MIAMI (Reuters) – A Sudanese prisoner accused of guarding Osama bin Laden and helping him escape U.S. forces in Afghanistan pleaded guilty at Guantanamo on Wednesday, giving the Obama administration its first conviction in the controversial war crimes court.

Ibrahim al Qosi pleaded guilty to conspiring with al Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism, Guantanamo court spokesman Joe DellaVedova said.

Qosi, who ran the kitchen at bin Laden’s Star of Jihad compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, has been held at Guantanamo for more than eight years.

His sentence could range from no additional time to life imprisonment, DellaVedova said by phone from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 9.

Qosi is only the fourth captive convicted in the controversial military tribunals since the Guantanamo detention camp was opened to hold terrorism suspects in January 2002.

President Barack Obama’s pledge to shut down the detention camp has been stymied by Congress, and it still holds 181 prisoners. Most are being held as terrorist suspects, though some have been cleared by the U.S. courts and are awaiting resettlement.

Qosi, 50, was charged by the U.S. military of acting as bin Laden’s driver and bodyguard and helping the al Qaeda leader escape to the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. He was also accused of being part of an al Qaeda mortar crew.

TORONTO/MIAMI (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were expected to discuss London-based BP Plc(BP: Quote, Profile, Research) and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Saturday as stormy weather raised fears that clean-up operations could be disrupted.

The oil spill, the worst in U.S. history, is overshadowing the first meeting between Obama and Cameron since the prime minister took office last month, which will take place on the sidelines of the G8/G20 summit in Canada.

The British energy giant’s share price is trading at 14-year lows after falling sharply again on Friday, when Cameron offered his strongest comments yet on the issue.

“It is … in all our long-term interests that there is some clarity, some finality, to all of this, so that we don’t at the same time see the destruction of a company that is important for all our interests,” Cameron told Canadian broadcaster CBC.

“This is a vital company for all of our interests. … BP itself wants to cap the well and clean up the spill and compensate those who have had damages,” Cameron said.

Obama has been highly critical of BP while his own poll ratings have fallen, in part because of perceptions that his handling of the crisis has been too slow.

British business and shareholder groups have meanwhile clamored for Cameron to defend the company.

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.”