Colombian immigration authorities said some 1,400 Venezuelan military had deserted for Colombia this year, while the Brazilian Army said over 60 members of Venezuela’s armed forces had emigrated to Brazil since Maduro closed the border on Feb. 23 to block an opposition effort to get humanitarian aid into the country.

“Most military people that are leaving are from the National Guard. They will continue coming. More want to leave,” said a National Guard lieutenant, speaking earlier this month. She had just crossed into Brazil on foot, arriving in the frontier town of Pacaraima after walking hours along indigenous trails through savannah.

Officials in both countries said the pace of desertion has sped up in recent months as political and economic turmoil in Venezuela has worsened. The deserters, who asked to withhold their names due to fear of reprisals against their families, complained that top commanders in Venezuela lived well on large salaries and commissions from smuggling and other black market schemes while the lower ranks confronted conflicts in Venezuela’s streets for little pay.(Stabroeknews)…[+]

Facebook has taken down several networks that were spreading far-right content to nearly 1.7 million people in Spain, days before national electionsthat are expected to see a surge in support for the far-right Vox party. The networks were uncovered in an investigation by the campaign group Avaaz, and taken down only after it presented Facebook with its findings.

The discovery of a large network, spreading politically sensitive content unmonitored days before a key European election, is likely to add to concerns about social media firms’ willingness and ability to control hate speech and criminal activity on their sites. On Wednesday British MPs condemned Facebook, Google and Twitter for their refusal to report users to the police when they remove criminal posts, except in rare cases when there is an immediate threat to life or limb.

Avaaz found that the networks in Spain were spreading fake news, including a doctored photo of a political opponent giving a Hitler salute, and misogynist, Islamophobic and homophobic messages. They were also coordinating the publication of identical posts apparently designed to look like spontaneous messages. However, unlike its decision earlier this month to ban British far-right groupsin a crackdown on hate organisations, Facebook said it had not taken down the Spanish pages because of their content, or for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” – the network’s sanitised term for manufacturing and spreading fake news.(Theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN– The following is a statement from Caribbean Development Bank President Dr. W^m. Warren Smith on the passing of Sir Alister McIntyre.

The Caribbean Development Bank joins the wider regional community in mourning the loss of Sir Alister McIntyre, OCC, a   Caribbean statesman, a scholar, a true Caribbean son. Though we mourn his passing, we celebrate his life – one which he dedicated to the cause of Caribbean integration and development.

Born and raised in Grenada, Sir Alister shared his intellect and ability with our entire Region.  His work and his scholarship as a development economist and an integrationist influenced many of our leaders; and his legacy will endure through generations. We are especially grateful   for the leading role he played in shaping CARICOM and the University of the West Indies as Secretary-General and Vice Chancellor, respectively.

Sir Alister’s vision of a stronger, more integrated Caribbean is one which we share at CDB. Almost 50 years ago, the architects of the Bank mandated us to promote economic cooperation and integration among our regional members, having special and urgent regard to our less developed member countries.  We will continue to build on the strong foundation which Sir Alister left behind as we work to accelerate the economic development of our Region.  We offer our deepest condolences to his wife, Marjorie and children, Arnold, Andrew, Helga and Nicholas. We thank them for sharing him with us…[+]

Sur­veil­lance on Venezue­lans le­gal, il­le­gal and crim­i­nal. The TT Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is mon­i­tor­ing the con­nec­tions be­tween Venezue­lan crim­i­nals who have been iden­ti­fied in T&T and the lo­cal gangs. And TTPS and oth­er se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies are al­so mon­i­tor­ing the move­ments of Venezue­lans en­ter­ing Trinidad & Tobago legal­ly as well as il­le­gal­ly.

Act­ing Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Ed­mund Dil­lon con­firmed this in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day when he was grilled by Op­po­si­tion MPs Rod­ney Charles, Roodal Mooni­lal and Vidia Guyadeen-Gopeesingh on re­ports about il­le­gal Venezue­lans in Trinidad & Tobago and crim­i­nal links with lo­cal gangs.

“A num­ber of mon­i­tor­ing and in­tel­li­gence gath­er­ing ex­er­cis­es are tak­ing place right now from the TTPS,” Dil­lon said, de­tail­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. Dil­lon, act­ing for an ab­sent Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, was grilled about the sit­u­a­tion fol­low­ing re­ports that 25 Venezue­lan na­tion­als were held for il­le­gal­ly en­ter­ing T&T and claims that lo­cal gangs are be­ing in­fil­trat­ed by cer­tain no­to­ri­ous Venezue­lan drug car­tels.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

The funeral of Lyra McKee, the journalist shot dead in Derry last week, brought a rare political unity to Northern Ireland on Wednesday. Theresa May joined dignitaries including the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, and the Irish minister for foreign affairs, Simon Coveney, at the funeral.

