أنقذت منظمة إسبانية غير حكومية أكثر من 130 مهاجرا غير نظامي أثناء محاولتهم العبور من ليبيا باتجاه إيطاليا عبر البحر الأبيض المتوسط.

“I told him I didn’t want to play any more. He was phoning and phoning but I said: ‘I’m not going to play.’” The calls came, the president on the line, but José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Júnior – better known as Paulinho, hardly known at all then – had made up his mind. He had headed home to São Paulo, yet rather than returning to his boyhood club he was giving up on the game. He had had enough, aged 19. “In Lithuania they had racially abused me, in Poland they hadn’t paid me, and I thought: ‘I don’t need this,’” he says. http://ift.tt/1p5TKH4 https://aawsat.com

A year ago, Syria’s city of Aleppo was on the verge of witnessing a military campaign that left scores dead and ended an important chapter in the country’s conflict.

The campaign brought an end to the Syrian armed factions’ presence in Aleppo and led to the displacement of thousands of civilians from the eastern part of the city.

Activists who were displaced from eastern Aleppo and who now reside in the Idlib countryside and western Aleppo reflected on the current situation a year after the campaign ended.

Activist Afra Hashem told Asharq Al-Awsat: “My last days in Aleppo were very pa http://ift.tt/1p5TKH4 https://aawsat.com

Fourteen-goal Mohamed Salah may be the standout player of the first half of the Premier League season on Merseyside, and Manchester City are the undisputed goal kings with two players (Raheem Sterling and Sergio Agüero) reaching double figures before Christmas.

Yet of the half-dozen strikers to have achieved that early target, one has not really been playing as a striker this season. Neither has he been performing, like all the others, for a club in the Champions League elite. http://ift.tt/1p5TKH4 https://aawsat.com

Iran reasserted its refusal to discuss the file of its missiles program, saying such dialogues would mean “a violation of its defense infrastructure,” a high-ranking Iranian source said on Thursday morning during a meeting organized by the French Institute of International Relations, celebrating the fourth round of the “Political Dialogue” between Iran and France.

“Tehran categorically rejects France’ proposal to open discussions concerning the ballistic and missiles program, because such talks would violate Iran’s defensive and national infrastructure. http://ift.tt/1p5TKH4 https://aawsat.com

The Pentagon gained approval from the Nigerien government to fly armed drones out of Niamey, Niger’s capital, a State Department official said Friday, an effort that will put more firepower in the region, and also require more US troops there.

Air Force personnel who specialize in transporting, inspecting, loading and maintaining weapons such as Hellfire missiles and GPS-guided bombs will be needed in Niger, along with refuelers, mechanics and other logistical personnel, according to Paul Scharre, the director of the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American http://ift.tt/1p5TKH4 https://aawsat.com