Time Zone |
America/Chicago |
Standard Time GMT / UTC |
UTC-6 |
Daylight Saving Time |
UTC-5 |
Time Zone |
Asia/Baghdad |
Standard Time GMT / UTC |
UTC+3 |
Daylight Saving Time |
Daylight saving time is not observed in the current region. |
Located in the western part of the U.S. state of Illinois, Macomb is the county seat of McDonough County, about 160 kilometers southwest of the city of Peoria and about 240 kilometers northwest of St. Louis. This small city of about 18,000 people is centered around Western Illinois University (WIU), which was founded in 1899 and infuses the area with a strong academic atmosphere, with a student body that makes up about a quarter of the city's population. With a history dating back to the 1830s, Macomb grew gradually with the opening of the railroad in the mid-to-late 1800s, and retains a number of late 19th-century architectural features to this day. Economically, in addition to the university-driven higher education, healthcare and service industries, agriculture and small-scale manufacturing in the surrounding area are important pillars. The community is quiet and friendly, hosting annual events such as the Malcolm Arts Festival, and combining the simplicity of a small Midwestern town with the energy of a college town, making it an ideal place to study and live.
Sinjar is a city in the Nineveh Province of northwestern Iraq, near the Syrian border, in the southern foothills of the Sinjar Mountains, and is one of the main Yazidi settlements. The area, which grows wheat, barley, and olives, has suffered from a long history of conflict and infrastructure damage, and was the subject of an attack on Sinjar in 2014 by the extremist group Islamic State (ISIS), which resulted in severe persecution of the Yezidi community and attracted international attention. After the war, local residents have gradually returned to the area, but the reconstruction process is slow and the security situation remains challenging. Sinjar is not only the core area of Yazidi culture, but also an important microcosm of Iraq's ethnic and religious diversity.