NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – U.S. attempts to move forward in the trial of five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks have been thwarted for months by scheduling conflicts, religious observances, an Internet outage and a tropical storm.

But the judge has rejected a request to further delay the military tribunal proceedings because of a rat and mold infestation in the offices assigned to defense lawyers at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A prisoner who died in his cell at the Guantanamo Bay naval base at the weekend was a suicidal and mentally ill Yemeni who had won a U.S. court order for his release, only to have it overturned on appeal, according to his lawyer and court records.

The military identified the dead detainee on Tuesday as Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a 32-year-old from Al Udayn, Yemen.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A prisoner was found dead of undetermined causes at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base where war on terrorism captives have been held since shortly after the September 11 attacks.

The unidentified prisoner, whose name and nationality were not disclosed pending notification of family, died on Saturday, according to the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the base in eastern Cuba. He was the ninth captive to die at the detention camp since it opened in 2002.

MIAMI (Reuters) – No longer a Republican and not yet a Democrat, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist emerged from the political wilderness and addressed the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte on Thursday night in a bid to woo independent voters.

Crist’s appearance could boost Obama’s appeal in Florida, a crucial swing state where the president is in a statistical tie with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and one voter in five has no party affiliation.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Obama administration overstepped its authority by trying to impose new restrictions on attorney access to prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

Ruling in Washington, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth said the previous rules established by the U.S. District Court in Washington four years ago were working well and would continue to govern lawyers’ access to Guantanamo prisoners.

MIAMI, Sept 6 (Reuters) – No longer a Republican and not yet
a Democrat, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist will emerge
from the political wilderness to address the Democratic Party
convention in Charlotte on Thursday night in a bid to woo
independent voters.

Crist’s appearance could boost Obama’s appeal in Florida, a
crucial swing state where the president is in a statistical tie
with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and one voter
in five has no party affiliation.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Ernesto formed in the Atlantic Ocean near the Windward Islands on Thursday and could strengthen into a hurricane as it races westward across the Caribbean Sea, forecasters said.

The storm was expected to hit the southern Windward Islands and cross into the Caribbean early on Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A New York man agreed on Tuesday to pay a $6,500 fine to settle a long-running dispute with the U.S. Treasury Department over a trip he made to Cuba as an unauthorized tourist 14 years ago.

Zachary Sanders, now 38, said he was 23 and had been living and teaching English in Mexico when he decided to go to Cuba for a couple of weeks in 1998.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba, July 19 (Reuters) -
T he Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo tribunal tried
to rig the jury selection process to boost the odds of obtaining
a death sentence for a prisoner accused of directing a deadly
attack on a U.S. warship, defense lawyers alleged on Thursday.

They asked the judge to drop the charges against Saudi
defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, an alleged al Qaeda chieftain
who is accused of choosing and supplying the suicide bombers who
drove a boat full of explosives into the side of the USS Cole
off the coast of Yemen in 2000. The blast killed 17 sailors and
wounded dozens more.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba, July 18 (Reuters) – A
Guantanamo war crimes tribunal judge held a closed hearing with
lawyers on Wednesday to discuss a defense request to see secret
evidence against a prisoner charged with orchestrating the
deadly October 2000 attack on the warship USS Cole.

Defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who could face the death
penalty if convicted of terrorism, murder and other crimes, was
excluded from the pretrial hearing at the Guantanamo Bay U.S.
Naval base in Cuba.