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BEIRUT/GENEVA: More than 120,000 civilians have been uprooted by a Syrian army offensive in the southwest since it began last week, a war monitor said on Friday, and a senior UN official warned of catastrophe as they risked being trapped between warring sides.Government forces and their allies appeared to be making significant gains in eastern Deraa province, where state media said they marched into several towns. A rebel official said opposition front lines had collapsed. The Russian-backed offensive has killed at least 98 civilians, including 19 children, since June 19, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.It has also driven tens of thousands of people towards the border with Jordan and thousands more to the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the UK-based monitor said. Israel and Jordan - which is already hosting 650,000 Syrians - say they will not let refugees in."We left under bombardment, barrel bombs, air strikes by Russian and Syrian warplanes," ...

GENEVA: Ken Isaacs, the US nominee to lead the UN migration agency, was knocked out of the race on Friday after coming third behind Portugal’s Antonio Vitorino and Costa Rica’s Laura Thompson in a secret ballot of member states in Geneva, delegates said.After four rounds of voting, Vitorino, a former European Commissioner and Portuguese deputy prime minister, was declared the winner by acclamation, and will lead the International Organisation for Migration for a five-year term.Isaacs, vice president of US evangelical charity Samaritan’s Purse, had caused controversy after being forced to apologise for tweets and social media posts in which he disparaged Muslims.The leadership race comes at a crucial time for global migration politics, as US President Donald Trump attracts criticism for his "zero tolerance" policy on the Mexican border and the European Union struggles to find unity on how to deal with the influx of mainly African migrants across the Mediterranean.The job has t...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Friday said it has frozen bank accounts of the political party once led by former premier Najib Razak as part of an investigation into alleged misappropriation from state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).The party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which led a coalition that had governed the country for more than 60 years until last month, is believed to have received funds from 1MDB when Najib was leading the party. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2IHnZOK

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court ordered a main opposition party politician jailed pending trial on Friday on charges including aiding a terrorist organisation, a court document showed.The move came a few days after Eren Erdem lost his seat in parliament in the June 24 elections. Istanbul prosecutors are seeking a jail sentence of up to 22 years for Erdem, from the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP). He is accused of publishing illegal wiretappings when he was the editor of an opposition newspaper in 2014. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2Ktjv3g

TAMPA: A ball-shaped artificial intelligence robot nicknamed the "flying brain" because it is trained to follow and interact with a German astronaut, blasted off on Friday toward the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship.A new, spare hand for the station’s robotic arm, an experiment to measure plant stress in space and a study of a new cancer treatment were also on board as the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:42 am (0942 GMT)."We have ignition and liftoff! The Falcon 9 rocket powers the Dragon spacecraft toward the International Space Station," said a NASA commentator as the white rocket fired its engines and lit up the skies on a dark, Florida morning.The unmanned Dragon capsule carried 5,900 pounds on its 15th supply mission to the orbiting lab, as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. Both the capsule and the rocket have flown before. The Dragon sent cargo to space in 2016 and the Falcon blasted off a NASA...

SANTIAGO: Prosecutors are revisiting one of the darkest chapters of Chilean history, when under the Pinochet dictatorship hundreds and possibly thousands of babies were stolen from their mothers and given away just after being born.On July 9, 1977, Margarita Escobar gave birth to a baby girl at Santiago’s Paula Jaraquemade hospital. She saw her daughter for only a few moments before staff took her away.Four decades, Escobar hasn’t given up on meeting the grown woman her daughter may have become, buoyed by the prosecutors’ push for the truth about Chile’s stolen babies, and under-the-table adoptions.She told AFP hospital staff kept her sedated back then. "Every time I woke up I asked about her again, until a midwife told me, ‘your baby was stillborn.’"She wasn’t allowed to see the body. "Nobody even gave me a document. They sent me home. I don’t know how I got there. I was totally doped."Fast forward almost 10 years, to February 1985, and Maria Orellana gave birth in...

AL-HMIDIYA , Libya: The bodies of three babies were recovered and around 100 people were missing after a migrant boat sank off the coast of Libya on Friday, survivors and the coastguard said.About 120 migrants were aboard the inflatable craft when it ran into trouble, according to survivors brought ashore in Al-Hmidiya, east of the capital Tripoli. Sixteen people were rescued, while the missing included two babies and three children under the age of 12.Survivors told AFP the boat sank a few hours after a pre-dawn departure from Garaboulli, east of Tripoli, following an explosion on board. The motor then caught fire and the vessel began taking on water, they said. The passengers included a number of Moroccan families and Yemenis.Libya’s coastguard said fishermen had spotted the vessel in difficulty and contacted the navy, which has been involved in the rescue of hundreds of migrants in recent days. On June 18, five bodies were recovered and more than 100 people were saved after they wer...