MIAMI, June 25 (Reuters) – The first tropical storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season was expected to form in the western Caribbean on Saturday and move towards Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A

MIAMI, June 25 (Reuters) – The first tropical depression of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season neared storm strength in the western Caribbean on Friday as it took aim at Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The depression had sustained winds of 35 miles per hour (55 km per hour) and was centered 355 miles (570 km) southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving west-northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) on a path that would take it over the Yucatan Peninsula during the weekend and then into the Gulf of Mexico, where BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) (BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is trying to contain a massive oil spill.

The Mexican government issued a tropical storm warning for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Chetumal northward to Cancun, alerting residents to expect tropical storm conditions within 36 hours.

Belize also issued a warning for the eastern coast and forecasters said the system could strengthen into Tropical Storm Alex before hitting land.

“The depression is expected to become a tropical storm tonight or Saturday,” the U.S. center said.

Tropical depressions, swirling masses of thunderstorms, become named tropical storms when their sustained winds reach 39 mph (63 kph).

The disturbance was expected to weaken over the Yucatan, then strengthen again as it emerges over the warm waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico. But it was not expected to strengthen into a hurricane during the five-day forecast period, the forecasters said.

MIAMI, June 25 (Reuters) – The first tropical depression of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season formed on Friday in the western Caribbean and took aim at Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The depression had sustained winds of 35 miles per hour (56 km per hour) and was centered 355 miles (570 km) southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving west-northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) on a path that would take it over the Yucatan Peninsula during the weekend and then into the Gulf of Mexico, where BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) (BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) officials are trying to contain a massive oil spill.

The Mexican government issued a tropical storm warning for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Chetumal northward to Cancun, alerting residents to expect tropical storm conditions within 36 hours.

Forecasters expected the warning to be extended to Belize overnight and said the system could strengthen into Tropical Storm Alex before hitting land.

Tropical depressions, swirling masses of thunderstorms, become named tropical storms when their sustained winds reach 39 mph (63 kph).

“The depression is very close to tropical storm strength and conditions appear favorable for some intensification before it reaches the Yucatan Peninsula in a day or so,” the U.S. forecasters said.

The disturbance was expected to weaken over the Yucatan, then strengthen again as it emerges over the warm waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico. But it was not expected to strengthen into a hurricane during the five-day forecast period, the forecasters said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida is battling its first major Mediterranean fruit fly outbreak in a dozen years and hopes to keep the destructive insects from threatening the state’s $9 billion citrus fruit industry, agriculture officials said on Wednesday.

The Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly, is one of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests and attacks more than 250 food plants, including oranges, grapefruit, lemons, apples, guava, mango, tomatoes and peppers.

They breed explosively, with the females laying eggs in oranges and other fruits which are destroyed as the larvae emerge and eat their way out.

“This is a disturbing find,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said in a news release.

Thirty adult Medflies and 11 larvae have been found in the last two weeks during routine inspection of traps in mango, loquat and sour orange trees in a residential area in Palm Beach County, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Agriculture Department’s Division of Plant Industry.

“That’s quite a high number of adult flies to have found,” Feiber said.

Palm Beach County is in the southeast part of the state, while most of the commercial orange groves are in Central Florida. The state produces 70 percent of U.S. citrus fruit, and 90 percent of its crop is processed for juice.

NAVAL BASE (Reuters) – U.S. interrogators tried to scare a young Canadian prisoner by making up a story about a skinny little Muslim gang-raped by black men at an American prison, an interrogator testified in the Guantanamo war crimes court on Thursday.

The testimony came in a hearing to determine whether statements that Toronto native Omar Khadr gave to interrogators can be used as evidence in his Guantanamo tribunal on charges of murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade.

Defense lawyers contend Khadr’s statements were coerced during cruel and inhumane interrogations at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan, where Khadr was captured in a firefight at an alleged al Qaeda compound at age 15.

Khadr gave a false name and lied to interrogators who questioned him at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan shortly after his capture in 2002, a former soldier identified as Interrogator No. 1 testified by video link from Arizona.

The interrogator, who was later court-martialed for abusing other prisoners, said he told Khadr he might have to go to prison if he kept lying.

