Senior Colombian ministers have sought Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus' advice on what the new three-month-old government of the country can do to take forward its vision of poverty reduction and "total peace." Yunus is now in Colombia’s Bogota at the invitation of the World Business Forum to address a Latin American conference of business executives. Since the recently elected President Gustavo is currently at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), he instructed selected senior ministers to have an intensive consultation meeting with Yunus under the leadership of the minister in charge of the president's office. Read: Bangladesh seeks OIC’s help to continue Rohingya genocide case Yunus has been invited to Colombia by successive governments over the last two decades, and there are many programmes inspired by his work already running in the country, including microcredit programmes, social business programmes and university-initiated academic programmes. During his visit, University Externado de Colombia, a leading university in the country, organised a large public event and invited Yunus to address it. The university has a joint programme with Yunus Centre and set up a Yunus Social Business Centre three years ago. Yunus programmes in Colombia were presented by Yunus Centre on the work with universities, and Yunus Environment Hub about the projects for the environment and circularity in the Amazon region of the country as well as in other parts. Read: Dhaka seeks proactive role from Thailand, ASEAN to repatriate Rohingya This was followed by Yunus presenting his vision of a three-zero world and how that can be attained by building social business and with the involvement of the young people creating three-zero clubs. The ministers appreciated Yunus's vision, as well as his work on the ground and his presentation, which was followed by a long discussion with them on aspects of microcredit, social business, globalisation, the role of youth, climate change, the environment and deforestation and the culture of peace.  

A sauropod dinosaur was named a new species around 80 years after it was first discovered in a remote Colombian mountain range, thanks to the 2016 Peace Agreement, which put an end to half a century of civil war. Around 175 million years ago, a 12-metre long sauropod walked northern Colombia. Scientists are attributing the discovery of this new species of herbivorous dinosaur to the improved security situation in Colombia since the signing of the 2016 peace deal. Two years after the signing of the agreement, a group of researchers from the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, and the University of Michigan, US, found it safe to visit the Serranía del Perijá, and gather new data. The scientists returned to the place where a fossil of a dinosaur dorsal spine vertebra was found by a geologist working for an oil company in 1943. At the time no one knew that it was part of a brand-new species. After the find, the fossil was taken, along with some sediment samples, to the US and given to the University of California scientific collection at Berkeley. "Without the security conditions provided in the area today, it would have been difficult to return to the field. This is due to the peace agreement," Aldo Rincón Burbano, professor at the Department of Physics and Geosciences at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla and one of the research leaders in Colombia, told UN News. Former FARC-EP fighters provided logistical services, lodging, and guides for the researchers, as they tried to locate the site where the fossil had been unearthed some 80 years earlier. Also read: Extinct dinosaur lectures world leaders about climate change "We spent almost a year in the process, writing and searching, and although we didn't find any new fossils, we managed to get to the site and find the same sediment collected alongside the vertebra in 1943," said Rincón. "By studying the sediment, we were able to conclude that the vertebra was from a new genus and a new species." They named the species Perijasaurus lapaz – the first part after the place where it was found and the second as a tribute to the peace agreement. The dinosaur is similar to other sauropods of this period found in Asia, North Africa, and southern Patagonia, which were smaller than the later dinosaurs belonging to this group. Also read: Footprints show some two-legged dinosaurs were agile

