Novikov tested positive for ostarine in an out-of-competition test on May 17. Ostarine potentially helps increase muscle mass and is classed among substances known as Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMS).

It's the fourth doping case announced by the UCI within the last month despite hopes that a new generation was riding clean in the aftermath of the Lance Armstrong affair.

The governing body said Novikov is suspended while the Russian cycling federation prosecutes a disciplinary case.

Novikov's team, Vacansoleil, said he will be fired if the backup sample also tests positive, or if the 23-year-old rider refuses to ask for the second test.

''It needs no clarification that as a team we are devastated by this,'' Vacansoleil manager Daan Luijkx said in a statement. ''When I talked to the rider last night, after the UCI informed us, he said he had no idea how the substance got in his body.''

Novikov won the Tour of Slovakia and Tour des Pays de Savoie in 2011 with Russian team Katusha before joining Vacansoleil before the 2012 season.

''Since that time he didn't manage to reach his old level in our environment despite all the efforts of our team,'' Luijkx said.

Since taking ownership of the franchise almost four years ago, the league has repeatedly been frustrated in its efforts to find an owner willing to keep the club in Arizona.

The league has rejected all attempts to relocate the team but if a new ownership group is unable to negotiate a lease with the city of Glendale, moving the franchise may be the only solution.

Quebec City and Seattle have both been suggested as possible.

"It's our hope that they are going to stay where they are but should the team be forced to relocate we will have to take a look at it and make a decision," admitted Bettman.

"There are a number of markets that have been expressing interest to us over the years and the phone keeps ringing the longer the Coyotes situation stays unresolved."

Despite sitting at the bottom of the league in attendance, Bettman said he is convinced the Coyotes could be a success in the desert.

"We try to avoid franchise relocation, we try to do everything possible, we don't think it is fair to fans and we don't think it's fair unless you have to move to do it to communities that build you buildings," explained Bettman.

"We have now operated this club for about three years, we've had ownership of it, we've had great support from the people on the ground and we actually believe that if you gave the community an owner, who said I'm committed to being here this franchise could be successful from a business standpoint."

Bettman said the league recovered nicely from a bitter labor dispute that almost ended in the cancellation of the entire season.

Playing a shortened 48-game regular season revenues were better than projected bragged, the lockout doing no permanent damage to the NHL brand or seriously eroding its fan base.

"We've had a very, very strong season in terms of attendance, buildings 97 percent full during the regular season, 100 percent full in playoffs, ratings increases and records in some cases, locally, nationally Canada and the U.S. and we've had very exciting and compelling playoffs," said Bettman.

"But having the ability to now look forward to a decade of labor peace is the most important thing that we were able to accomplish."

(Writing by Steve Keating in Toronto; editing by Julian Linden)

I have known for a while that Grant didn't want to get married. He did it to please everyone around him. Sharon, however, was elated. He hoped that after the wedding his feelings would change. Now they have been married for nine months Grant tells me he can't continue on, that he is unhappy and no longer wants to be married.

I have begged and pleaded with him to level with Sharon. He keeps making excuses about why he hasn't told her yet. He says he'll do it -- but each day he moves the discussion further and further back. When I talk with her, she tells me she has the feeling he doesn't want to be married anymore.

Please help. This is stressing me out. I want to let Grant tell her, but I feel I should say something because he hasn't. At the same time, I don't want to have anyone mad at me. What should I do? -- CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

DEAR CAUGHT: Step back and keep your mouth shut. You are in a no-win situation.

It is Grant's job to find the courage to tell his wife he made a mistake by marrying her. While it may be painful for her to hear, it probably won't come as a shock, from what she's telling you.

You help neither of them by letting them discuss their marital problems with you instead of with each other. So do them both a favor and remove yourself from the middle.

DEAR ABBY: When I was 15, I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, severe anxiety and social phobia. I am now 20 and have been on countless medications and tried different forms of therapy. I wish for nothing more than to be a fully functioning adult, but I am exhausted from trying my hardest to feel better internally only to find myself where I started.

What's your best advice for young adults dealing with crippling mental illness? How can we live our lives without fear of being rejected or shunned for our illness? -- FRUSTRATED IN WASHINGTON

DEAR FRUSTRATED: There is still ignorance, stigma and fear about mental illness mostly because it is misunderstood. However, 50 percent of adults will have a diagnosable mental illness at some time in their lives -- including the ones you have.

