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.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – The chief judge in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal refused on Tuesday to step aside from the trial of a prisoner accused of orchestrating the suicide-bomb attack that killed 17 U.S. soldiers aboard the warship USS Cole in 2000.

The judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, rejected defense arguments that the public might perceive him as biased toward protecting the U.S. government bureaucracy to preserve his own paycheck. He said they had shown no evidence of actual bias.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – T he next hearing for five Guantanamo prisoners charged with plotting the September 11 attacks has been postponed for two weeks to allow the defendants to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The chief judge in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals, Army Colonel James Pohl, granted the delay on Monday for the alleged architect of the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four co-defendants who could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of conspiring with al Qaeda and murdering 2,976 people in the hijacked plane attacks of 2001.

By Bill Trott and Jane Sutton

(Reuters) – Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made “The Andy Griffith Show” one of television’s most enduring programs, died on Tuesday at his North Carolina home at age 86.

Griffith died at about 7 a.m. at his home on Roanoke Island, Dare County Sheriff J.D. Doughtie said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Pentagon dropped war crimes charges against a Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantanamo on Friday amid reports the United States and Kuwait were in talks to repatriate the last two Kuwaitis held there.

Kuwait is a U.S. ally and the Gulf state’s parliament has condemned the continued detention of its citizens, Faiz al Kandari and Fawazi al Odah, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military base in Cuba, where both have been held for more than a decade.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Debby formed in the central Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and storm warnings were posted for part of the Louisiana coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Debby covered much of the eastern Gulf and was centered about 220 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm had top winds of 50 miles per hour (81 km per hour) and was expected to strengthen slowly, nearing hurricane force by Thursday.

MIAMI, June 23 (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Debby formed in
the central Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and storm warnings were
posted for part of the Louisiana coast, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center said.

Debby was centered about 220 miles (354 km) south-southeast
of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm had top winds
of 50 miles per hour (81 km per hour) and was expected to
strengthen slowly, nearing hurricane strength by Thursday.