Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli has left the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City where he had sought refuge more than a year ago after the courts upheld a prison sentence against him for money laundering and headed to Colombia where he has received political asylum.

Trooper’s Law, inspired by the Florida dog abandoned during Hurricane Milton evacuations and rescued by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, will head to Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk.

Defense officials say Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been placed on administrative leave and was escorted out of the Pentagon by security.

Panama’s comptroller authority says an audit found irregularities in the renewal of a 25-year port concession in the interoceanic canal and it would request an investigation into the authorization of the contract to a Hong Kong company.

Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and China deported from the United States and dropped into limbo in Panama are hopping door-to-door at embassies and consulates desperately seeking asylum in any country that would accept them.

Panama has released dozens of migrants deported from the United States who were held for weeks in a remote camp on the condition that they would leave the Central American nation in 30 days.

Panama’s Security Minister Frank Ábrego says Panama will begin the process of issuing humanitarian passes to 112 migrants deported from the United States who have been held in a remote camp in the Darien region since last month.

A deportee from the United States detained in a camp in rural Panama, among a hundred who refused to return to their countries, has described waiting in limbo under “harsh conditions” and cut off from access to legal council and other rights.

Panama is detaining in a hotel nearly 300 people from various countries deported by the United States, not allowing them to leave while waiting for international authorities to organize a return to their countries.

Panama's president has said his country has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino says there will be no negotiation with the United States over ownership of the Panama Canal.

After nearly 9 inches of snow hammered the Florida panhandle this week, some turtles are trying to get warm. They’re now in the care of the Gulf World Marine Institute in Panama City.

President Donald Trump’s insistence that he wants to have the Panama Canal back under U.S. control is feeding nationalist sentiment and worry in Panama, home to the critical trade route and a country familiar with U.S. military intervention.

A Panamanian national holiday remembering the killing of 21 protesters by police and U.S. troops in 1964 is taking on new resonance this year as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatens to take back control of the Panama Canal.

Self-exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González is rallying regional support for the opposition's claims that he won the July election against President Nicolás Maduro.

Panama has deported 29 Colombians on a flight that the government says is the first paid for by the United States under an agreement the two countries signed in July.

José Raúl Mulino has been sworn in as Panama’s next president, facing pressure to slow migration through the Darien Gap that connects his country with Colombia.

A judge has acquitted 28 people accused of money laundering in an international case known as the Panama Papers.

In a historic and tumultuous election in Panama, José Raúl Mulino has landed in the role of president-elect despite not even expecting to be the candidate a few months ago.

Panama’s Supreme Court has rejected a constitutional challenge to the candidacy of leading presidential contender José Raúl Mulino.

The public portion of a Panamanian trial of more than two-dozen associates accused of helping some of the world’s richest people hide their wealth has come to an unexpectedly speedy conclusion.

Eight years after 11 million leaked secret financial documents revealed how some of the world’s richest people hide their wealth, more than two dozen defendants are on trial in Panama for their alleged roles.

Panama has started the trial of 27 people charged in the worldwide “Panama Papers” money laundering case.

A severe drought that began last year has forced authorities to slash ship crossings by 36% in the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most important trade routes.

As countries at the COP28 climate talks are wrangling over deadlines for lowering their carbon dioxide emissions, a Danish-led group of countries has decided to set the ultimate goal: to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than they emit.

A Bay County man won $1 million a year for life after purchasing a Florida Lottery scratch-off ticket, the Florida Lottery announced this week.

Panama's president has signed into law an indefinite moratorium on new mining concessions.

A flight from Miami International Airport to Chile’s capital diverted to Panama City Monday after one of its pilots suffered a mid-flight medical emergency and later died.

The managers of the Panama Canal say they expect income from the waterway to drop, after authorities were forced to limit the number of ships passing through each to 32 due to a lack of rainfall.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has struck in the Caribbean Sea just off the Panama-Colombia border.

Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Panama City on Thursday to announce that this year’s Gulf recreational red snapper season will start on June 16.

Former President Donald Trump attacked Gov. Ron DeSantis as inexperienced after the governor quashed rumors that he would help him fight extradition if indicted.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday that he was standing against the use of digital currency in Florida.

In a tropical forest beside the Panama Canal, two endangered, black-handed spider monkeys swing about their wire enclosure balanced by their long tails.

With dashed dreams and empty hands, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants are stranded in Panama’s capital looking for a way home after surviving the crossing of the Darien Gap only to find that a United States policy change had closed the border to them.

A 4-year-old child died after falling from a balcony at a seaside Florida resort over the weekend.

A large waterspout was spotted off the coast of Destin, stunning early morning beachgoers on Tuesday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding a news conference Thursday with Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 2-year-old children Teddy Jones Jr. and Shantese Jones were last seen in the area of the 1000 block of Everitt Avenue in Panama City.

One Monday in June in an upscale neighborhood of Panama City, people noticed something odd: Strange cars were coming and going from the Coco del Mar Suites, a nondescript three-story residential building surrounded by luxury oceanside high-rises.

Panama has raised capacity on public transportation across the country, a day after celebrating the first day in 14 months without a COVID-19 death.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding a news conference at 11 a.m. at the Bay County Government Building in Panama City.

Copyright 2021 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding a news conference at 2 p.m. Thursday in Panama City. If you need help with the Public File, call (954) 364-2526.

Copyright 2021 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding a news conference at 2 p.m. in Panama City. If you need help with the Public File, call (954) 364-2526.

Residents repair the roof of a home damaged by Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida. PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Real estate experts say investors and demand caused by Hurricane Michaels destruction led to a 15.5 percent increase in home sales for the first half of the year in the Florida county hardest hit by the Category 5 storm. Almost 2,050 homes were sold in Bay County, Florida from January to June, according to Florida Realtors. In the first half of the year, there was an almost 50 percent increase year-over-year in cash sales, according to the real estate agent association. Horton has approval to start construction on 113 homes outside Panama City.

Dozens of beachgoers form human chain to rescue swimmers in distress in Panama City, Florida. Distributed by LAKANA. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.