MIAMI (Reuters) – Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the Republican presidential race on Friday as two new polls showed him falling behind rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.

The White House contenders courted Florida’s sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network, where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.

Bouncing back after losing the South Carolina primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney had an 8-percentage point lead over him in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. A Quinnipiac University poll gave him a 9-percentage point edge.

The Reuters/Ipsos online poll gave Romney 41 percent and Gingrich 33 percent ahead of Saturday’s contest.

That margin is similar to three polls released on Thursday that all showed Romney taking control of the battle in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich.

Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the same format that has helped fuel Gingrich’s campaign.

“With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him,” Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the Republican presidential race on Friday as two new polls showed him falling behind rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.

The White House contenders courted Florida’s sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network, where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.

Bouncing back after losing the South Carolina primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney had an 8-percentage point lead over him in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. A Quinnipiac University poll gave him a 9-percentage point edge.

The Reuters/Ipsos online poll gave Romney 41 percent and Gingrich 33 percent ahead of Saturday’s contest.

That margin is similar to three polls released on Thursday that all showed Romney taking control of the battle in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich.

Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the same format that has helped fuel Gingrich’s campaign.

“With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him,” Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the Republican presidential race on Friday as two new polls showed him falling behind rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.

The White House contenders courted Florida’s sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network, where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.

Bouncing back after losing the South Carolina primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney had an 8-percentage point lead over him in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. A Quinnipiac University poll gave him a 9-percentage point edge.

The Reuters/Ipsos online poll gave Romney 41 percent and Gingrich 33 percent ahead of Saturday’s contest.

That margin is similar to three polls released on Thursday that all showed Romney taking control of the battle in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich.

Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the same format that has helped fuel Gingrich’s campaign.

“With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him,” Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the race for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination on Friday as another poll showed him falling behind his main rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.

The two men courted Florida’s sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.

Bouncing back from losing the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Romney has a 9-percentage point lead over Gingrich in Florida, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

That margin was similar to three polls on Thursday.

Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown said Romney appeared to be pulling away in Florida, where he enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich. Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the format that has helped fuel Gingrich’s campaign.

“With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him,” Brown said.

Tuesday’s Florida primary is the fourth contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 U.S. election.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A copy of an al Qaeda-linked magazine was delivered to the Guantanamo detention camp for suspected terrorists, a military prosecutor revealed on Wednesday during a court discussion of mail security.

The camp commander, Rear Admiral David Woods, issued orders last month tightening the screening of mail sent by lawyers to their clients at the camp that holds 171 captives on the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba. Woods testified in the Guantanamo war crimes court on Tuesday that the new rules were necessary to prevent contraband from entering the camp, but gave no specifics.

One of the prosecutors in the case of a suspected al Qaeda bomber said in court on Wednesday that the old system had not worked because items were getting in that should not.

“There was material getting in like Inspire magazine,” said the prosecutor, Navy Commander Andrea Lockhart.

Inspire magazine bills itself as the publication of Yemeni-based group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and famously published an article titled, “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.” The United States considers it a propaganda and recruitment vehicle for the group, and killed its editor in a drone strike in Yemen in September.

A Pentagon spokesman could not immediately provide details concerning the copy that wound up in Guantanamo.

Lockhart indicated that it was sent by a civilian lawyer representing a detainee challenging his Guantanamo detention in the U.S. District Court in Washington. Those civilian “habeas corpus” cases are separate from the war crimes tribunals taking place in fits and starts at Guantanamo.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – The commander of the Guantanamo detention camp testified on Tuesday that it was necessary for Pentagon contractors to review the confidential mail prisoners receive from their U.S. military lawyers in order to ensure it did not contain contraband.

Defense lawyers in the trial of alleged al Qaeda bomber Abd al Rahim al Nashiri said they had done nothing to earn that mistrust. They contend the order violates confidentiality rules and forces them to illegally disclose trial strategy, violating the defendants’ right to a fair trial.

It is also an ethical violation that potentially could put their own law licenses in jeopardy, they said.

“We cannot follow this order,” Nashiri’s military lawyer, Navy Lieutenant Commander Stephen Reyes, said in the high-security courtroom on Tuesday.

The dispute between military lawyers and jailers played out as the United States prepares to expand the number of Guantanamo prisoners facing war crimes charges that could eventually lead to their execution.

The judge took the unusual step of ordering the detention camp commander, Rear Admiral David Woods, to testify in court about the mail-screening procedure he imposed last month at the detention camp on the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.

The judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, cannot compel the admiral to change the policy. But he could halt the prosecution of Nashiri, a Saudi captive accused of murdering 17 U.S. sailors, if he believes the policy violates his right to a fair trial or puts defense lawyers in an ethical bind.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. military judge ordered the commander of the Guantanamo detention camp to testify on Tuesday about orders he gave that limit the mail prisoners can receive from their lawyers.