I discussed your letter with Dr. David Baron, psychiatrist in chief at the University of Southern California hospital. He suggested that I stress to you the importance of finding a mental health professional you can trust and confide in, and have another thorough evaluation done.

In recent years newer drugs and therapies are being used which may help you, so you shouldn't give up. In a case like yours, a combination of medication and talk therapy can be helpful.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 7-year-old boy in the second grade. There is a girl named "Kate" in my class and she wants to marry me. She sits next to me and she is really annoying. What should I do? -- NOT READY TO SETTLE DOWN

DEAR NOT READY: Start running. And if she appeals to you when you're about 14, slow down.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To receive a collection of Abby's most memorable -- and most frequently requested -- poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

President Jacob Zuma told parliament that he is happy with the progress that the 94-year-old is making following his hospitalization on Saturday.

Mandela spent a fifth straight day Wednesday in a Pretoria hospital, where he was visited by one of his daughters and two granddaughters.

Zuma noted that Wednesday marked the 49th anniversary of the sentencing of Mandela to life in prison in 1964. He said "our thoughts" are with Mandela and his family "on this crucial historical anniversary."

"We are very happy with the progress that he is now making following a difficult last few days," Zuma said. "We appreciate the messages of support from all over the world."

Zuma on Wednesday applauded the legacy of Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists. South Africa's government disbanded its official policy of apartheid racial segregation and discrimination in 1994.

"Our country is a much better place to live in now than it was before 1994, even though we still have so much work to do," Zuma said.

Mandela, the leader of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, spent 27 years in prison during white racist rule. He was freed in 1990, and then embarked on peacemaking efforts during the tense transition that saw the demise of the apartheid system and his own election as South Africa's first black president in 1994.

His admission to a hospital in Pretoria, the capital, is Mandela's fourth time being admitted to a hospital for treatment since December. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama wished Mandela a "speedy recovery" on Tuesday.

Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela, visited his grandfather on Wednesday and said the family has been deeply touched by the outpouring prayers and messages of goodwill from around the world. He said the family is satisfied with the care Mandela is receiving.

Zuma used Wednesday's budget address to parliament as an occasion to highlight the work carried out by the African National Congress, the party that Mandela led to South Africa's presidency, over the last 19 years.

South Africa's economy has expanded 83 percent since 1994 and per capita income increased by 40 percent, Zuma said. But the recession in Europe, South Africa's biggest trading partner, has hit Africa's biggest economy hard, and he said South Africa which has experienced deadly labor strife in recent years must move past labor violence.

The vestiges of apartheid, Zuma said, remain in South Africa: Black South Africans have less education and fewer skills than whites because of the apartheid era. As part of promoting national reconciliation, the implementation of black economic empowerment policies will continue, he said. Direct black ownership in Johannesburg's stock market is less than 5 percent.

"In addition, annual Employment Equity reports indicate that white males still own, control and manage the economy," Zuma said.

The government is amending the black economic empowerment law to address some of these challenges, he added.

Outside Mandela's Johannesburg home, well-wishers continued to leave tributes to the former president. A neighbor, Zaheerah Bham'Ismail, said it's an emotional time for South Africans because Mandela "portrays the entire legacy of what everybody has fought for and our ideals."

"But at the same time we know we have to say goodbye at some point because he needs ... his peace, as well. But I think in order to hold onto him, we've got to go back to fight for the ideals that he fought for," Bham'Ismail said.

___

Associated Press Television News reporter Bongani Mthethwa contributed to this report.

The head of the Willi Sitte Foundation, Hans-Hubert Werner, told German news agency dpa that Sitte died on Saturday morning after a long illness.

Sitte's paintings depicted factory workers or farmers as glamorized ideals of Communist heroes. Among his famous works are voluptuous, often nude women.

He was the president of East Germany's association of visual artists from 1974 to 1988 and also a member of the ruling party's central committee. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and Germany's unification, Sitte was seen in a more controversial light because of his closeness to the Communist regime.

The tornado was part of an outbreak that hit the area around the Friday rush hour and endangered thousands of people on local highways. Three storm chasers were killed in the outbreak after a tornado picked up and destroyed their vehicle an event that has caused some.

The May 31 outbreak came a little more than a week after, killing 24 people. Both tornado outbreaks were made possible by optimal tornado conditions, which may give rise to more twisters later this week,said Jeff Weber, a scientist with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

'Highly unusual'

"To have two EF5s within less than two weeks in the same general area that's highly unusual," Weber told LiveScience. "Off the top of my head, I haven't heard of it happening before."