Part of the wooden stands collapsed during a bullfight in central Colombia Sunday, sending spectators plunging to the ground and killing at least four people and injuring hundreds, authorities said. The disaster took place in a stadium in the city of El Espinal in Tolima state during a traditional event called “corraleja” in which members of the public enter the ring to engage the bulls. Read:At least 20 dead in South African club; cause not yet known Videos taken during the bullfight show a three-story section of the stands collapsing as people screamed. “We have activated the hospital network in Tolima,” Tolima Gov. José Ricardo Orozco told local Blu Radio. “Four people have died, as of this moment: two women, a man and a minor.” Mayor Juan Carlos Tamayo said 800 spectators were seated in the sections that collapsed. Late Sunday, Tolima health secretary Martha Palacios said in a press conference that 322 people had gone to local public and private hospitals after the collapse seeking treatment. Palacio said the minor who had died was an 18-month-old baby. Besides the four dead, another four people were in intensive care and two others recovering from surgery. Orozco said he had asked for the traditional “corralejas” to be suspended in Tolima earlier Sunday but this one was held anyway. President-elect Gustavo Petro urged local officials to ban such events, noting that it was not the first time an incident like this had taken place. Read:Survivors recount Mali's deadliest attack since coup “I ask mayors not to allow more events involving the death of people or animals,” he said. Current President Iván Duque on Twitter announced an investigation of the disaster. “We lament the terrible tragedy registered in El Espinal, Tolima, during the festivals of San Pedro and San Juan, with the collapse of the stands during a corraleja. We will call for an investigation.”

At least 23 people were killed in Colombia this weekend and 20 had to flee their homes as fighting between rebel groups intensified in the eastern state of Arauca, Colombia's Defense Minister said Monday. The killings mark a setback for Colombia's government, which was able to bring down homicide rates in much of the country following a 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. But it is now struggling to control violence in rural pockets of the country where smaller rebel groups and drug trafficking organizations are fighting over smuggling routes, coca fields, illegal mines and other assets. Arauca is home to some of Colombia’s largest oil wells and is also crossed by a pipeline that is regularly attacked by rebel groups that steal its oil. The state borders Venezuela and drug trafficking groups have been fighting over its smuggling routes for decades. Also read: 2 US men, ex-Colombia soldiers held in Haiti assassination In a statement Monday, Colombia’s army said the latest outbreak of violence was caused by fighting between the National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla group and former members of the FARC who refused to join the peace deal. The army said that both groups are currently fighting for dominance over the area’s drug trade. Juan Carlos Villate, a human rights officer in the town of Tame, told Colombia’s Blu Radio that he received reports of civilians who were dragged out of their homes and executed on Sunday by members of armed groups. Villate said that he had reports of 50 people who went missing and 27 who were killed over the weekend. Human Rights Watch said it has received reports of 24 deaths, as well as forced displacements and abductions. “It appears that the alliance between the ELN and dissidents with the 10th Front of the FARC in the zone has broken," said the group's Colombia expert, Juan Pappier. Arauca last year received hundreds of refugees who fled from neighboring Venezuela following fighting between the Venezuelan army and FARC splinter groups that also operate on the Venezuelan side of the border. President Ivan Duque said on Monday that he would send more troops to the area and increase surveillance flights to intercept armed groups and monitor their activity along the border with Venezuela. Duque accused Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro of providing shelter to some of these rebel groups and said Colombia would fight them “with all its might." While Colombia's overall murder rate has gone down since the peace deal was signed, homicides and forced displacement have also gone up in some rural pockets of the country that were previously dominated by the FARC and where smaller groups, including the ELN, are now fighting for territorial control. Also read: Rights group: Colombian police cause deaths of 20 protesters The ELN guerrillas initiated peace talks with the Colombian government in 2017, but those broke down following an attack on a police academy that killed 23 people.

