ID300,000 for displaced Christian families in Ninewa

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration on Monday launched a plan to grant 300,000 Iraqi dinars to displaced Christian families in Ninewa province, according to a ministry official. “Today, a ministerial committee began distributing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s donation, 300,000 Iraqi dinars (1 U.S. dollar = 1,118 Iraqi dinars) to each Christian family that was displaced following the October 7, 2008 incidents,” the director of the displacement and migration department in the province, Jawdat Ismail, told IraqiNews.com. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. The original city of Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient biblical city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. Despite having an amount of Kurdish population, it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). There are different communities in Mosul like Christians, Shiites and Kurds along with a Sunni majority. The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named for this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble. The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, Yunus in Arabic, and Nahum. SS (S) 1