The tornadoes were made possible by "perfect" tornado conditions in the area, which have been intermittent for weeks, Weber said. Specifically, the alignment of the jet stream is bringing dry, cold air down from the north and allowing it to interact with warm, moist air from off the Gulf of Mexico, which sets up a volatile situation.

Like a wedge, the cold air collides with the warm air and causes it to rise, since warm air is less dense, Weber said. This rising warm air has created thunderstorms that have, in turn, spawned tornadoes.

Stronger tornadoes tend to be wider tornadoes. When there is a lot of moisture in the atmosphere and a lot of cold upper-level air as was the case in Oklahoma on Friday clouds form closer to the ground. If a tornado forms, it tends to get wider and pulls in the cloud from which it forms, known as the wall cloud, Weber said. These are called wedge tornadoes, named after their wedgelike shape.

"What it's doing is bringing the higher-speed winds of the wall cloud closer down to the surface of the Earth," Weber said.

The tornado's maximum wind was clocked at 296 mph (476 km/h), close to the highest winds ever recorded on Earth,blog. The wind speeds, as well as the path and width of the tornado, were measured by mobile Doppler units. These radar instruments can be moved around on vehicles and narrowly focused on tornadoes and storms. Unlike stationary radars, which only scan about once every 5 minutes, the mobile radars can be targeted to a narrow area of interest and complete scans every 5 seconds, giving researchers a more detailed picture of the storm, Weber said.

More extreme weather on the way

The bad weather in Oklahoma may not end with these recent tornadoes, as more extreme weather could be on the way later this week. "We have a perfect setup for really big tornadoes over this part of the country and it looks like we might see [a tornado outbreak] again midweek," Weber said.

The El Reno tornado was on the ground for 40 minutes, and traveled a total of 16.2 miles (26 km), the NWS reported. The twister was wider than the length of New York City's Central Park.

Previously, the record for the widest tornado was 2.5 miles (4 km), held by a twister that ripped through Nebraska on May 22, 2004.

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The rocket is designed to carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. Meanwhile, NASA plans to leave travel to low-Earth orbit to commercial space companies, which are developingto take over the job vacated by the retired space shuttle.

"We started working onconcepts 10 years ago," said former astronaut David Leestma, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, who now heads the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We want to take NASA well beyond the space station. The SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built, and it will be safe, affordable and sustainable." []

The new super-rocket will be able to boost 143 tons (130 metric tons) to orbit using many existing components in its construction. The main liquid-fueled engines are leftovers from the shuttle program, as are the giant solid rocket boosters that will flank the rocket. Only the core, or central structure, will be completely new.

The shuttle program ended with 14 flyable engines, and there are two more that could be ready to go with minimal work, said Jim Paulsen from rocket engine maker Pratt & Whitney/Rocketdyne. "We are in good shape with the [shuttle main] engines," he added.

The solid rocket boosters are being readied by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) in Utah. They need to be adapted for use on the SLS, and the changes are "right on budget and on schedule for a ," said Don Sauvageau, who works at the engine design firm. "Affordability is a big factor, and these will be 30 percent cheaper than they were for the shuttle," he said.

Atop the giant booster will be NASA's . Orion is slated for a test flight with the Atlas V rocket in 2014, during which the heat shield and re-entry systems will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds similar to a lunar return. NASA hopes to have Orion ready for a crewed flight by 2021.

The lifting ability of the SLS will allow the rocket to deliver payloads to a position called L2 (a stable orbit beyond the moon), perform an asteroid mission, or even fly an unmanned sample return from the moons of Mars. It would also allow NASA to send probes directly to planets like Jupiter without the lengthy gravity-assist swings by Venus and Earth as have been undertaken for missions launched by less powerful rockets. Transit times to the giant planet would be cut down to about three years.

The test flight in 2017 is planned to go beyond lunar orbit, with the upper stage of the booster powered by derivatives of Pratt & Whitney/Rocketdyne's J2 engines, which date back to the Apollo program.

In addition to the new components of the SLS, some reverse engineering of legacy hardware, such as the Saturn V's F-1 engines (capable of 1.5 million pounds of thrust), are being conducted. Whether or not such a large power plant will be built for future uses is unclear.

"We are ready to move beyond LEO into more ambitious missions," Leestma said.

