WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three Florida correctional officers were in custody on Friday after being charged with murder in the beating death of a handcuffed inmate two months ago while he was being taken to another prison. Officers of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement placed Christopher Rolon, 29, Kirk Walton, 34, and Ronald Connor, 24, under arrest on Thursday. A fourth officer, who was unidentified, was at large, the agency said. The men, who were being held in Miami, face charges of second-degree murder, conspiracy, aggravated battery of a disabled adult and cruel treatment of a detainee, jail records showed. Attorneys were not listed for the men.

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MIAMI (AP) — The premier of the British Virgin Islands and the director of the Caribbean territory’s ports were arrested Thursday on drug smuggling charges in South Florida, federal authorities said. Premier Andrew Alturo Fahie and Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard were taken into custody by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents at Miami-Opa-locka Executive Airport and charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to launder money, according to a criminal complaint. Maynard’s son, Kadeem Maynard, faces the same changes in the alleged scheme, according to the records.

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LONDON (Al- Jazeera) - In 2021, the world lost an area of forest greater than the size of the United Kingdom, according to a report by Global Forest Watch – a trajectory that is set to fall short of global commitments made by world leaders at the United Nation’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland last year. About 253,000 square kilometers (97,600 square miles) of forest were lost during 2021, the report added. The figure amounts to about 10 football pitches per minute. The rate is about the same as in 2020, which saw a sharp increase from 2019, according to the report, which uses forest data collected by the University of Maryland. Analysts say their rapid destruction is putting global climate targets at risk.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Paul Manafort, who served as former president Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, is being sued by the U.S. Justice Department for just under $3 million for not reporting his financial interest in foreign accounts in a timely fashion. Manafort, who was convicted in 2018 on tax evasion and bank fraud charges, was pardoned by Trump in 2020, shortly before he left office.

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan issued a heat warning after the hottest March in 61 years while in parts of neighboring India schools were shut and streets deserted as an intense heave wave on Friday showed no signs of abating. Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, urged the federal and provincial governments to take precautionary measures to manage the intense heat wave, which touched highs of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) in parts of the country. Temperatures were predicted to rise by 6 to 8 degrees Celsius above average temperatures after the hottest March on record since 1961, she said.

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ANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels killed at least six soldiers in an attack on Thursday on a military outpost in southeast Central African Republic, the latest reported incident in a decade-long conflict, a local official and a hospital director said on Friday. Members of an alliance of armed groups known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) assaulted a military camp on the outskirts of Bakouma town early on Thursday morning, said a local government official who did not wish to be named for security reasons. Six soldiers and four rebels were killed, he said.