INVERNESS, Fla. — A convicted sex offender was sentenced Friday to death for kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, raping her and burying her alive in his yard.

John Evander Couey looked straight ahead as Circuit Judge Ric Howard told him he should be executed for the 2005 crimes that led to new laws in many states cracking down on convicted sex offenders.

Sheriff's deputies hustled the handcuffed inmate out of the crowded courtroom.

The girl's father, Mark Lunsford, teared up as he listened to the judge read a detailed history of the case for nearly an hour. He hugged relatives after the sentence was read.

Outside court, Lunsford had a message for Couey: "Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment. Stand up and be a man."

———

JUDGE REFUSES TO HALT NORIEGA'S EXTRADITION

MIAMI — A judge refused Friday to block the extradition of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to France, where he is accused of laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds through French banks.

Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler rejected arguments by Noriega's lawyers that his status as a U.S. prisoner of war negated the French request under the Geneva Conventions and required his return home to Panama.

The decision, which could be appealed, means a hearing before another judge will go forward Tuesday on the extradition request.

Hoeveler, in a 12-page decision, said his designation of Noriega, 72, as a prisoner of war following his 1992 conviction was meant to ensure that he was treated as one while incarcerated.

"This court never meant for the proclamation of defendant as a POW to shield him from all future prosecutions for serious crimes he is alleged to have committed," Hoeveler wrote. "It appears that the extradition proceedings should proceed uninterrupted."

———

DEATH TOLL FROM MIDWEST STORMS UP TO 17

CHICAGO — Ferocious thunderstorms, heat and humidity added to the Midwest's flooding misery Friday as thousands of people returned to damaged homes, many without electricity to run fans or pumps.

Michigan was pounded for a second straight day by storms that killed a motorcyclist and spawned a tornado that ripped out hundreds of trees.

The storm system had struck Chicago on Thursday night with a sudden downpour and 70 mph wind that tore down trees and damaged buildings. In the city's suburbs, part of an industrial facility's roof collapsed, injuring 40 people.

"Out of nowhere, the sky just went black," said Kimber Hall, 20, who was riding her bike along Chicago's Lake Michigan shore when the storm hit. "Sheets of rain. Lightning hit a tree about 25 feet away from me. A branch hit me in the face."

Friday morning, another band of thunderstorms was drenching communities from Missouri, through Iowa and into Illinois and Wisconsin.

———

REPUTED KLANSMAN SENTENCED TO 3 LIFE TERMS

JACKSON, Miss. — James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced Friday to three life terms for his role in the 1964 abduction and murder of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi.

Seale, 72, was convicted in June on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy in the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, two 19-year-olds who disappeared from Franklin County on May 2, 1964.

The young men's bodies were found more than two months later in a backwater of the Mississippi River.

Seale showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate read his sentence.

Wingate told Seale the crimes committed 43 years ago were "horrific" and "justice itself is ageless." Wingate denied a defense motion to allow Seale to be free on bond while his case is appealed.

———

EX-ASTRONAUT WANTS ANKLE MONITOR REMOVED

ORLANDO, Fla. — Interviewing former astronaut Lisa Nowak was "like a chess game," a detective testified Friday as Nowak's attorney urged a judge to throw out evidence and a police interview in which she talked about the alleged attack on a romantic rival.

Nowak also took the stand and asked the court to let her remove her electronic monitoring bracelet, complaining that it cuts her ankle and gets in the way of her military boot lace.

As Nowak testified, the rival she was accused of pepper spraying in an airport parking lot sat a few rows away, frowning.

Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman told the judge she is still afraid of Nowak and feels better knowing she is monitored.

"When I'm home alone and there's nobody there with me, it is a comfort," Shipman testified. She also acknowledged that she had visited her boyfriend in Nowak's hometown of Houston several times since Nowak's arrest, though. She didn't say if that boyfriend was the same space shuttle pilot involved in the Nowak love triangle.

———

N.J. TEEN UNLOCKS IPHONE FROM AT&T

NEW YORK — Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience.

George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to "unlock" the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.

The procedure, which the 17-year-old laid out on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don't want AT&T service or can't get it, particularly overseas.

The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is currently sold only in the U.S.

In a video post, Hotz demonstrated an iPhone running on T-Mobile's network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology.

———

RICHIE, LOHAN AVOID HARD TIME

LOS ANGELES — In a city famous for showing that life's little problems can be resolved in a 30-minute sitcom, celebrity justice is sometimes just as swift.

Blink-and-you-miss-them sentences this week for Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie have resurrected the question of whether fame provides a soft landing for fallen stars.

On the same day, Lohan got a one-day jail sentence for drunken driving and being under the influence of cocaine, and Richie served the better part of a four-day jail sentence for driving under the influence of drugs in 82 minutes. She never saw the inside of a jail cell.

Were those slim punishments the benefit of fame? The answer is yes and no. Their sentences were consistent with others that occur outside the spotlight, according to legal experts. But high-priced lawyers helped them evade any stronger punishment.