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MIAMI (Reuters) - To his supporters, Trayvon Martin was a typical teenager: flawed yet full of promise, a boy on the verge of becoming a man with dreams of piloting planes. If he differed from his peers it was because he embraced public displays of affection from his parents.

To defenders of the man who killed him, Martin was a gun-loving fight enthusiast with a marijuana habit, a representative of the dark side of the "gangsta" culture popularized by hip-hop music and urban crime mythology.

For all the attention paid to a homicide that captivated the United States for much of 2012, those competing narratives still cloud much of the public's understanding of Martin, who was three weeks past his 17th birthday when he was shot dead by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012.

"We never said he was an angel, but he was ours," said Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, a bureaucrat for Miami's housing authority who was thrust into the media spotlight by her son's death. "Trayvon had his ups and downs, his good days and bad days like every teenager."

Zimmerman, 29, was due to go on trial for second-degree homicide on Monday, when jury selection was set to begin. He has pleaded not guilty, contending he acted in self defense during their confrontation in a gated community in the central Florida town of Sanford.

The case inspired national debates on race and guns and the law. Celebrities tweeted and demonstrators marched around the United States in protest when police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, saying he acted in self-defense. President Barack Obama sympathized with the victim, seeming to acknowledge racial profiling in America when he said, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

The controversy forced the police chief to step down, the chief prosecutor to remove himself from the case, and the governor to appoint a special prosecutor who brought the murder charge against Zimmerman.

In the face of such a maelstrom, Zimmerman's defense lawyers argued that Martin's character was relevant to their case. So far, the judge presiding over the case has resisted admitting such arguments.

"We have a lot of evidence that marijuana use had something to do with the event," Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, told a pre-trial hearing late last month. An autopsy revealed marijuana in Martin's system.

Supporters of Zimmerman say he has been unfairly tainted as racist, noting the neighborhood was on heightened alert after a series of break-ins in the community.

Zimmerman's lawyers argue Martin's family has tried to present a "totally inaccurate" picture of the boy, hiding a darker side of his interest in drugs, guns and fights.

"From the defense perspective it's extremely important because of their proposition that Zimmerman was defending himself and that Trayvon was an aggressor," said David Weinstein, a Miami lawyer and former state prosecutor.

"On the prosecution side you want to downplay that and keep Trayvon's character from being a central theme," he added.

The judge ruled at a pre-trial hearing last month that photos and texts from Martin's cellphone and social media posts, as well as his suspension from school for suspected marijuana use, cannot be mentioned in opening arguments.

Martin's parents have argued from the start their son was an innocent victim who was stalked by Zimmerman while walking back to the gated community near Orlando with candy and soft drinks he had bought at a convenience store.

They accuse Zimmerman of being a vigilante, whose decision to pursue their son provoked the struggle that resulted in Martin's death.

As long as the prosecution stays close to the narrative of what happened that night, lawyers say it will be tough for the defense to bring up any possible negative baggage in the dead boy's past.

Martin's parents say they are not the least bit worried should his character be brought up at trial.

"You can't condemn every teenager that has been suspended from school because you would be throwing rocks at a lot of kids," said Martin's mother, Fulton, 47. She is on a leave of absence from her Miami Dade county housing job until the trial is over.

A CAREER IN AVIATION

Martin's parents say his suspension and marijuana use were rare blemishes. Martin, who had no criminal record, was eagerly exploring many typical teenage pursuits - sports, music, roller skating and the movies - and was interested in pursuing a career related to aviation, they said.

"He was at that age that he thought there was nothing he couldn't do," his mother said.

Martin would have graduated high school this month.

For two summers in middle school he juggled his passion for American football with attending a science and math summer camp led by Barrington Irving, a Miami pilot and educator who in 2007 at age 23 became the youngest person - and the first African American - to fly solo around the world.

Irving said Martin was most interested in the mechanical side of aviation, building and fixing aircraft, but also took to the air with Irving.

"He kind of reminded me of myself a little bit as it relates to his love of football and then going into aviation," the aviator said. "He actually showed his commitment, going to a summer program and then going to football practice."

Martin was introduced to aviation by his uncle, Ronald Fulton, who had been studying to be an aviation mechanic when a car accident in 2001 left him a paraplegic.

"If something would break he would always find a way to make it work," the uncle said.

Martin's school friends said he was known by the nicknames 'Slimm' and 'So Skinny' due to his narrow frame and baggy clothes. They described him as a popular kid who steered clear of trouble.