Seventeen suspects have been detained so far in the stunning assassination of Haiti’s president, and Haitian authorities say two are believed to hold dual U.S.-Haitian citizenship and Colombia’s government says at least six are former members of its army. Léon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police, said Thursday night that 15 of the detainees were from Colombia. The police chief said eight more suspects were being sought and three others had been killed by police. Charles had earlier said seven were killed. “We are going to bring them to justice,” the police chief said, the 17 handcuffed suspects sitting on the floor during a news conference on developments following the brazen killing of President Jovenel Moïse at his home before dawn Wednesday. Colombia’s government said it had been asked about six of the suspects in Haiti, including two of those killed, and had determined they were retired members of its army. It didn’t release their identities.The head of the Colombian national police, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, said President Iván Duque had ordered the high command of Colombia’s army and police to cooperate in the investigation. “A team was formed with the best investigators ... they are going to send dates, flight times, financial information that is already being collected to be sent to Port-au-Prince,” Vargas said. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports that Haitian Americans were in custody but could not confirm or comment. The Haitian Americans were identified by Haitian officials as James Solages and Joseph Vincent. Solages, at age 35, is the youngest of the suspects and the oldest is 55, according to a document shared by Haiti’s minister of elections, Mathias Pierre. He would not provide further information on those in custody. READ: 2 Haitian Americans detained in slaying of Haiti president Solages described himself as a “certified diplomatic agent,” an advocate for children and budding politician on a website for a charity he started in 2019 in south Florida to assist people in the Haitian coastal town of Jacmel. On his bio page for the charity, Solages said he previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. Canada’s foreign relation department released a statement that did not refer to Solages by name but said one of the men detained for his alleged role in the killing had been “briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard” at its embassy by a private contractor. He gave no other details. Calls to the charity and Solages’ associates at the charity either did not go through or weren’t answered. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Haitian police had arrested 11 armed suspects who tried to break into the Taiwanese embassy early Thursday. It gave no details of the suspects’ identities or a reason for the break-in. “As for whether the suspects were involved in the assassination of the President of Haiti, that will need to be investigated by the Haitian police,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Joanne Ou told The Associated Press in Taipei. Police were alerted by embassy security guards while Taiwanese diplomats were working from home. The ministry said some doors and windows were broken but there was no other damage to the embassy. Haiti is one of a handful of countries worldwide that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan instead of the rival mainland Chinese government in Beijing. In Port-au-Prince, witnesses said a crowd discovered two suspects hiding in bushes, and some people grabbed the men by their shirts and pants, pushed them and occasionally slapped them. An Associated Press journalist saw officers put the pair in the back of a pickup and drive away as the crowd ran after them to a police station. “They killed the president! Give them to us! We’re going to burn them,” people chanted outside Thursday. The crowd later set fire to several abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes that they believed belonged to the suspects. The cars didn’t have license plates, and inside one was an empty box of bullets and some water. Later, Charles urged people to stay calm and let his officers do their work. He cautioned that authorities needed evidence that was being destroyed, including the burned cars. Officials have given out little information on the killing, other than to say the attack was carried out by “a highly trained and heavily armed group.” Not everyone was buying the government’s description of the attack. When Haitian journalist Robenson Geffrard, who writes for a local newspaper and has a radio show, tweeted a report on comments by the police chief, he drew a flood of responses expressing skepticism. Many wondered how the sophisticated attackers described by police could penetrate Moïse’s home, security detail and panic room and escape unharmed but then be caught without planning a successful getaway. A Haitian judge involved in the investigation said Moïse was shot a dozen times and his office and bedroom were ransacked, according to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste. It quoted Judge Carl Henry Destin as saying investigators found 5.56 and 7.62 mm cartridges between the gatehouse and inside the house. Moïse’s daughter, Jomarlie Jovenel, hid in her brother’s bedroom during the attack, and a maid and another worker were tied up by the attackers, the judge said. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military, asked people to reopen businesses and go back to work as he ordered the reopening of the international airport. Joseph decreed a two-week state of siege after the assassination, which stunned a nation already in crisis from some of the Western Hemisphere’s worst poverty, widespread violence and political instability. Haiti had grown increasingly unstable under Moïse, who had been ruling by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of trying to amass more power while the opposition demanded he step down. The U.N. Security Council met privately Thursday to discuss the situation in Haiti, and U.N. special envoy Helen La Lime said afterward that Haitian officials had asked for additional security assistance. Public transportation and street vendors remained scarce Thursday, an unusual sight for the normally bustling streets of Port-au-Prince. Marco Destin was walking to see his family since no buses, known as tap-taps, were available. He was carrying a loaf of bread for them because they had not left their house since the president’s killing out of fear for their lives. “Every one at home is sleeping with one eye open and one eye closed,” he said. “If the head of state is not protected, I don’t have any protection whatsoever.” Gunfire rang out intermittently across the city hours after the killing, a grim reminder of the growing power of gangs that displaced more than 14,700 people last month alone as they torched and ransacked homes in a fight over territory. READ: Haiti’s future uncertain after brazen slaying of president Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said gangs were a force to contend with and it isn’t certain Haiti’s security forces can enforce a state of siege. “It’s a really explosive situation,” he said.

