Torrijos takes office as Panamanian president
Martin Torrijos Espino was sworn in as the new Panamanian president on Wednesday in the Atlapa Conventions Center of the capital.

In his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Torrijos pledged to fight corruption and crimes to restore people's trust in the country and the government.

He also vowed to improve relations with Cuba which were cut off last month after former Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned four exiles accused by Cuba of trying to kill its leader Fidel Castro.

About 3,000 people attended the inauguration ceremony.

Torrijos, 40, is the son of former Panamanian President Omar Torrijos who died in 1981 in an aircraft accident after ruling Panama for 13 years.

Torrijos won 47.44 percent of the vote in the presidential election on May 2.

Colombia Looks to Build Drug Crime Museum
A sprawling hacienda once owned by Pablo Escobar, emblematic of the drug lord's excesses, may soon house a museum highlighting the evils of drug trafficking, a top Colombian official said.

Escobar, a leader of the now defunct Medellin cocaine cartel, was killed in 1993 in a hail of police bullets after waging a war of terror in Colombia.

Last month, a court in the state of Antioquia, where the Hacienda Napoles ranch is located, gave the Colombian government official title to the property after a 15-year battle with Escobar's family.

Col. Luis Alfonso Plazas, head of the National Drug Directorate, or DNE, said Wednesday he wants to build a museum on the 4,500-acre spread to remind Colombians "to never again create somebody as evil as Pablo Escobar."

The crime museum would show "all the barbarities that occurred in Colombia in the 1980s due to narcotrafficking," he said.

In his effort to fight extradition to the United States, Escobar and other Medellin cartel leaders ordered the assassinations of government leaders, police and journalists. Car bombs exploded almost daily in Colombian cities as the cartel sought to intimidate the government from allowing the extraditions of drug traffickers to the United States, where more severe penalties were likely.

In its heyday, the ranch contained exotic animals from around the world, including elephants, antelope, buffalo, gazelles, camels, zebras and ostriches. About 10 hippos still slosh around in artificial lakes on the property.

Escobar mounted a light plane at the entrance to Hacienda Napoles - an aircraft which he had used on one of his first smuggling missions.

Now fallen into disrepair, the ranch also contained a mansion, a swimming pool and guest cottages. The plane was removed long ago.

Eight poor families now squat on the land, located in the Magdalena River valley in northwest Colombia. They would have to leave, Plazas said.

Shortly after taking power in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe streamlined the process required for the government to seize properties formerly owned by drug traffickers. Since then, more than 1,000 properties have been taken over by the DNE, worth more than $200 million.

Colombia is the world's top producer of cocaine.

Argentina Completes High Court Purge as Judge Quits
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's anti-corruption purge of the Supreme Court concluded on Wednesday as a justice in impeachment proceedings quit.

Adolfo Vazquez is the fourth justice appointed last decade by former President Carlos Menem to leave the nine-person court since Kirchner took power 15 months ago. Like the others, he was accused of making politically motivated rulings and being loyal to Menem, a foe of Kirchner.

Vazquez presented his resignation to the president for "personal reasons," Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez said.

Vazquez was impeached by Congress on Aug. 12 and faced a long hearing in the Senate. After unknown assailants shot at his car last week, he asked neighboring Uruguay for asylum but was turned down.

Vazquez has alleged the new court is "addicted" to Kirchner.

But Kirchner's cleanup of the Supreme Court has proved highly popular with Argentines worn down by decades of cronyism and impunity. He hopes a new court will rule without the political bias that could have blocked his government's policies on the economy and human rights.

Over the next months, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of laws protecting hundreds of officers from human rights abuses during the 1976-83 military rule. Kirchner wants to end the amnesty.

All three of Kirchner's nominees, including two women, have been confirmed by Congress.