Iraq tightens grip on autonomous Kurdish region

Iraq is using a period of relative stability to assert more control over the oil-rich autonomous Kurdistan region that has long had fraught relations with federal authorities, analysts and politicians say. - Oil, salaries, elections - Despite facing the same problems as Baghdad, such as endemic corruption, fractious politics and entrenched ruling elites, the US-backed Kurdistan region has portrayed itself as a hub of stability and economic growth in contrast to the conflicts and crises that have besieged federal Iraq.