Ex-Panamanian dictator to be extradited in weeks

PARIS (AP) ? Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega will be extradited to his homeland in the next few weeks, the French Justice Ministry said Thursday.

France and Panama have been working out the details of the extradition, Justice Ministry spokesman Bruno Badre told The Associated Press by telephone. A French court ruled on Nov. 23 that Noriega can be handed over to serve time for past crimes, more than 20 years after being ousted and arrested in a U.S. invasion.

Badre said "the judicial conditions have now been filled" for extradition and "this will occur in the next few weeks."

The elderly former strongman has been behind bars in Florida, on drug charges, and in France, for money laundering. Panama wants Noriega returned to serve prison terms handed down after he was convicted in absentia for embezzlement, corruption and murder.

The court decision came after months of legal procedures. Friends and foes alike feared that Noriega might die in a French prison ? notably Panamanians who fought against human rights abuses during his 1983-1989 regime.

Noriega, a one-time CIA asset, turned into an embarrassment for the U.S. after he sidled up to Colombia's Medellin drug cartel and turned to crime.

In Panama, he is accused of murdering opponents including Moises Giroldi, a military commander who led a failed rebellion two months before the U.S. invasion, and Hugo Spadafora, whose decapitated body was found on the border with Costa Rica in 1985.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-01-EU-France-Noriega/id-f086abc111b7438ca88320680d65d4a2

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Galaxy win in Indonesia

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updated 11:15 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2011

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Robbie Keane scored in the 14th minute to give the Los Angeles Galaxy a 1-0 win over an Indonesian all-star team in the first exhibition game of the MLS champions' Asian tour.

Keane took a short pass from Adam Cristman inside the penalty area and slotted a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner of the net.

The Galaxy also hit a post and the crossbar in the first half, but couldn't extend their lead.

David Beckham and Landon Donovan started for the Galaxy in front of about 30,000 spectators at Jakarta's 80,000-seat Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

The Galaxy will play the Philippines national team in Manila on Dec. 3 and Australian club Melbourne Victory three days later.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Mars life? New rover may uncover clues

For more than a decade, robotic probes sent to Mars have been searching for signs of past water, believed to be one of the key ingredients for life.

Now, NASA opens a new chapter in the search for extraterrestrial life with an ambitious mission to find life's habitats, and possibly even organics, on Mars.

"I'd be surprised if we landed on the surface (of Mars) and didn't find something that looked like it could have been a formerly habitable environment," said California Institute of Technology planetary scientist John Grotzinger, lead researcher for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

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But what scientists really want to find is organic carbon ? molecules containing carbon that are derived from organic processes ? if indeed any has been preserved in the harsh Martian environment.

"It's a long shot, but we're going to try," Grotzinger told reporters during a pre-launch press conference.

It's been 35 years since NASA went looking for organics on Mars. Scientists didn't think the Viking lander twins, which touched down in 1976, found evidence of biological activity, though the results of one key experiment have been mired in controversy.

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Mars Science Lab, nicknamed Curiosity, isn't a life-detection mission like Viking. Rather, it is intended to chemically analyze the landing site known as Gale Crater for habitats that could have supported life, or possibly still can.

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Curiosity follows three previous rovers ? Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity ? the lander Phoenix, and a fleet of orbiting probes that have focused on looking for signs of past water. The previous missions returned overwhelming evidence that Mars was once a warmer and wetter place and hints that the planet once sported an ocean, rivers and other bodies of water on its surface.

The question now is whether the water existed long enough for life to evolve and if there were other ingredients necessary for life, namely organic compounds, which are the building blocks for life on Earth.

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"One of the ingredients of life is water. We're now looking to see if we can find other conditions that are necessary for life by defining habitability or what does it take in the environment to support life," said Mary Voytek, director of NASA's astrobiology program.

The $2.5-billion rover is scheduled for launch at 10:02 a.m. EST Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Its 60-million mile journey is expected to end in August 2012, with a touchdown inside the 96-mile wide Gale Crater. The site features a three-mile-high mountain of sediment that will be the focus of Curiosity's studies for at least two years.

? 2011 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45437842/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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