaimani said.

The man was killed with a pistol, Sulaimani Security (Asaysh) said in a statement after arresting the killer.

“Around 7:30 evening, a waiter inside a cafeteria near the bridge Khasrokhaal in Salim Street was killed by a man with a pistol,” Asaysh said in the statement.

According to the Sulaimani Security Department, their office in Garmian district arrested the killer, and their findings suggest that the drive behind the homicide was personal issues.

The suspect initially fled the scene but was found through security cameras and witness after an hour, our reporter said.

The president congratulated the commanders and soldiers of the Iraqi armed forces on the army founding anniversary over a century ago, and said they contributed to the creation of an epic heroism and a great victory over terrorism.

He added that the sacrifices of the army and all armed forces, including the federal police, anti-terrorism units, the Popular Mobilization Forces and the Peshmerga, “were the torches that led the way, preserved national glory and made Iraqis proud."

The President reiterated his commitment to consolidate professional military values in the service of the country.

The British Empire created the modern Iraqi army in 1921 and was known as the Royal Iraqi Army until 1958 Revolution when Iraq became a republic.