"I knew who to avoid, who the bad kids were, and Trayvon was definitely not one of them," said Malcolm Hawkins, 16.

The judge has blocked efforts by the defense to obtain Martin's school records, but his friends and teachers say he was a good student with a special interest in science.

The week before his death, Martin was suspended from school after a baggie containing traces of marijuana was found in his book bag. His mother sent him to his father's house.

"That was his punishment. He had to tell Daddy what he did," said his uncle, Ronald Fulton, who wears a black wrist band that reads 'Justice 4 Trayvon'.

Martin's misbehavior was typical "teen stuff," he said. "He was just trying to be hip, slick and cool, trying to fit is what he was doing. It's all part of growing up."

(Additional reporting by Zachary Fagenson; Editing by Arlene Getz, Daniel Trotta and Richard Chang)

LOS ANGELES, June 7 (Reuters) - It all came down to 20 minutes of dominance by the Chicago Blackhawks as they shut out the Los Angeles Kings in the final period for a commanding lead in the Western Conference Finals.

The Stanley Cup champion Kings, who now trail the best-of-seven series 3-1, were unable to apply any concerted pressure on the Blackhawks when it mattered most, late in the game, and they now head to Chicago for Saturday's Game Five facing elimination.

A paltry two shots on goal in that final period was never going to turn the tide for the Kings and they dejectedly left the ice after being beaten 3-2 on Thursday, ending a run of 15 consecutive home wins dating back to March 23.

"I don't really know what it was in particular," Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, sitting in front of his locker, told reporters about his team's lackluster finish.

"There's just no way we're going to win that third period if we only get two shots."

While Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar produced the only shots on goal by the Kings in that final frame, the home team also paid a hefty price after committing four turnovers and coming up empty-handed with takeaways of their own.

"That's the one thing that (coach) Darryl (Sutter) has been hard on us for right now," said Doughty. "We're making too many turnovers in the neutral zone especially and that was the cause on two of the goals tonight.

"We made turnovers and they came back down on odd-man rushes and scored. That's something that we're not doing a good job at and something, if we want to win, we can't be doing."

Chicago twice came from a goal down in the first two periods before taking the lead for good when right wing Marian Hossa scored with a full-blooded slapshot early in the third.

HANDS FULL

The Kings, aiming to become the first team to repeat as champions since the Detroit Red Wings in 1998, always knew they would have their hands full against the top-seeded Blackhawks, who ended the regular season with the league's best record.

"They are an incredibly skilled team," Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi said of Chicago. "We're not getting into something that we didn't know.

"And when you turn the puck over like that at the blue lines, with the skill they have, it's only a matter of time before they're going to put one on the scoreboard. Hopefully we learned our lesson."

Scuderi gave a succinct summary of the stranglehold exercised by the Blackhawks during that third period.

"They were just moving the puck north and dumping it in, making us come 200 feet," he said.

"When we did get in the zone, we thought we had some opportunity but we just weren't able to generate enough shots to the goalie. They did a good job in that regard, packed it in and just chipped it up."

While the Kings must win Saturday's game to keep their season alive, the Blackhawks will be banking on home ice and the raucous support of their fans at the Madhouse on Madison to help them reach the Stanley Cup Finals.

"We're going home, we'll be excited," said Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville. "I'm sure the building will be as loud as it's ever been. We're looking forward to it.

"We want to make sure we're playing like we have in (games) One, Two and Four. Speed, everybody contributing. Try to keep the pace, try to make them play defense." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)

Yanira Maldonado, 42, walked out of the prison on the outskirts of Nogales, Mexico, and into her husband's arms late Thursday and crossed through the Nogales port of entry into Arizona. After spending the night in a hotel, she drove away with a police escort at midmorning Friday and was expected to return to her Phoenix-area home to be reunited with her children.

Maldonado spoke briefly after her release, thanking U.S. State Department officials, her husband, her lawyers and prison workers who made her stay comfortable.

"Many thanks to everyone, especially my God who let me go free, my family, my children, who with their help, I was able to survive this test," she said.

Maldonado also said at a news conference later that she still loves Mexico, and the experience will not stop her from returning in the future to visit family there.

"It's not Mexico's fault. It's a few people who did this to me and probably other people, who knows?" Maldonado said. "I'm still going to go back."

