■ COLOMBIA
Robbery goes very wrong
A feckless stick-up man made a very wrong choice when he decided to rob a karate school. He was beaten and hospitalized during the attempted robbery in Bucaramanga, police said. "The man entered the academy with a firearm, but could not intimidate the dozens of students, who fortunately reacted and disarmed him," said Colonel Julio Cesar Santoyo, police commander in the province of Santander. Police arrived at the scene only to take the would-be robber to a hospital for treatment of multiple contusions at the hands of the karate students.
■ UNITED STATES
Judge rules against Noriega
A judge ruled against Manuel Noriega for a second time on Friday, concluding that the one time Panamanian dictator could be extradited to France to face trial on money laundering charges. Noriega's attorney immediately filed notice that he would appeal. Noriega's drug racketeering sentence ends today, but with the appeal, it remained unclear just when he would leave the country and where he would be sent. Noriega's attorney says he should be returned to Panama because of his status as a prisoner of war. The government says French officials have given assurances that they will honor his prisoner of war status.
■ UNITED STATES
Fired cop loses porn case
An Arizona police department had the right to fire a police officer who made and sold "vulgar and indecent" sex videos in which he performs with his wife, an appeals court ruled. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said on Wednesday that Ronald Dible had engaged in "sleazy activities" and ruled that a lower court had properly dismissed Dible's claims that the Chandler, Arizona, police department infringed on his First Amendment rights to free speech by firing him. Dible lost his job in 2002 after Chandler Police Department learned he was running a sexually explicit Web site featuring him and his wife to make money.
■ UNITED STATES
Rich man wins lottery again
US Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, already a millionaire and heir to the Kimberly-Clark fortune, plays the lottery every week and is on a lucky streak. The Republican hit it big in 1997 with a US$250,000 jackpot in the Washington lottery. Last spring he won US$1,000 in the Wisconsin lottery and he won another US$1,000 in that lottery last week. Sensenbrenner, 64, was born into a family that helped build Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex tissue and Scott paper towels, and he recently reported a net worth of about US$11.6 million. He said he spends about US$10 a week on lottery tickets. The latest winnings came in a Super 2nd Chance drawing, in which people who mail in at least US$5 in losing tickets vie for 10 US$1,000 prizes each week. Lottery officials put the odds of winning just one time at one in 5,000.
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