Layla Yousif Rahema

The population fears a political manipulation of ethnic groups by the strongest. In Kirkuk, Arabs and Turkmen suspect Kurdish officials of rigging outcome for control of the oil deposits. They could change the census to their advantage by putting Kurdish community in majority.

The victim is one of the most famous cardiologists in the region. An armed group shot him at point-blank range, the man is seriously injured. West accused: you can not do anything for Christians because you no longer have Christian roots and are indifferent to religion.

The Nobel Prize laureate says, “fear [is] developing within the government”. Human rights activists and Evangelical Christians are victims of repression. Believers are subjected to interrogations and solitary confinement to extract names of other members to arrest.

A delegation of Arab tribal chiefs visit the archdiocese of Kirkuk following the attacks against Baghdad cathedral and Egyptian Copts in Alexandria to voice their concern and express their closeness to their Christian “brothers”. A Christian woman who survived the slaughter in Baghdad’s Syriac-Catholic cathedral on 31 October is murdered.

For fear of staying in the capital, many took refuge in Sulaimaniya. Here, Nov. 20, they were visited by the Archbishop of Kirkuk and the wife of Iraqi President Talabani.

A series of attacks this morning with mortars and homemade bombs. The prime minister pays a visit to the Syrian Catholic Church attacked by al-Qaeda and calls on Christians not to leave the country. Meanwhile the first survivors arrive in France, for receive special treatment.

Two faithful shot dead in Baghdad. Muslim Imams in Kirkuk condemn the violence against the Church and ask "Iraq's mosaic" be preserved. Agreement on a new government after eight months of political deadlock. Yesterday, the first Mass in the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation after 31 October massacre.

The census is set for 24 October, but it could undermine an already shaky balance of power. The provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Anbar want the count postponed. For local authorities, the Kurds are trying to influence the outcome.

Families living in villages in Zakho District are worn out by the lack of work, food and basic services. “We depend entirely on aid from humanitarian organisations and the Church,” some say. Children have a hard time integrating in schools where Kurdish is the language of education.

The ordinations took place in the cathedral at the hands of Mgr. Louis Sako. Other ordinations in Dohok, Karamless (Mosul), Bertelli and Karakosh. A sign that new beginnings "in these times of tribulation and darkness".

Behnam Sabti, a Syrian Orthodox, was killed yesterday by a bomb placed under his car. The man worked as a nurse at the state Jumhuriya hospital in Mosul. According to anonymous sources the motive of the murder is his religious identity.

For several months now, the governments of Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway have been forcibly repatriating Iraqi asylum seekers and this despite concerns expressed by the United Nations. European governments are using repatriation as a way to discourage Iraqis from choosing Europe as a place of refuge.