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September 3, 2012 - Sulaimaniyah,
Erbil-Hewler, Duhok, Kirkuk, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq'
Kurdistan opposition blocs
seek to cancel Article 140 supervising committee
Baghdad: The Kurdistan opposition blocs in the
parliament demanded on Monday to cancel the
committee supervising the implementation of Article
140 of the constitution, saying that there was no
representative from Kirkuk among the committee's
members. Article 140 is one of the main pending
questions between the central government and the
Kurdish region during the last few years, because it
tackles the question of the disputed areas, most
important is oil-rich Kirkuk province. aswataliraq.info
Refusing supplementary
budget is infringement of constitution, says legal
committee
Erbil: The parliamentary legal committee said the
Iraqi Parliament's rejection of the supplementary
budget is considered as a constitutional violation.
Member of the committee Mahmoud al-Hassan added:
"The provision of the Iraqi constitution is keen on
the need to approve the supplementary and general
budget. "Approval of budget is related to state
public facilities, especially when this includes
operating expenses, salaries and expenses related to
the maintenance of some government projects, on top
of the service ones. "The House of Representatives
has the right to conduct transfers and adjustments
in some places of the budget in exchange with public
spending but has no right by refusing because this
leads to an imbalance in the state budget." The
Iraqi Parliament recently rejected the supplementary
budget. aknews.com
Spacetoon Sues Kurdistan
Store
Erbil: The Spacetoon television channel is filing a
lawsuit against a store in the Kurdistan Region
because it has used the channel’s logo as its sign.
However, the owner of the store says, “We have a
contract with the channel. We paid them $90,000 to
use the patent name, so we will file a lawsuit
against them, too.” Spacetoon was the first
free-to-air animated channel in the Middle East,
broadcast from Dubai Media City since 2000. In 2002,
the first store in Duhok opened under this name. Two
years later, another branch was opened in Sulaimani.
In 2010, the same store opened two more branches in
Erbil and Pirmam. The store sells toys and
children’s products under Spacetoon’s name. Soran
Qasim, the owner of the Erbil branch, said, “We paid
them $90,000 for use of the patent name. We also
paid them a yearly royalty for the commercials they
ran for us. But they have not aired our commercials
for the past six months.” Spacetoon rejected that
the Kurdistan store was its representative in Iraq,
saying they don’t have a representative in Iraq.
They also said that the kids’ products in Iraq and
the Kurdistan Region are not their products, but the
Kurdistan store took advantage of the name to create
a market for their products. MBC3 is another cartoon
channel based in Saudi Arabia. This channel is very
popular in the Middle East and the Kurdistan Region,
so the Kurdistan chain has tried to advertise their
products through them as well. Qasim said, “When the
Spacetoon channel found out that we want to
advertise our products on MBC3, they said we were
using their name illegally.” He added, “Since
Spacetoon said that, we have lost many customers, so
we decided to file a lawsuit against the channel and
demand compensation for our losses.” rudaw.net
Investment in Kurdistan
highest in mid 2012
Erbil: International economic magazine said that the
first half of 2012 was the highest in foreign
investments in Iraqi Kurdistan. MEED said that the
investment reached to 3.4 billion dollars, where the
foreign companies make the Kurdish region as their
"start to work in Iraq". The article said that the
Kurdish Investment Commission ascertained that the
investment reached more than 3 billion dollars
during 2011, thus reaching to 21 billion dollars
since 2006. It added that most of the investments
are stationed in Erbil, where it got 12 billion
dollars. Sulaimaniya received 6 billion in
investments, while Duhuk got 3 billion, as reported
by the article. aswataliraq.info
Housing projects in
Kurdistan halted-official
Erbil: Head of the Investment Commission in Iraqi
Kurdistan Heirsh Muharram announced Sunday that the
housing projects were put to a halt for
re-organization, hoping that the Investment Law will
be sent to the Kurdish parliament. Muharam told
Aswat al-Iraq that this move was necessitated by the
present circumstances and needs. Commenting on the
Investment Law, he added that it is under amendment
and was sent to the Kurdish Cabinet before two
years, but we hope to be sent to the Parliament in
the coming few weeks. aswataliraq.info
Increasing membership of
Electoral Commission strengthens Kurds' rival, says
official
Erbil: A Kurdish official in Baghdad said increasing
the membership of the High Electoral Commission
strengthens the State of Law Coalition and reduces
power of the Kurdish list in the commission. An
anonymous political source told AKnews: "The
Kurdistan Blocs Coalition's concern about increasing
the membership of the commission includes many
issues, which is mostly increasing the power of the
Kurds' rival State of Law." The official said now
Kurds have two seats out of nine in the commission,
which is equivalent to 23 percent. If the seats
increase to 15 then Kurds would receive one more
seat to become a 19-percent share. According to
that, Kurds’ authority in the commission would
reduce. According to the study carried out by the
Islamic Supreme Council, the Sadrist Movement and
Iraqiya List in six seats, Kurds would receive one
seat, two of the seats would go to other parties and
the last three would go to the State of Law.
Increasing the membership of the commission gives
the State of Law better control over the commission,
added the source. aknews.com
Iraq in 4th place among
importers of US weapons
Baghdad: Iraq came in the fourth place among the
importers of US arms in the Middles East between
2008 and 2011, according to the report issued by the
Middle East economies organization. The report
unveiled that Iraq depends on two major arms
exporters; the United States as it signed deals at
$4.8 billion and with Russia which brought weapons
from it at $100 million. The report underlined that
Saudi tops the list after exporting 40% of arms
exports in 2011, as it remain the most important
client for the US arms industry. Last year the
kingdom bought weapons with $33.7 billion.
aswataliraq.info
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