He said he never directly threatened Khadr. But he said he tried to exploit Khadr’s fear by telling him a fictitious tale about a skinny young Afghan Muslim who was sent to an American prison and encountered “black guys and Nazis” who were “still mad about the September 11 attacks.”

“Apparently one time he was in the shower by himself and these four big black guys showed up in prison and say, ‘We know all about you Muslims’ … And it’s terrible if something would happen but they caught him in his shower and they raped him. This kid got hurt. We think he ended up dying,” No. 1 recalled telling Khadr.

NAVAL BASE (Reuters) – U.S. interrogators tried to scare a young Canadian prisoner by making up a story about a skinny little Muslim gang-raped by black men at an American prison, an interrogator testified in the Guantanamo war crimes court on Thursday.

The testimony came in a hearing to determine whether statements that Toronto native Omar Khadr gave to interrogators can be used as evidence in his Guantanamo tribunal on charges of murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade.

Defense lawyers contend Khadr’s statements were coerced during cruel and inhumane interrogations at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan, where Khadr was captured in a firefight at an alleged al Qaeda compound at age 15.

Khadr gave a false name and lied to interrogators who questioned him at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan shortly after his capture in 2002, a former soldier known as Interrogator No. 1 testified by video link from Arizona.

The interrogator, who was later court-martialed for abusing other prisoners, said he told Khadr he might have to go to prison if he kept lying.

He said he never directly threatened Khadr. But he said he tried to exploit Khadr’s fear by telling him a fictitious tale about a skinny little Afghan Muslim who was sent to an American prison and encountered “black guys and Nazis” who were “still mad about the September 11 attacks.”

“Apparently one time he was in the shower by himself and these four big black guys showed up in prison and say ‘We know all about you Muslims’ … And it’s terrible if something would happen but they caught him in his shower and they raped him. This kid got hurt. We think he ended up dying,” No. 1 recalled telling Khadr.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A former U.S. Army interrogator known as “The Monster” told the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal on Wednesday that he felt compassion for a wounded young Canadian captive he befriended at the notorious Bagram detention center in Afghanistan.

“He was a 15-year-old child that had been blown up, shot, grenaded and he was in probably one of the worst places on Earth. How could you not have compassion for that?” former interrogator Damien Corsetti testified by video link.

Toronto native Omar Khadr, now 23, was 15 when captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in July 2002. He was shot twice through the back and shoulder and blinded in one eye by shrapnel.

His captors nicknamed him “Buckshot Bob” because of the wounds that peppered his face, Corsetti said.

Khadr is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade and would be the first person tried in a U.S. military tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor. He would also be the first tried at Guantanamo under the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama has vowed to close the detention camp, but has run into significant political obstacles.

When Khadr was held at the Bagram air base in the autumn of 2002, yelling and screaming were constant, dogs could be heard barking and it was a common sight to see detainees blindfolded and chained to the walls of the entryways, Corsetti testified.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – U.S. forces first interrogated a 15-year-old Canadian prisoner in Afghanistan on the day he was released from a hospital and lay sedated on a stretcher, a soldier testified in the Guantanamo war crimes court on Tuesday.

The testimony came in a hearing to determine whether confessions from Toronto native Omar Khadr were the involuntary product of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment. If so, they cannot be used as evidence in his tribunal on charges of murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan.

“That was a coercive interrogation and it was also while our client was heavily medicated,” said Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, one of Khadr’s defense lawyers.

As the hearing entered its second week, Jackson said lawyers were still trying to negotiate a deal that would let Khadr plead guilty in exchange for leniency. That would spare President Barack Obama from presiding as military commander in chief over the first U.S. war crimes tribunal involving acts allegedly committed as a minor.

Khadr, now 23, was captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002. He was shot twice through the back and shoulder and blinded in one eye by shrapnel.

He was unconscious during much of the next two weeks and underwent four surgeries at the same hospital where wounded U.S. soldiers were treated at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, the hospital’s head nurse testified.

On Aug. 12, 2002, the day Khadr was transferred from the hospital to a detention center on the base, he was brought in on a stretcher for his first interrogation, according to a soldier identified only as “Interrogator No. 2.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Canadian captive Omar Khadr was hooded, crying and chained to a door outside his cell in Afghanistan around the time he turned 16, a former U.S. medic testified on Monday in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal.

