Chile’s police chief and 10 others were killed when the ageing Panamanian government helicopter in which they were travelling crashed into a three-storey building in Panama City.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush vigorously defended US interrogation practices in the war on terror yesterday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture.

Martin Torrijos, the son of a former dictator, won Panama’s first presidential elections since the handover of the Panama Canal and withdrawal of US troops in December 1999, electoral authorities said.