Former Panama strongman Manuel Noriega flew out of France on Sunday, headed home to serve more prison time two decades after being ousted in a bloody US invasion. An Iberia plane carrying the former dictator took off from a Paris airport shortly after 0800 GMT and headed to Madrid, from where the 77-year-old began the final leg of his journey home after a stopover.
"This morning French authorities handed Manuel Noriega over to Panamanian authorities for his extradition to Panama," Bruno Badre, a spokesman for the French justice ministry, told AFP after the plane took off.