Leader of Kurds in northern Iraq tells regional lawmakers to prepare independence referendum

With large parts of Iraq in militant hands, a top Kurdish leader called on regional lawmakers Thursday to lay the groundwork for a referendum on independence, a vote that would likely spell the end of a unified Iraq. The recent blitz by Sunni militants across much of northern and western Iraq has given the country's 5 million Kurds — who have long agitated for independence — their best chance ...