The New IRA shot McKee, 29, while she observed rioting in Derry last Thursday. The group has apologised and said its gunman was aiming at police. The Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, and leaders of Northern Irish political parties are also at the service, which started at 1pm at St Anne’s Cathedral in central Belfast.

McKee’s death has prompted calls for the leaders of Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to restore power-sharing, which collapsed in acrimony in 2017, leaving a political vacuum. McKee’s north Belfast family is from a Catholic background but chose a Protestant cathedral because it wanted a cross-community, cross-border and multi-cultural service. The service is led jointly by Stephen Forde, the dean of St Anne’s, and Fr Martin Magill, a Catholic priest. Members of the National Union of Journalists are to form a guard of honour. McKee is due to be buried later on Wednesday at Carnmoney cemetery.(theguardian)…[+]

Hundreds of people have had to leave their homes in Norway as emergency services try to extinguish forest fires raging in the south of the country. Some 148 homes were evacuated around the town of Sokndal, where fires have been burning since Tuesday.

Police say the fires are still out of control and warn that heavy winds could help them to spread. April is very early for forest fires in Norway, and experts have warned of a dramatic increase across the continent. This month alone, wildfires have broken out in Sweden, Germany and the UK.

Fires in Europe “are way above the average” for this time of year, an official at the EU’s European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) told the BBC. “The season is drastically worse than those of the last decade.” The official added that a “very dry winter in most of Europe” and persistent drought had contributed to the rise in forest fires, and that the “long term forecast is not promising for an improvement”.(BBC)…[+]

The Hanover police yesterday seized four illegal firearms and several rounds of ammunition in a cemetery as part of what is being described as heightened operations across the western parish over the Easter weekend.

A release from the police Corporate Communication Unit (CCU) today said the seizures occurred about 1:10 p.m. yesterday when a team of police carried out an operation at the Santoy Cemetery on Church Hill Road, Green Island in the parish.

Hanover’s divisional commander, Superintendent Sharon Beeput, said the operations were part of plans to ensure the safety and security of residents and visitors alike amid several social events scheduled to take place throughout the parish during the Easter holiday period. Beeput said an intense investigation is now under way to find the persons responsible for the illegal cache.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]

The mayor of an Italian town has banned the cultivation of broad beans within a 300-metre radius surrounding the home of a child who has a rare allergy.

Lorenzo Falchi introduced the ban in Sesto Fiorentino, near Florence, at the request of the mother of the child, who has favism, a genetic disorder that triggers anaemia if broad beans are eaten or their pollen is inhaled. People growing the bean, which is popular in Italian cuisine, near the child’s home must stop within the next seven days. Local reports say the ban, which will remain in place indefinitely, affects an “ample” area. But Giovanni Rizzo, a spokesman for the mayor, said it would have limited impact on growers.

“It affects a mostly residential area, so there are mainly homes, a big baseball pitch and a number of allotments,” he said. “It’s not as if it’s a big production area for beans, so it won’t put any agricultural companies in difficulty.” The local authority initially rejected the mother’s request but the mayor was eventually moved to act after the child received a long period of care last year at one of Italy’s top children’s hospitals, the Meyer in Florence, as a result of acute haemolytic anaemia.(The guardian)…[+]

US President Donald Trump will make a three-day state visit to the UK from 3 to 5 June, Buckingham Palace has announced. The president and First Lady Melania Trump will be a guest of the Queen and attend a ceremony in Portsmouth to mark the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.

He will also hold talks with the prime minister at Downing Street. Mr Trump met the Queen at Windsor Castle when he came to the UK in July 2018 on a working visit. He also held talks with Mrs May at Chequers before heading to Scotland, where he owns the Turnberry golf course.

The president was promised the visit by Prime Minister Theresa May after he was elected in 2016 – but no date was set. Mrs May said that June’s state visit was an “opportunity to strengthen our already close relationship in areas such as trade, investment, security and defence, and to discuss how we can build on these ties in the years ahead”.(BBC)…[+]

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has voiced outrage over a Polish town’s ritual beating of a Judas effigy which looks like a caricature Orthodox Jew. The Good Friday ritual in Pruchnik, south-eastern Poland, was filmed and posted by a Polish news website.

“Jews are deeply disturbed by this ghastly revival of medieval anti-Semitism that led to unimaginable violence and suffering,” the WJC said. More than three million Polish Jews were murdered during World War Two. In total, Nazi Germany murdered about six million Jews in death camps in occupied Poland and killing fields in the former Soviet Union.

In the Pruchnik ritual – part of Roman Catholic Easter celebrations – children crowded round the effigy beating it with sticks, as adults dragged it through the streets. The mock Judas had a big red nose, black hat and Orthodox-style ringlets. In the past the Catholic Church in Poland had banned such practices.(BBC)…[+]