Panama today requested that France extradite former dictator Manuel Noriega, bringing hope to those who have demanded for two decades that he face justice at home for alleged tortures and killings of their relatives.

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.

PANAMA voted yesterday in a referendum backing an ambitious €4.2 billion expansion plan to give its famous canal its biggest face-lift in a move the government hopes will lift the nation out of poverty.

IN a recent letter to the Irish Examiner, Jim Malo from Connecticut sought “specific information” on civilian torture by US authorities.

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.