Nation in brief: Astronaut pursues insanity defense
Former astronaut Lisa Nowak is pursuing a temporary insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a court document released Tuesday.
Nowak suffered from major depression, obsessive- compulsive disorder, insomnia and “brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors,” defense attorney Donald Lykkebak wrote in his notice of intent to rely on the insanity defense.
Nowak, 44, was arrested in February after confronting Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of a former space shuttle pilot Nowak had been seeing. The former astronaut allegedly stalked Shipman at the Orlando airport, then attacked her as Shipman arrived at her car.
MIAMI
Noriega to face charges in France
Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is closer to facing money-laundering charges in France after a federal judge approved his extradition Tuesday, less than two weeks before the end of his U.S. prison sentence for drug racketeering.
Attorneys for 73-year-old Noriega vowed to continue fighting for his return home to Panama, but they have now lost before two judges. Noriega is scheduled to be released Sept. 9 from a federal prison outside Miami where he has been held since his 1992 conviction.
The extradition approval by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff came four days after a higher-ranking judge rejected Noriega’s claim that his status as a prisoner of war entitled him under Geneva Conventions rules to immediate repatriation to Panama.
CHICAGO
Diocese considers lesbian for bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago included an openly lesbian priest among five nominees for bishop Tuesday, as fellow Anglicans demand that the church bar gay bishops.
The Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, who has a female partner, will be on the Nov. 10 ballot. If she wins, she would be the second bishop living with a same-sex partner in the Episcopal Church. New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who has a male partner, was consecrated in 2003, pushing the world Anglican Communion to the brink of schism.
The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the U.S.
SALT LAKE CITY
Camera unable to view mine area
A robotic camera lowered into a Utah mountain became stuck 10 feet from its target, forcing crews to yank it from the hole and come up with another route to possibly take video of an area where six miners might be trapped, an official said Tuesday.
Operators will try to lower the camera through hole No. 7 into an eating area where the miners may have sought refuge during the Aug. 6 cave-in, although the new hole probably won’t be finished until Thursday, said district manager Jack Kuzar of the federal Mine Safety Health Administration.