A serious Iraqi newspaper is saying openly that it may be time to give up the Shia-Kurdish alliance that has run Iraq since Saddam, and let the Kurds move on to independence.
Shots fired at an Iraqi army helicopter to keep it from reconnoitoring Kurdish positions, while Jalal Talabani is seriously ill.
Exxon Mobil is giving up on its contracts with Iraq to concentrate on Kurdistan.
Old story, but good: the Turks have a backchannel from their secret service to the Kurds. This caused a major demo round the corner from here today.
The Kurds have, of course, staked out a big chunk of Syria after the government withdrew to fight more worrying rebels. What if this was the year they got what they wanted? I remember blogging years ago that putting a tough and well organised mountain guerrilla army between Turkey and Iraq seemed a fine idea from a Turkish point of view.