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Obama said ready to pick Richardson

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as his commerce secretary Wednesday.

Richardson served as secretary of energy and ambassador to the United Nations under former President Bill Clinton, The Hill reported.

The Washington Post reported Obama will make the announcement at a Chicago news conference.

Richardson was one of three candidates for secretary of state. Obama picked his former rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, over Richardson and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

The newspaper said New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who already planned to run for the open governor's seat in 2010, will take over as the state's chief executive for the next two years.

U.N. says 10 dead in Panama floods

PANAMA CITY, Panama, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The United Nations said Tuesday at least 10 people have died and nearly 24,000 others are affected by floods and heavy rains in Panama.

U.N. officials in New York said the international organization's aid agencies are stepping up efforts to help the flood victims in the Central American country. Food, water and blankets are the priority needs, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

Weather forecasts predict heavy rains are expected to continue in Panama at least until Thursday.

The U.N. Population Fund has sent 22,000 family hygiene kits and the U.N. Children's Fund is providing water jugs, water tanks and water purification talks. The U.N. Development Program and the humanitarian affairs office are also providing cash to help with relief items and needs assessments.

The United Nations said the flooding was primarily along Panama's Caribbean coast with the provinces of Bocas del Toro and Colon hit hard. But a state of emergency also was declared in Chiriqui province on the Pacific coast, and at the opposite end of the country, Darien province was on high alert as local rivers approached critical levels.

About 200 homes have been entirely destroyed and almost 1,200 others were badly damaged, while numerous roads and bridges have been rendered unusable, the United Nations said.

Member of Greek junta seeks release

ATHENS, Greece, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Dimitrio Ioannides, a member of the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974, is seeking release from prison on the grounds of age and ill health.

Lawyers for the 86-year-old acknowledge he does not have the medical problems specified in a law that allows inmates 80 or older who suffer from severe disability, senility or cirrhosis to be freed, Kathimerini reported. But they say Ioannides does have other health problems that would justify clemency.

Ioannides was arrested in 1975, a few months after the downfall of the junta. He was convicted of high treason, rebellion and conspiracy to manslaughter and given a death sentence that was commuted to life in prison.

Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis has specifically said Ioannides would not be released. A similar appeal last year was rejected.

A career military officer who had served in the civil war against the Communists in the 1940s, Ioannides became head of the military police under the junta. In 1973, he helped overthrow George Papadopolous, who had been president since the 1967 coup.

In 1974, he organized a coup in Cyprus that led to the Turkish invasion and the downfall of the Athens junta.

Tijuana police chief replaced

TIJUANA, Mexico, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The police chief in the Mexican border town of Tijuana has been removed after a spate of drug-related violence that left almost 40 people dead in two days.

Nine beheaded bodies were found Sunday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. They were accompanied by a sign that read "We worked for El Gordo Villareal," a reference to a leader in the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

The bodies included those of three police officers.

The nine were among at least 38 people killed between Saturday and Monday, the Los Angeles Times said. Other victims included a man and his two sons, 4 and 13, who were shot Saturday night, and the nephew of Baja California's tourism secretary.

Mayor Jorge Ramos replaced the police chief, Alberto Capella Ibarra, with his deputy, a military officer, Lt. Col. Julian Leyzaola.

Capella, a lawyer, was put in charge of Tijuana police after serving as head of a citizen's committee and surviving an assassination attempt.

"The city government recognizes that Alberto Capella is a citizen who gave his best effort for Tijuana as a civilian fighting for public safety, and later as secretary of public safety," a statement from the mayor's office said.