Iraqi president comes out of coma

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani has come back to life after being in a coma for several months, sources revealed on Monday. "President Talabani has come back from coma," unofficial sources close to the medical team in charge of his health and treatment said on Monday. No official source in Baghdad has yet confirmed the report. Talabani was transferred to a Baghdad hospital in mid December after he suffered a stroke. He was transferred to Germany for further medical treatment a few days later. Less than a week later, some media outlets alleged that Talabani had died in a Baghdad hospital after the stroke. But Iraq's presidential office denied the reports, saying that "the reports about Talabani's death are not true, and his condition is stable." Meantime, Talabani's wife Hiro Ahmed Ibrahim arrived in Tehran at the head of a high-ranking delegation on Sunday. The visit by Ahmed Ibrahim, who is heading a senior delegation from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), takes place at the official invitation of the Iranian government. Hiro Ibrahim is due to hold several meetings with senior Iranian officials to discuss bilateral ties and regional developments. No further details have yet been released on the specific goals and agenda of the visit. When the Iraqi president was hospitalized in December, almost all senior Iranian officials contacted Iraq's First Lady and other Baghdad officials to get briefed on Talabani's health conditions and offer medical and other needed aids to Baghdad. Observers believe that the recovery of Talabani, a Kurd icon representing Iraq's Kurdish population in the government, will have strongly positive influence on soothing the ongoing ethnic and sectarian unrests in Iraq.