MIAMI (Reuters) – The Pan American Health Organization hopes to start a cholera vaccination program in Haiti by April but must first boost and fund production of the vaccine that is in short supply, the group said on Friday.

The diarrheal disease appeared in the poor Caribbean nation in October for the first time in decades and has sickened 105,000 people and killed more than 2,000, Haitian health officials have said.

PAHO, the American division of the World Health Organization, had previously opposed vaccination in Haiti on grounds that it would be too difficult and expensive.

It changed course on Friday and recommended using the vaccine in Haiti, partly because it has discovered a stockpile of additional vaccine and partly out of recognition that the outbreak would not be halted any time soon.

“This is a disease caused by a bacterium that has a foothold in Haiti and will be in Haiti causing endemic cholera for many years to come,” Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of PAHO, said in a webcast from Washington. “So if we have options to better our response we really, really need to study those carefully.”

Cholera is caused by a water-borne bacteria called Vibrio cholera and is transmitted when contaminated human fecal matter gets into water, food or onto someone’s hands. Many people show no symptoms but can pass it along and cholera can cause extremely severe diarrhea and vomiting that will kill within hours by dehydrating victims.

There are only about 200,000 to 300,000 doses of cholera vaccine available in the world at present, and only two companies produce it, said Dr. Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

MIAMI, Dec 17 (Reuters) – The Pan American Health Organization hopes to start a cholera vaccination program in Haiti by April but must first boost and fund production of the vaccine that is in short supply, the group said on Friday.

The diarrheal disease appeared in the poor Caribbean nation in October for the first time in decades and has sickened 105,000 people and killed more than than 2,000, Haitian health officials have said.

PAHO, the American division of the World Health Organization, had previously opposed vaccination in Haiti on grounds that it would be too difficult and expensive.

It changed course on Friday and recommended using the vaccine in Haiti, partly because it has discovered a stockpile of additional vaccine and partly out of recognition that the outbreak would not be halted any time soon.

“This is a disease caused by a bacterium that has a foothold in Haiti and will be in Haiti causing endemic cholera for many years to come,” Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of PAHO, said in a webcast from Washington. “So if we have options to better our response we really, really need to study those carefully.”

Cholera is caused by a water-borne bacteria called Vibrio cholera and is transmitted when contaminated human fecal matter gets into water, food or onto someone’s hands. Many people show no symptoms but can pass it along and cholera can cause extremely severe diarrhea and vomiting that will kill within hours by dehydrating victims.

There are only about 200,000 to 300,000 doses of cholera vaccine available in the world at present, and only two companies produce it, said Dr. Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Temperatures dipped to the edge of freezing for Florida’s big orange growers overnight, but it did not get cold enough to damage the crop, meteorologists and growers said Tuesday.

Overnight lows of 32 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 2 degrees Celsius) were reported in Polk, Hendry, DeSoto and Highlands counties, the heart of the orange-growing region, the National Weather Service said.

Fruit damage occurs if temperatures are 28 degrees or lower for at least four hours, and early indications were it did not get that cold in the region.

“We did not sustain any damage to the trees or the crop,” said grower John Arnold of the Showcase of Citrus in southern Lake County.

“As the winter progresses, it’s one cold front after the next and we have to be prepared for the worst. This was like a dry run, so we can test our irrigation measures,” added Arnold, who grows more than 50 varieties of citrus on 1,000 acres.

Freeze warnings sent orange juice futures soaring to their highest level in 3-1/2 years on Monday. Another freeze warning was expected through Wednesday morning before temperatures started to rise.

“Tonight will be about the same, maybe slightly warmer,” said National Weather Service forecaster Tyler Fleming in Ruskin, Florida. “We’re looking at low 30s.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. war crimes tribunal Sunday sentenced Canadian captive Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison for charges that included murdering an American soldier in battle, but his plea agreement capped his sentence at eight years.

That means the Toronto native will only serve eight more years, in addition to the eight he has already spent in detention at the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

His plea deal calls for him to be sent home to Canada in one year to serve the rest of his sentence there, although “The decision on that is solely up to the Canadian government,” said the judge, Army Colonel Patrick Parrish.

Diplomatic notes exchanged between Washington and Ottawa gave assurances that would happen, Khadr’s lawyers said previously.