The family's lawyer in Nogales, Jose Francisco Benitez Paz, said a judge determined Thursday that Maldonado was no longer a suspect, and all allegations against her were dropped. Prosecutors are appealing the ruling, but Benitez said that is routine and Maldonado will not have to return to testify.

Maldonado's release came hours after court officials reviewed security footage that showed the couple boarding a commercial bus traveling from Mexico to Phoenix with only blankets, bottles of water and her purse in hand.

U.S. politicians portrayed her as a victim of a corrupt judicial system and demanded her release, with Arizona congressmen saying they were working closely with Mexican authorities.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who previously said he has had "multiple conversations with the deputy Mexican ambassador," on Friday welcomed Maldonado's release.

"Though I'm sure this last week has been a nightmare for her, I'm thankful that Mrs. Maldonado's clear innocence was proved and that she is now home safe with her family," he said in a statement released by his office.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said her administration had been closely monitoring Maldonado's case and been talking with authorities on both sides of the border.

"As Americans, we all know that our precious constitutional rights don't extend beyond our nation's borders," she said. "It is this kind of case that once again illustrates how blessed we are in this country. Most of all, I am so happy for the Maldonado family that they can now put this chapter of their lives behind them."

The judge had until late Friday to decide whether to free Maldonado or send her to another prison in Mexico while state officials built their case.

Maldonado was arrested by the Mexican military last week after they found nearly 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms) of pot under her seat during a security checkpoint.

Benitez noted it was a fairly sophisticated smuggling effort that included packets of drugs attached to the seat bottoms with metal hooks a task that would have been impossible for a passenger. He said witness testimony and the surveillance video showed Maldonado was innocent.

"There is justice in this country," he said.

Maldonado husband, Gary Maldonado, said he originally was arrested after the pot was found under his wife's bus seat. But after Yanira Maldonado begged the soldiers to allow her to come along to serve as a translator, the military officials decided to release him and arrest her instead. Gary Maldonado alleges authorities initially demanded $5,000 for his wife's release, but the bribe fell through.

"Here, we are guilty until you are proven innocent," he said after the court hearing.

Maldonado's lawyer said there is no bail in serious criminal cases in Mexico, and that included the drug smuggling charge she faced. Instead, he had to gather evidence that could clear her before a judge, and he praised the bus company for gathering the video evidence and providing a list of fellow passengers who could back up her claims.

"I as a defense attorney have to prove her innocence," her lawyer said Friday. "After I got the evidence I knew I would win."

The Maldonados were traveling home to the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear after attending her aunt's funeral in the city of Los Mochis when they were arrested.

The bus passed through at least two checkpoints on the way to the border without incident. In the town of Querobabi in the border state of Sonora, all the passengers were ordered off the bus and a soldier searched the interior as they waited. The soldier exited and told his superiors that packets of drugs had been found under seat 39, Yanira Maldonado's, and another seat, number 42. Her husband was in seat 40.

Gary Maldonado said a man sitting behind them on the bus fled during the inspection. He said the man might have been the true owner of the drugs.

About 40 people were on the bus before the inspection, but Gary Maldonado said he was the only passenger who appeared American.

Mexican officials provided local media with photos that they said were of the packages Maldonado was accused of smuggling. Each was about 5 inches high and 20 inches wide, roughly the width of a bus seat. The marijuana was packed into plastic bags and wrapped in tan packing tape.

The couple had previously traveled on commercial buses through Mexico because they felt it was safer than driving a personal vehicle.

Yanira Maldonado is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico, her family said. She and her husband have seven children from previous marriages. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary while she was jailed.

Drug traffickers have increasingly been using passenger buses to move U.S.-bound drugs through Mexico. Federal agents and soldiers have set up checkpoints along Mexico's main highways and have routinely seized cocaine, marijuana, heroin and more from buses.

Mexico's justice system is carried out largely in secret, with proceedings done almost entirely in writing.

Four years ago, Mexico decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, but it still has stiff penalties for drug trafficking.

Mexican law doesn't specify a minimum or maximum sentence in drug crimes and leaves it up to the judge to decide how long the sentence should be, said Jose Luis Manjarrez, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Mexico.

On Wednesday, an army lieutenant, a private and another sergeant were supposed to appear in court but they did not show up. The army did not explain why, the couple's lawyer said.

A search of court records in Arizona turned up no drug-related charges against Yanira or Gary Maldonado.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Weissenstein in Mexico City, Luis Castillo in Nogales and Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to this report.