Kurdistan
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, tweeted that they would add 24 new languages to the platform. The new languages are spoken by 300 million people worldwide, said Google’s senior software engineer, Isaac Caswell.
Google language was taught Sorani Kurdish language by a Kurdish teacher, Bokan Jaff, from Halabja, Kurdistan region, who has contributed more than one million words, phrases, and sentences to the platform in the last seven years.
Jaff volunteered for the past seven years to help google learn the new language. Jaff was pleased to announce Google’s decision to add Sorani Kurdish to their platform and said on Facebook, ‘ I ask every Kurd to celebrate tomorrow, Kurdish language will be officially added to Google Translate tomorrow.’
Kurdish speakers are usually limited to information available in Kurdish, which is less comparatively. Many Sorani speakers have restricted access to the internet due to a lack of language on the platform. Now Kurds can have access to texts written in the 130 languages that google translate understands.
Kurdish is a family of dialects whose main ones are Sorani, Kurmanji, and Gorani. Kurmanji was added to the platform in 2016. Sorani and Kurmanji have their difference, and respective speakers of the languages usually cannot comprehend one another without prior contact.
Iranian artillery on the Iran-Kurdistan region borders shelled the Bradost region with drones surveilling the area.
KurdSat News field correspondent Wlat Bradosti said, 'Artillery of the Islamic Republic of Iran opened fire on Kateena, Nawrubar, Bnpareza, Gorasaya, Barbzyn, and Kanishilan villages of the Bradost mountainous region.'
The attack was preceded by another attack on the Choman area near the Iranian border. 'Earlier this morning, on Wednesday, Iranian drones struck Degah village in Smeelan county near Erbil. It was a precision strike, away from inhabited areas,' said KurdSat News correspondent Peshawa Chomani.
Since 2019 Iran has employed drones and ballistic missiles to attack the Kurdistan region.
Though Iran shelled the regions in close proximity to the Islamic republic in the past, the recent shelling is the first in 2022.
The shelling is to targets members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) Peshmerga that operate in the Kurdistan region's border areas. The rebel group gradually moved to the Kurdistan region after the Iran-Iraq agreement in 1988.
The region's people ask the KDPI to relocate their bases from their area as they threaten the region and its people.
The artillery fire damaged the orchard and property in Bradost, and the lives of villagers in Darhol village were in danger, Bradosti reported.
The KDPI headquarter is based in Koysinjaq, 60 kilometers west of the Iranian border. The group has commenced an armed insurgency against the Islamic republic since 1979 and aims for Kurdish self-determination in Iran.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the Israeli forces for the death of the Al-Jazeera correspondent.
The Palestinian presidency stressed that the crime of executing journalist Abu Aqila and wounding journalist Ali al-Samudi is part of Israel's policy of targeting journalists to obscure the truth and commit crimes silently.
In turn, the Palestinian Public Prosecution said, "We have started investigation procedures into the crime of assassinating journalist Sherine Abu Aqleh through the International Crimes Prosecution, in preparation for referring her to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court."
The correspondent of "Al-Arabiya" and "Al-Hadath" stated that the journalist's colleague, Sherine Abu Aqleh, said an Israeli sniper targeted her.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that "armed Palestinians" are "probably" responsible for killing a Palestinian journalist for Al-Jazeera, Shirin Abu Akleh, in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, the Israeli army said that its forces opened fire in response to being subjected to "heavy fire" in Jenin, adding that "there is a possibility currently under investigation that Palestinian gunmen possibly wounded the two reporters."
Israeli army spokesman, Avichai Adraee, said that "indiscriminate shooting" by Palestinian gunmen today, Wednesday, in Jenin camp in the West Bank, led, according to preliminary estimates, to the killing of journalist Shirin Abu Aqleh, Al-Jazeera correspondent.
Andraee added on his Twitter account that Israel had offered to conduct a joint investigation into the killing of the Palestinian journalist.
Consul general of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahdi Shoushtari, visited KurdSat in Sulaimani, met with Kurdsat’s director-general Derin Rashid Latif, and discussed strengthening media and cultural cooperation between Iran and the Kurdistan region.
In a Facebook post, Iran’s consulate general in Sulaimani wrote, ‘This morning, Monday, May 9, 2022, Mahdi Shoushtari, General consul of the Islamic Republic of Iran, visited the different departments of KurdSAT Broadcasting Corporation and met with its chairman, Derin Latif.’
