Iraq's first non-Arab President Jalal Talabani passes away
Former President of Iraq and its first non-Arab head of state, Jalal Talabani, has passed away aged 83. Talabani was a veteran of the Kurdish struggle for an independent state and founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 1975. He stepped down in 2014, two years after suffering a stroke that led him to seek medical treatment in Germany.