BOGOTA,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Colombia’s highest court has told the government it must take urgent action to protect its Amazon rainforest and stem rising deforestation, in what campaigners said was an historic moment that should help conserve forests and counter climate change.

(Trinidad Guardian) Public officials who usurped the authority of the political directorate and not Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses, were responsible for T&T’s recent refusal to support Dominica’s request for waiver of its dues for the Organisation of American States (OAS) last month.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – A Brazilian judge yesterday ordered former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to turn himself in to police within 24 hours to serve a 12-year sentence for a graft conviction, likely ending the presidential front-runner’s hopes of returning to power.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Nine Guatemalan businessmen who were sentenced on Wednesday for paying bribes to receive public contracts will have to build roads and a school in the Central American country as part of their punishment, according to a U.N.-backed anti-corruption body.

(Barbados Nation) Police have made a breakthrough in their investigations into the unnatural death of Shayne Welch on Monday, March 26.

CARACAS/PANAMA CITY,  (Reuters) – Venezuela said yesterday it was halting commercial relations with Panamanian officials and companies, including regional airline Copa , for alleged involvement in money laundering, prompting Panama to recall its ambassador.

(Trinidad Express) National Security Minister Edmund Dillon has issued a statement saying he is pleased to report, that the Court Proceeding in the United States, with respect to his friend Neville Piper, “has been fully and effectively resolved”.

(Trinidad Express) A mentally challenged man found by police beating his elderly mother was shot dead by officers on Tuesday.

(Trinidad Express) A  20-year-old woman was killed by a man who went to the police station and confessed.

LA PAZ,  (Reuters) – A U.S. jury yesterday found former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and his defence minister responsible for civilian deaths during 2003 street protests in Bolivia, awarding $10 million in compensatory damages to victims’ families.

(Trinidad Express) A second man has been charged with the March 15 murder of Defence Force soldier, Ken Palmer.

(Trinidad Express) A seventy-year-old man appeared before the court charged with the sexually assault of a 12-year old girl.

OSLO,  (Reuters) – Scientists in developing nations plan to step up research into dimming sunshine to curb climate change, hoping to judge if a man-made chemical sunshade would be less risky than a harmful rise in global temperatures.

(Trinidad Express) An Easter get-away trip turned into a nightmare when two of six friends drowned on Sunday.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Detectives are trying to track down members of a criminal network who went on a shopping spree with just over $1.3 million allegedly stolen from the credit card account of Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson before he took up office last month.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexico’s interior minister said on Monday that he spoke to the U.S.

(Trinidad Guardian) For the third time this year, Russian intelligence gathering ship Viktor Leonov has visited Trinidad and Tobago.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Former Guatemalan military dictator Efrain Rios Montt died at the age of 91 yesterday, a bitterly divisive figure in the country’s long civil war who escaped a 2013 genocide conviction only to face renewed charges last year.

(Trinidad Guardian) As the debate rages on about who is responsible for the diplomatic blunder in which T&T voted against Dominica’s bid to waive its OAS contributions for the next two years, there have been renewed calls for the dismissal of Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dennis Moses.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, (Reuters) – Mexico’s presidential front-runner launched his campaign close to the U.S.

(Trinidad Guardian) As the debate rages on about who is responsible for the diplomatic blunder in which T&T voted against Dominica’s bid to waive its OAS contributions for the next two years, there have been renewed calls for the dismissal of Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dennis Moses.

(Trinidad Guardian) Weak with grief and with tears pouring down her face, Cindy Dowrich yesterday begged police to find the gunman who murdered her teenaged son for his gold chain.

(Trinidad Express) T&T has joined the list of countries probing embattled British political consultants, Cambridge Analytica’s (CA) work — and a local probe is targetting the organisation’s alleged link with the past People’s Partnership administration for the 2015 general election.

(Trinidad Express) Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Dennis Moses has responded to the criticism and concern over Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to object to Dominica’s request for a waiver of its fees to the Organization of American States in the wake of the destruction caused by the hurricane in September 2017.

VALENCIA, Venezuela,  (Reuters) – Rioting and a fire in the cells of a Venezuelan police station in the central city of Valencia killed 68 people yesterday, according to the government and witnesses.