The consulate general was walked through the different departments of KurdSat, and he presented a book to Derin Latif.
‘After congratulating Mr. Derin Rasheed on his new position, they discussed strengthening relations, media exchange, cultural, and intellectual cooperation between Kurdish and Iranian media outlets,’ the Consulate general announced.
KurdSat has dubbed many Iranian-made movies and series since the early 2000s. They are popular among the people of Sulaimani, and Kurds across the Middle East and Europe.
The Kurdistan region and the Islamic republic share extensive cultural and linguistic ties and a 560-kilometer-long border.
On May 7, over a hundred immigrants, mainly from the Kurdistan region, were trapped on a Greek Island near Kos when their overloaded yacht capsized. They were rescued today, May 8, by the Greek coastal guards.
Ranj Pshdari, a Kurdish journalist based in Greece, told KurdSat News, '106 immigrants mostly from Rania, Qaladze, Hawler, and Sulaimani, whose boat capsized and did not reach their destination. ' They were trapped without food and shelter on an Island near Kos, 30 kilometers from the Turkish shores.”
Pshdari publicized the story, and teams came to rescue the immigrants. Now they are safe, and the United Nations provides them on the Island.
'A number of the immigrants were family. Of the 106 immigrants, 73 were adults, 14 women and 20 children,' Pshdary added.
'Legally speaking, the immigrants may seek asylum on the Island for 18 months or register for deportation.' The journalist continued.
Immigration from the Kurdistan region has been ongoing for the last decade due to financial and social issues. According to one estimate, more than 633,000 people from the Kurdistan region, mainly from the Sulaymaniyah governorate, have immigrated to Europe.
Bryar Rasheed, a member of the Iraqi council of representatives, told KurdSat News, “ They are continuously working to supply medicine and medical necessities to Hospitals in Sulaimani. The Iraqi government has planned to send Sulaimani with a large amount of medicine.”
“The supplies have been prepared before Eid al-Fitr but holidays delayed their sending, and the supplies will arrive in Sulaimani soon,” Rasheed added.
Public hospitals in Sulaimani have been facing a shortage of medical supplies for more than a year as hospitals don’t have enough funds to purchase medicine.
According to Rojava local media, Turkish backed groups bombarded the villages “ Samoqa, Tel Unab, and Zewan, in Shabhayan canton, located in East and Northern Syria. The bombardment has caused fear and anxiety among the region’s inhabitants.
Though the villagers expressed their concerns about becoming targets, Rojava media did not report casualties.
Turkey calls Rojava a “corridor of terror”, referring to the strip of land on the Turkish border governed by Kurds of Syria. On the pretext of harboring terrorists, Ankara frequently targets villages, communities, cities, and individuals in Rojava.
On May 4, 2010, an unidentified gang abducted Zardasht Osman while going to college in Erbil. On May 5, his body was found dead in Mosul’s “Hay Mazaraa” street.
The perpetrators are still on the loose on the 12th anniversary of his assassination. His family has declared his case open to the public.
“The assassination of Zardasht Osman, journalists, and suppression of freedom of speech are open cases until they are closed by the court and the perpetrators receive their sentences in a free and fair trail,” the family of Osman added.
Zardasht Osman is one of the multiple journalists killed in the Kurdistan region in the last two decades. Many suspect the involvement of the Kurdish authorities.
Osman was born in 1987; he was an undergraduate student studying English at Erbil's Salahadin University. Osman was a journalist that focused on covering corruption and nepotism in the Kurdistan region.
"We want to open Venezuela's representative office in Sulaimani, and commercial affairs office inside Sulaimani chamber of commerce with the backing of Sulaimani council of representatives and governmental offices in the city," the Venezuelan ambassador announced.
The speaker of the Sulaimani council of representatives said, 'Sulaimani possesses two large dams, an international airport, two international border-crossing, large fertile lands, large reserves of hydrocarbons, and an attractive geography. It has sufficient sunlight exposure and water to produce electricity, and the governorate constitutes 32% of Iraq industry.'
Amin declared his full support for opening the Venezuelan representative office in Sulaimani and asked the ambassador to share their experience in oil and gas industries, electricity, and agriculture.
Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS), with the assistance of the Counter-Terrorism Group, CTG, foiled a terrorist attempt in Kirkuk and arrested the terrorists.
In a press statement on Friday, the Iraq Intelligence Service announced the arrest of two IS terrorists with the assistance of the CTG, in a military operation on Friday.
The terrorists traveled from Sulaimani to Kirkuk, where the CTG kept a close eye on them and discovered their whereabouts.
Both terrorists possessed explosives during their arrest and planned to use them during the days of Ramadan Eid.
The Sulaimani-based CTG has been effective in neutralizing terrorists throughout Iraq and cooperates with anti-terror groups worldwide. The group was founded in 2002 with US training and assistance. It acts as the executive wing of the Sulaimani-based Zanyari Intelligence Service, otherwise known as Zanyari Agency.
With the participation of PUK bureaus, offices, and organizations in Talary Hunar hall in Sulaimani, preparations for holding the PUK forum in Suliamani began.
Qubad Talabani, director of the PUK forum at the preparation meeting, said, “It is a forum for reorganization [of the PUK], it is a forum for bringing ideas back to the center of partisanship… and work to strengthen PUK again.”
Sarkawt Zaki, chair of PUK’s bureau of organization, said at the opening of the forum, “ PUK’s forum is for reorganization and reform, and for rearranging ideas and views of the PUK.”
“We are look forward to the forum with great hope because it is a great leap forward,” the Zaki added.
PUK forum is to be held on May 1 in Sulaimani with the participation of the PUK leadership to discuss challenges, opportunities, and future plans for the party.
According to a report by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, one courier was killed and 29 injured in the border regions of Kermanshah.
Such extrajudicial killing has become the rule in the border regions between Iran and the Kurdistan region. Due to severe sanctions imposed on Iran and soaring inflation, most Kurds on the border regions try to make a living on the border.
Eid al-Fitr will begin on Monday May 2 as the Shawwal moon was not sighted on Saturday, Kurdistan region’s minister of Endowment and Religious Affairs announced in a press conference this evening, Saturday.
Countries which marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan on April 2 will thus conclude the 30th day of Ramadan on May 1.
The Kurdistan region, Iraq, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan and Turkey also announced that the first day of Eid al-Fitr will be May 2, the International Astronomical Center said on Twitter.
Eid al-Fitr celebrations follow the end of Ramadan which lasts 29 or 30 days based on when the crescent moon is sighted.
Muslims follow a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days.
Bafel Jalal Talabani stressed developing human and military resources. "We continue our efforts to form a formidable and modern force. Extensive and continuous exercise and providing supplies are essential to an army. We want to prepare the Peshmerga forces in the best way." Talabani said.
The PUK leader noted the importance of intelligence capabilities and said, "they have to be based on accurate intelligence. There should be cooperation and coordination between the forces, and protecting the security and stability of Kurdistan region is above any other interests."
The meeting discussed the resurgence and activities of IS. Talabani instructed the military commanders to do their best to counter IS activities and plans that threatened the Kurdistan region's stability. For that matter, he mentioned the importance of cooperation between the Peshmerga forces and Iraqi security forces.
Talabani confirmed that "Peshmerga and other security forces of Kurdistan region are the real protectors of the Kurdish people and their properties. Therefore, they would not allow anyone to possess personal armed forces and completely oppose any such acts.
The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) leader, Pervin Buldan, said Turkey resorts to war to settle its issues, bringing instability and Turkey and the Middle East.
“The police and Turkish security forces have detained more than 20 HDP members without evidence. Erdogan wants war, but the HDP and the people are tired of war,” Buldan added.
Last week the Turkish armed announced Claw-Lock military operation in the Kurdistan region to eliminate the PKK fighter that maintains bases in the mountains on the Iraq-Turkish border. Turkey ceased the operation without any clear aims achieved.
Kalar police department arrested a group of drug traders and dealers in the Garmian region. The detainees possess a substantial amount of narcotics.
Ali Jamal Qadwree, the speaker of the Garmian police department, said, “After thorough investigation and securing the order from Garmian police court, a group of seven drug traders and dealers were arrested. Six of the arrested are from Kalar, while one is from Erbil.”
The speaker noted that the suspects were in possession of crystal meth, narcotics, and drug tools.
Qaduree added, “the suspects are detained per article 30 of anti-narcotics law, and investigations continue.”