It will be Lionel Messi’s Argentina against Neymar’s Brazil in the Copa America final on Saturday at the historic Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Argentina won its semifinal against Colombia 3-2 on penalties after three saves by goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. Regular time ended 1-1 at the Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasilia on Tuesday. “Emi is a phenomenon. We trusted him,” Messi said after the match. “It was an objective to play all the matches and now we will try to win this final.” Read:Brazil edges Peru to reach Copa America final Argentina hasn’t captured a major title since 1993 when it won Copa America. On that occasion, the team eliminated Colombia on penalties 6-5 in the semifinal after a goalless draw. Brazil beat Peru 1-0 on Monday to advance to the final. The Selecao has never lost a Copa America final at home and has won five out of six matches so far. It took Argentina only seven minutes to open the scoring. Rodrigo de Paul found Messi in the penalty box with a through pass. The star earned his fifth assist in the tournament with a pass to Lautaro Martinez, who put the ball in the right corner past Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina. A more aggressive Colombia, led by Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, hit the bar and the post in the second half before it leveled in the 61st minute with Luis Diaz, who received the ball on the left of Argentina’s box shot almost with no angle to beat Martinez. Read:Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar: Who Has Acquired Most International Achievements? Argentina reacted after 67 minutes when Ángel di María came into the match, replacing Nico González. The winger created several opportunities including one in the 80th minute that ended with Davinson Sanchez saving a finish by Lautaro Martinez on the goal line. The last big opportunity in regular time came with Messi hitting Ospina’s right post in 81st minute from short range. Martinez saved the shots taken by Sanchez, Yerry Mina and Edwin Cardona in the shootout. Messi converted his opportunity from the spot and was one of the most joyous players in the celebrations. He seeks his first major title with Argentina against favorites Brazil. Rodrigo de Paul missed his shot, but Leandro Paredes and Lautaro Martinez netted their chances for Argentina in the shootout. Cuadrado and Miguel Borja scored from the spot for Colombia. Read:Argentina beats Ecuador at Copa, plays Colombia in semifinal In tears, Martinez said after the match he wanted to face the Brazilians in the final in the Maracana Stadium. “This is a matter of luck, today it was mine. Brazil is a great team, the favorite,” Martinez said. “But we have a great coach, we have the best player in the world and we will try to win it,” he said. Colombia will play on Friday in the third-place playoff against Peru.

Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA M Shahidul Islam has laid emphasis on exploring the untapped potentials between Bangladesh and Colombia for further strengthening the relations in diverse areas.  "It's time to explore the untapped potentials," he said after presenting his Letters of Credence as the non-resident Ambassador to Cambodian President Ivan Duque Marquez in a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace in Bogota, Colombia recently. The Ambassador thanked the Colombian government for its consistent support to the Rohingya issue at the UN.  He underscored that his prime objective as the Ambassador to Colombia would be to explore the potential for deepening cooperation and overall relations between the two countries and two peoples. Appreciating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership role in promoting the cause of the climate-vulnerable countries, the President agreed to participate at the high-level opening session of the Climate Vulnerable Finance Summit organised by the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance, which Bangladesh presides, to take place virtually on July 8. Also read: KL keen to explore opportunities with Dhaka

Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaidó has traveled to Colombia to participate alongside U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a regional counter-terrorism meeting — a new show of support by the Trump administration for the man it says is the country's legitimate leader.

A remote town was on edge Friday after at least five people were found shot to death, highlighting Colombia's struggle to bring peace to rural areas with abundant drug crops and illegal armed groups are active.

Uber said Friday it will stop operating in Colombia, following stiff opposition from taxi drivers' unions and a lawsuit that said the ride-sharing app was breaking local transport laws.