Nation IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Noriega Loses Bid for a New Trial

Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega is not entitled to a retrial despite new evidence that Colombia’s Cali cocaine cartel bribed a witness to testify against him on drug charges, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler in Miami agreed with prosecutors who argued that the evidence would not have changed the jury’s verdict. Noriega was convicted in 1992 after being captured during the U.S. invasion of Panama, and is serving a 40-year sentence for protecting U.S.-bound cocaine flights by Cali’s rival, the Medellin cocaine cartel.