MIAMI (Reuters) – The last time Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was in the top-security courtroom at the Guantanamo Bay naval base more than three years ago, the admitted architect of the September 11 attacks was trying to confess, plead guilty and achieve martyrdom.

Before the judge could determine whether the murky rules allowed defendants to plead guilty and be executed, something that is not allowed in regular U.S. courts-martial, President Barack Obama pulled the plug on the Guantanamo tribunals.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida Governor Rick Scott waded into foreign policy on Tuesday and signed a bill banning local governments from contracting with companies doing business in Cuba or Syria, but acknowledged the law could not take effect without Washington’s approval.

The bill’s sponsors and strongest supporters are Cuban-American politicians from Miami who argue that Florida tax dollars should not be used to support dictatorships that oppress their people.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida Governor Rick Scott waded into foreign policy on Tuesday and signed a bill banning local governments from contracting with companies that do business in Cuba or Syria, while acknowledging the law could not take effect without Washington’s OK.

The bill’s sponsors and strongest supporters are Cuban-American politicians from Miami who said Florida tax dollars should not be used to support dictatorships that oppress their people.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Two members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority were released from the U.S. Guantanamo detention camp and resettled in El Salvador, becoming the first prisoners to leave the facility in more than 15 months, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The two men, whose names were not released, had been held for more than a decade without charge. A U.S. court in Washington found there was no reason to hold them and ordered them freed in 2008.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A pending challenge to the jurisdiction of the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals relies in part on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right of Santeria priests in Florida to sacrifice chickens during religious ceremonies.

The ruling was easily the most unusual cited last week in pretrial hearings for Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi prisoner who could face the death penalty if convicted of orchestrating a suicide bomb attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors aboard the warship USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. military judge ordered prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal on Thursday to estimate how much money the United States has spent investigating the deadly bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in the past 12 years.

Defense lawyers for the alleged mastermind of the bombing, Saudi prisoner Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, asked for information in the hope of showing that they have been vastly outspent by the government, and suggested this could be a deciding factor in whether the tribunal ultimately sentences Nashiri to die.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters)- – A judge in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal sidestepped the question of whether the public could hear an alleged Qaeda chieftain’s testimony about his mistreatment in CIA custody by issuing a ruling on Wednesday that made the testimony unnecessary.

The action came in a pretrial hearing for Saudi prisoner Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who is accused of masterminding the suicide-bomb attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The son of actor Humphrey Bogart will follow in his father’s wake by taking a ride on the African Queen to help relaunch the newly restored riverboat that co-starred in the classic movie by that name.

Stephen Bogart will board the 100-year-old steamboat on Thursday as it plies the waters off the Florida Keys for the first time since undergoing a $60,000 renovation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several U.S. news organizations have asked a judge in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to keep the court open to the media this week if an alleged al Qaeda chieftain is allowed to testify about his mistreatment in secret CIA prisons.

Defense lawyers have said the court would almost certainly meet in a secret session if the judge permits testimony from Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi prisoner accused of orchestrating the attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000.