The former Army medic, identified only as M, testified in a hearing to determine whether Khadr was coerced into confessing that he threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.

Khadr, now 23, was 15 when captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002 and would be the first person tried in a U.S. war crimes tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor. It would also be the first tribunal under a law President Barack Obama signed in 2009 banning the use of evidence obtained through inhumane treatment.

Medic M treated Khadr’s gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries at the detention centre at the Bagram U.S. air base in Afghanistan between mid-August and late October 2002, during which time Khadr turned 16.

The medic described once finding Khadr standing in the entryway outside his cell with his hands chained to the metal-mesh door just above eye level.

“We pulled off the hood that was over his head and I asked him what was ailing him, if there was some type of medical issue he might be having,” the former medic testified by video link from an undisclosed location. “I then noted that he was crying.”

Khadr seemed frustrated and “not very cordial,” M said, adding, “I had never seen him like that before.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba, May 3 (Reuters) – Canadian captive Omar Khadr was hooded, crying and chained to a door outside his cell in Afghanistan around the time he turned 16, a former U.S. medic testified on Monday in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal. The former Army medic, identified only as M, testified in a hearing to determine whether Khadr was coerced into confessing that he threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. Khadr, now 23, was 15 when captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002 and would be the first person tried in a U.S. war crimes tribunal for acts allegedly committed as a minor. It would also be the first tribunal under a law President Barack Obama signed in 2009 banning evidence obtained through inhumane treatment. Medic M treated Khadr’s gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries at the detention center at the Bagram U.S. air base in Afghanistan between mid-August and late October 2002, during which time Khadr turned 16. He described once finding Khadr standing in the entryway outside his cell with his hands chained to the metal-mesh door just above eye level. "We pulled off the hood that was over his head and I asked him what was ailing him, if there was some type of medical issue he might be having," M testified by video link from an undisclosed location. "I then noted that he was crying." Khadr seemed frustrated and "not very cordial," M said, adding, "I had never seen him like that before." He said such treatment was common punishment for prisoners held at Bagram during the early part of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan but that he did not know why Khadr was being disciplined. "He did not mention whether he was in any particular pain," M testified. The Toronto native was shot twice through the back and shoulder during the battle that led to his capture, and blinded in one eye by shrapnel. The medic said he was "amazed" at how quickly Khadr’s wounds healed and that he would have alerted supervisors if he thought chaining him to the door would aggravate his injuries. After the hearing, defense lawyer Barry Coburn called that treatment "repulsive, abusive" and "torture." Defense attorneys plan to call psychiatrists to testify that Khadr’s youth and injuries made him especially vulnerable and likely to give false confessions. The judge ordered that government psychiatrists first be allowed to examine Khadr , a development that could delay his July trial date. TEA AND QUESTIONS Khadr was sent to the detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in October 2002 and faces five charges that could keep him imprisoned for life, including murder, conspiring with al Qaeda and planting roadside bombs targeting U.S. troops. Khadr claims that during interrogations in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, he was beaten, chained in painful positions, forced to urinate on himself, terrorized by dogs, and subjected to freezing temperatures, sleep deprivation and rape threats. The six military interrogators and FBI agents who have testified over the last week said they never saw abuse. They described serving tea, cookies and candy in friendly interviews during which Khadr repeatedly admitted throwing the grenade that killed Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer. "He said that he did believe he was a terrorist trained by al Qaeda," naval investigator Greg Finley testified on Monday. "He just wanted to kill as many Jews as he can. He wanted to kill as many Americans as well." Finley said he interrogated Khadr 20 times at Guantanamo in late 2002 and developed such good rapport that after he left, Khadr wrote him a letter asking for car magazines and inquiring about the status of his case. The letter began, "Dear friend, How are you and how is everything in Washington?" The tribunal is expected to hear later from the first military interrogator to question Khadr at Bagram, a soldier later court-martialed for assaulting an Afghan prisoner whose death at Bagram was ruled a homicide.(Editing by Eric Walsh)