Hackers crash assembly website

Internet hackers crashed the website of Panama’s National Assembly and briefly posted an American flag there, four months after the legislature elected as its leader a man accused of killing a U.S. soldier.

Officials at the assembly, declining to be quoted by name, said the site -- asamblea.gob.pa/ -- has been down since Jan. 9, when a U.S. flag briefly appeared there.

Pedro Miguel Gonzalez was elected president of Panama’s legislature in September despite being wanted in the United States for the 1992 slaying of Army Sgt. Zac Hernandez.

Prominent U.S. congressional figures including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have vowed not to ratify a free trade deal with Panama unless Gonzalez is removed from his post.