Mustafa Tlass obituary

He called the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “the son of 60,000 whores”, charged Jordan with “Judaising” its citizens, accused Turkey of collaborating with “the enemies of the Arabs” and blamed the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad for the 9/11 attacks on the US. Diplomacy was not, perhaps, the strongest suit of Mustafa Tlass, the Syrian defence minister from 1972 until 2004, who has died aged 85.

He professed his love for Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Gina Lollobrigida, in 1983 he marvelled at how a Beirut bomber had “succeeded in sending 200 American Marines to hell”, and he openly demanded that Syria should absorb Lebanon.

Loose cannon though he was, Tlass was nevertheless for many years a pillar of the Ba’ath party establishment, and his influential economic networks spanned Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. He was unerringly loyal to Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian president for three decades, and after Assad’s death in 2000 helped secure power for his son, Bashar. Tlass had been due to retire in 2002, but the grateful Bashar responded by reappointing him defence minister, despite US protests.

Teacher sends apology note to student who became a star - 11 years later

Teachers take pride in helping their students achieve their potential, but one tutor has apologised after warning an NFL star against following his dreams 11 years ago.

New England Patriots star Julian Edelman shared a letter from his old teacher who expressed regret for ever doubting his ambitions.

Passionate Request to support Joetia Fc To purchase sporting kits

passionate Request to support Joetia
Fc To purchase sporting kits.
Joetia fc is a young football team with lots of
talented players but eagerly seeking sponsors. we
lack basic sporting kits which will cost about
#800,000 (eight hundred thousand Naira) or
more; this will help improve the standard of our
young club and also encourage our young club and also encourage our young players
become future stars.
This young club in Iwere land has organized
several football competitions including the most
recent Joetia kids cup. a competition for primary schools in our locality
which was played at Olu palace field.
Ugbori almost daily.

Bayern Munich vs Arsenal LIVE

'Do Not Surrender To Your Enemies, Kill Yourself Before They Capture You' - Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte Tells Govt Troops

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday told government troops not to allow themselves to be captured alive by enemies of the state and instead kill themselves if they are cornered in a battle.

"Do not surrender alive," he told soldiers after turning over 3,000 units of 45-calibre pistols for the military. "I will give you a pistol with three magazines, but remember one is for you and two is for the enemies."

Duterte said soldiers, especially those deployed in the southern Philippines, should not give Islamist militants the opportunity to execute and behead them, which the terrorists film and later on release on the internet.

Russia: A resurgent superpower?

by

Mansur Mirovalev

@mirovalev

Mansur Mirovalev is a Moscow-based writer and video journalist who covers wars and peace in the former Soviet Union.

Moscow, Russia - The Russians expected to be seated in a distant corner and ignored - but got a red-carpet reception instead. An unofficial delegation of 16 legislators, bankers and political pundits arrived in Washington, DC, in February to participate in an annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast hosted by the US Congress and attended by the incumbent president.

They ended up meeting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and having a private dinner with notable evangelical Christian Republicans, the pillar of President Donald Trump's political base, a Kremlin insider who was part of the delegation, said.

"I did not expect such a positive reception, that there would be people I had only read about and never had a chance to meet," Andrey Kolyadin, who served as head of Kremlin's regional politics department, told Al Jazeera.

Kolyadin, now one of Russia's top campaign managers, was invited to the breakfast by Republican Dana Rohrabacher of California. Rohrabacher supported Russia's annexation of Crimea and war with ex-Soviet, pro-Western Georgia. He even "okayed" the idea of Alaska "rejoining" Russia (the tsarist government sold the peninsula in 1867).

A generation ago, such a dinner would seem impossible.

Court delivers verdicts in biggest trafficking trial

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More than 100 defendants are accused of smuggling and trafficking refugees on the Thai-Malaysia border [Surapan Boonthanom/Reuters]

Thailand is handing down verdicts in its biggest human trafficking trial, with more than 100 defendants accused of smuggling and trafficking refugees and migrants on the Thailand-Malaysia border.

By midday local time on Wednesday, a judge had announced 21 guilty verdicts from 103 defendants.

More judgements are expected later in the day.

A Thai army general, Myanmar nationals, Thai police officers and local politicians are among those accused.

Arrests began in 2015 following the discovery of 36 bodies in shallow graves in southern Thailand.

That discovery exposed networks which trafficked Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and held them for ransom in jungle camps before they were granted passage to Malaysia.