MIAMI (Reuters) – Giant barrel sponges that can live for thousands of years have proliferated in the waters around the Florida Keys, the apparent winner in a recent battle for dominance among corals, seaweed and sponges.

That’s a good thing, according to researchers wrapping up a 10-day stint at the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory off Key Largo on Wednesday, because the sponges filter the water and provide a habitat for valued fish species.

Corals have been in decline for decades along the reef tracts of the Caribbean and the Florida Keys for a variety of reasons, leaving free space for sponges and macroalgae — seaweed — to move in. Barrel sponges are hollow and come in a range of colors including red and purple.

“If you can’t have corals, better that you should have sponges than macroalgaes. And right now it appears the sponges are doing OK,” said Joseph Pawlik, one of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington researchers studying the sponges.

The barrel sponge population has increased by about 40 percent since 2000 in the reef alongside the bus-sized Aquarius lab, which sits in 60 feet of water off the coast of Key Largo in the Florida Keys, the researchers said.

“We had lots of baby sponges on the reef this year,” Chris Finelli said in a teleconference from inside Aquarius.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the same thing is occurring throughout the region, as barrel sponges and seaweed battle for dominance on reefs once covered with coral.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A pair of wealthy outsiders who spent their way to prominence in Florida’s Senate and governor’s races now lag behind the political insiders backed by the party hierarchies in Tuesday’s primary election.

The free-spending novices, real estate billionaire Jeff Greene and healthcare multimillionaire Rick Scott, held double-digit leads over their opponents in July but slipped steadily as their rivals turned the spotlight on the newcomers’ business dealings and character.

“Money can only go so far,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “It made two guys nobody ever heard of front-runners. It can’t necessarily get you over the top.”

Greene spent almost $23 million in the run-up to the primary, four times as much as his rival, Representative Kendrick Meek.

He now trails Meek by a dozen points in the race for the Democratic nomination for Florida’s open Senate seat, according to a Mason-Dixon poll of likely voters on Saturday.

The winner will face conservative Republican Marco Rubio and Republican-turned-independent Governor Charlie Crist in the November election to replace George LeMieux, the Republican Crist appointed to finish the term of retired Senator Mel Martinez.

The race is one of a dozen toss-up Senate contests around the United States that could decide the balance of power. Republicans need to gain 39 seats in the House and 10 in the Senate to win control of Congress.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A young Canadian’s Guantanamo war crimes tribunal was suspended on Friday for at least a month because his lawyer was being flown back to the United States for medical treatment.

Toronto native Omar Khadr was captured in Afghanistan eight years ago and his often-delayed trial on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges began on Thursday at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

But the first day of testimony was dramatically cut short when his U.S. military lawyer fainted and fell to the courtroom floor.

The lawyer, Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, was in the base hospital and would be flown to an Army hospital in the Washington area for treatment, said Bryan Broyles, deputy chief defense counsel for the tribunals.

Jackson, 39, is Khadr’s only court-recognized lawyer and the trial cannot resume until he is medically cleared.

Broyles said that would probably be in about 30 days. He declined to give specifics on Jackson’s condition. The military lawyer had recently undergone gallbladder surgery and had been working long hours to prepare for the trial.

“Nothing has changed with the Omar Khadr case except for the timetable,” Broyles said. “Lieutenant Colonel Jackson remains his attorney. That is his only concern right now, probably to the detriment of his health, that he continue on this case.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr told interrogators he was an al Qaeda terrorist and described pulling the pin of a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, a prosecutor told Khadr’s war crimes tribunal on Thursday.

But Khadr’s defence attorney said those were the words of a scared and wounded child whose interrogators frightened him into giving a false confession by making up a tale of a young boy gang-raped and killed in prison.

“It is only after that story is told to Omar Khadr that he admits to throwing anything. He told them what they wanted to hear,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson said in defence opening statements.

The first day of testimony ended early when Jackson passed out at the podium while questioning a witness. He quickly regained consciousness and was able to talk, and an ambulance took him to the base hospital to be examined.

Toronto-born Khadr was 15 when captured during a firefight at an al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He is the first person since World War Two to face trial in a military tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor.

Now 23, he is accused of killing 1st Sergeant Christopher Speer with a grenade during the battle and making roadside bombs to target U.S. troops.

Prosecutor Jeff Groharing said Khadr was raised in a family of Islamist extremists who spent holidays with Osama bin Laden, trained their boy to use bombs and guns and encouraged him to kill Americans.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr told interrogators he was an al Qaeda terrorist and described pulling the pin of a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, a prosecutor told Khadr’s war crimes tribunal on Thursday.

But Khadr’s defense attorney said those were the false words of a scared and wounded child whose interrogators fabricated a tale of a young boy raped and killed in prison to frighten him into making a fake confession.

“It is only after that story is told to Omar Khadr that he admits to throwing anything. He told them what they wanted to hear,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson said in defense opening statements.

Toronto-born Khadr was 15 when captured during a firefight at an al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He is the first person since World War Two to face trial in a military tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor.

Now 23, he is accused of killing 1st Sergeant Christopher Speer with a grenade during the battle and making roadside bombs to target U.S. troops.