The dispute about the handling of confidential legal correspondence pits military jailers against military defense lawyers even as the military prepares to expand the number of Guantanamo prisoners facing war crimes charges that could eventually lead to their execution.

The judge, an Army colonel, cannot compel the prison camp commander, a Navy admiral, to change the mail policy. But he could halt the prosecution of an alleged al Qaeda bomber accused of murdering 17 U.S. sailors if he believes the policy violates prisoners’ rights to a fair trial or puts defense lawyers in an ethical bind.

Prosecutors in the trial of Saudi captive Abd al Rahim al Nashiri have asked that his mail be subject to the same screening procedures that the camp commander, Rear Admiral David Woods, imposed last month for the other 170 men held captive at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.

Under Woods’ order, only documents that were originated by defense lawyers and signed by them can be delivered as legal mail, and even those are subject to a cursory scan by a review team.

Anything else must be sent by regular U.S. mail, and is subject to redaction or rejection by censors. Defense lawyers say the rule is so narrow that they would be prohibited from sending their clients a copy of the law pertaining to their case, or the resumes of expert witnesses called to testify on their behalf.

The lawyers contend that the order violates confidentiality rules and forces them to illegally disclose trial strategy, violating the defendants’ right to a fair trial. It is also an ethical violation that potentially could put their own law licenses in jeopardy, they said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called on supporters on Friday to correct or scrap a just-released documentary that portrays rival Mitt Romney as a corporate raider who cost thousands of Americans their jobs.

It was a dramatic turnaround for Gingrich, who has hammered Republican front-runner Romney over his role in the 1980s and 1990s at Bain Capital LLC, which bought companies and overhauled them.

Gingrich continued chiding Romney on Friday for his record in business, but the former U.S. House of Representatives speaker’s appeal to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich group separate from his campaign, came as he faced increasing pressure to back off such attacks.

Winning Our Future, a “super” political action committee than can raise unlimited funds, sponsored the anti-Romney documentary “King of Bain.”

Clips of the film are being aired in ads for Gingrich before South Carolina’s January 21 Republican primary. The primary is widely seen as perhaps the last chance for conservatives to stop Romney from running away with the Republican presidential nomination to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama on November 6.

Gingrich has been particularly aggressive in pushing the Bain line of attack, drawing criticism from some conservative and business leaders who say he is essentially criticizing free enterprise, a tenet of Republican politics.

Gingrich and Winning Our Future also have been besieged by complaints about the accuracy of the anti-Romney film.

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama for his stance on Israel on Thursday, telling a Florida crowd that if elected he would “stand with our friends.”

“This president has found it pretty sensible to be critical of our friends,” Romney told a Palm Beach County crowd that included many Jewish voters.

“He went to the United Nations and criticized Israel for building settlements. He had nothing to say about Hamas’ 20,000 rockets into Israel,” Romney said. “We will stand with our friends.”

Obama has insisted his administration has done more than any other to protect Israel and called his commitment “unshakeable.”

The Democratic president won nearly eight of every 10 Jewish voters in 2008 but a slip would jeopardize his 2012 re-election drive in battleground states like Florida and Pennsylvania, where Jews are an important swing bloc.

Romney’s message, delivered ahead of Florida’s January 31 primary, resonated with Sholom Ciment, a rabbi from Boca Raton, another wealthy Florida enclave.

“I appreciate the fact that he just made a pledge to stand proudly by Israel today. The past years, Israel has not been treated as the trusted ally of stature that it is,” said Ciment, who plans to vote for Romney.

By Jane Sutton

(Reuters) – Subtropical Miami shows off its sunny beaches and devotion to revelry.

The palm-fringed Art Deco hotels and glitzy Ocean Drive familiar from the movies and fashion magazines are actually across Biscayne Bay on the island of Miami Beach, so stay at a hotel in the South Beach neighbourhood where a lot of the fun is an easy walk away.

Reuters correspondents with local knowledge offer tips to help visitors get the most out of a short stay.

FRIDAY

Noon – Slather on the sunscreen and go for a swim in the ocean. Stroll the white sand beach on the east side of Ocean Drive, and check out the goofily coloured lifeguard stands.

2 p.m. – Walk the streets. Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue and Washington Avenue are lined with colourful Art Deco hotels housing patio cafes and boutiques. Learn more at the Art Deco Welcome Center at 1001 Ocean Drive. Gawk at the ornate mansion where Italian designer Gianni Versace was murdered at 1116 Ocean Drive. Leer at the World Erotic Art Museum at 1205 Washington. When your feet give out, pay 25 cents and hop onto the South Beach Local bus, which circles the southern end of Miami Beach.