Prosecutor Jeff Groharing said Khadr was raised in a family of Islamist extremists who spent holidays with Osama bin Laden, trained their boy to use bombs and guns and encouraged him to kill Americans.

“I am a terrorist trained by al Qaeda — those are Omar Khadr’s own words,” Groharing told the seven U.S. military officers on the jury. “Those words were confirmed by his acts.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. Army officer who said the Guantanamo prison camp had eroded America’s moral authority was booted from the jury pool on Wednesday in the war crimes trial of a young Canadian.

But a Navy captain who said he thought prisoners were harshly treated in the camp’s early years was one of seven officers chosen to try Toronto native Omar Khadr, who was 15 years old when captured in Afghanistan in 2002.

Opening statements are scheduled for Thursday in his trial on charges that include conspiring with al Qaeda and murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a battle in Afghanistan.

Fifteen anonymous jury candidates were questioned over two days in a courtroom at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. They provided a small sampling of U.S. military officers’ opinions of the controversial detention camp for suspected terrorists.

The rejected Army officer, a lieutenant colonel who had served in Europe and specialized in nuclear arms control, said “America seemed to lose its status as a beacon of freedom, liberty and justice” by conducting extrajudicial renditions, holding prisoners in secret locations and treating others inhumanely in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo.

“I don’t believe my position is any different from the president’s,” he said.

President Barack Obama has tried unsuccessfully to shut the Guantanamo detention camp and banned cruel, degrading or inhumane treatment.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – The U.S. military ignored orders to develop a plan specifying how and where prisoners would serve their sentences after conviction in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals, a judge said on Wednesday.

The absence of any written policy threw a glitch into this week’s sentencing hearing for Osama bin Laden’s former cook, who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring with al Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism.

It also bolstered frequent defense criticism that the rules for the terrorism trials at the Guantanamo Bay naval base are being made up as they go.

The former cook, Sudanese prisoner Ibrahim al Qosi, wanted to avoid serving his sentence in solitary confinement.

His plea deal required the convening authority overseeing the trial to recommend that Qosi serve his sentence in Camp Four, where detainees live communally under fewer restrictions than in the other camps. But military rules forbid housing convicted criminals with other detainees.

The judge, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Paul, said an assistant defense secretary ordered two years ago that the Army and the military’s Southern Command, which oversees the Guantanamo base, develop a detailed plan for housing prisoners after their conviction.

“This has not been done,” the judge said tersely.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Jurors can consider Omar Khadr’s age in deciding whether he intended to commit a war crime in Afghanistan when he was 15, a U.S. military judge told jury candidates in the Canadian prisoner’s trial on Tuesday.

Khadr’s murder and terrorism conspiracy trial began with jury selection on Tuesday, making the United States the first nation since World War Two to try someone in a military tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor.

Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound and making roadside bombs to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2002.

The defence contends the Toronto native was conscripted by his father, an al Qaeda financier who took his family to Afghanistan and apprenticed Omar to a group of bomb-makers who engaged U.S. troops in combat three weeks later.

“He was made to go there with no other choices,” Khadr’s defence attorney, Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, told journalists at the sweltering Guantanamo Bay naval base.

The United Nations said the trial is of dubious legality and could set a dangerous precedent for child soldiers worldwide.

“Juvenile justice standards are clear — children should not be tried before military tribunals,” said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. special envoy for children in armed conflict.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Jurors can consider Omar Khadr’s age in deciding whether he intended to commit a war crime in Afghanistan when he was 15, a U.S. military judge told jury candidates in the Canadian prisoner’s trial on Tuesday.

Khadr’s murder and terrorism conspiracy trial began with jury selection on Tuesday, making the United States the first nation since World War Two to try someone in a military tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor.

Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound and making roadside bombs to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2002.

The defense contends the Toronto native was conscripted by his father, an al Qaeda financier who took his family to Afghanistan and apprenticed Omar to a group of bomb-makers who engaged U.S. troops in combat three weeks later.

“He was made to go there with no other choices,” Khadr’s defense attorney, Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, told journalists at the sweltering Guantanamo Bay naval base.

The United Nations said the trial is of dubious legality and could set a dangerous precedent for child soldiers worldwide.

“Juvenile justice standards are clear — children should not be tried before military tribunals,” said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. special envoy for children in armed conflict.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. military judge ruled on Monday that Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr’s confessions to interrogators can be used as evidence against him in his murder and terrorism conspiracy trial at Guantanamo Bay.

Khadr’s lawyers had claimed the statements were illegally obtained through torture and cruelty and asked the judge in the U.S. war crimes court to throw them out. The judge at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied the request.

Toronto-born defendant Khadr was captured at age 15 on an Afghan battlefield. His trial will be the first war crimes tribunal anywhere since World War Two to prosecute someone for acts allegedly committed as a juvenile.

Now 23, he has spent a third of his life in the Guantanamo detention camp, and faces five charges that could put him in prison for life. His trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

Khadr was captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002 and is charged with murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade.

He is also charged with making explosives for use against U.S.-led forces, spying on U.S. convoys, providing material support for terrorism and conspiring with al Qaeda to commit terrorism against civilians.

Khadr is the youngest of 176 men held at Guantanamo.