Khadr pleaded guilty Monday to all five charges against him, including conspiring with al Qaeda to commit terrorist acts, making roadside bombs to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan, spying on American military convoys and providing material support for terrorism.

The Toronto native was 15 years old when captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and is now 24. He is the first person since World War Two to be prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile.

Now tall and broad-shouldered with a full beard, Khadr wore a gray suit and stood to face the seven military officers of the jury as the verdict was read. He stared straight ahead, then seemed to smile in relief.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A prosecutor urged a U.S. war crimes tribunal on Saturday to sentence a young Canadian and admitted al Qaeda murderer to 25 more years in prison and said anything less would give license to terrorists.

A military defense lawyer said defendant Omar Khadr, who was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15, had abandoned the jihadist teachings of his al Qaeda financier father, apologized to his victims and accepted responsibility for his actions.

He called Khadr “a child with a bad dad” and urged the military jurors to free him and give him a chance to go to school and become a contributing member of society.

“This case is about giving Omar Khadr a first chance because he’s never had it,” Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson told the jury. “There’s going to be no good keeping him here.”

Khadr, now 24, pleaded guilty on Monday to five war crimes after being locked up at the Guantanamo detention camp for eight years. He admitted conspiring with al Qaeda, making bombs for use against U.S. troops and murdering an American soldier with a grenade during a battle in which Khadr himself was shot twice and blinded in one eye.

The jury began deliberating his sentence on Saturday and could order anything from no further punishment to life in prison. The panel’s verdict could be largely moot because the Toronto native’s plea agreement reportedly limits the sentence to eight years, most of it to be served in Canada. The jury could subtract but not add to that.

Prosecutor Jeffrey Groharing said Khadr joined al Qaeda with the full knowledge it was a terrorist group that hid among civilians while launching deadly attacks against American embassies, warships, buildings and passenger airlines.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A young Canadian on Friday asked the U.S. military tribunal due to sentence him on terrorism and murder charges to keep in mind that U.S. interrogators tried to scare him with threats of gang rape and death.

“I know it does not change what I did but I hope you will think about it when you punish me,” Toronto native Omar Khadr said in a statement to the war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Khadr, 24, pleaded guilty on Monday to five charges that include conspiring with al Qaeda to attack civilians, murdering a U.S. soldier in battle and a making roadside bombs for use against U.S. convoys in Afghanistan. He committed these acts as a 15-year-old fighter with al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The military jury is expected to begin deliberating his sentence on Saturday.

Khadr’s plea agreement calls for his repatriation to Canada in one year to serve the rest of his sentence, which is reportedly capped at eight years. The jury can give him a shorter sentence but not a longer one.

Defence lawyers had hoped to win leniency by arguing that Khadr, a teenager when captured, was treated harshly at the Bagram base in Afghanistan and the Guantanamo detention centre, where he has been held for eight years.

The judge ruled previously that Khadr was not tortured or abused in U.S. custody.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A Canadian Guantanamo prisoner who pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan told the man’s widow on Thursday he was “really, really sorry,” but she told him, “You will always be a murderer in my eyes.”

The emotional testimony came during a sentencing hearing for Omar Khadr, a 24-year-old Toronto native who pleaded guilty on Monday to murder and terrorism conspiracy charges in a U.S. war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Khadr admitted throwing the grenade that killed a special forces soldier, U.S. Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer, during a 2002 firefight in which Khadr himself was shot twice in the back and blinded in one eye. Khadr was 15 at the time.

Speer’s widow, Tabitha Speer, cried and rocked back and forth during her earlier testimony. She showed photos of her husband with their young daughter and baby son, now aged 11 and 8.

She glared across the courtroom at Khadr, who was captured during a battle in Afghanistan. Khadr is the first person since World War Two prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a minor.

A few hours later, Khadr stood in the courtroom and told her, “I’m really, really sorry for the pain I’ve caused you and your family and I wish I could do something that would take this pain away from you.”

Speer shook her head as Khadr spoke, seeming to reject his apology.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier’s widow glared across the courtroom at the young Canadian prisoner who killed her husband with a grenade in Afghanistan and told him on Thursday, “You will always be a murderer in my eyes.”

The testimony came during a sentencing hearing for Toronto native Omar Khadr, who pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism conspiracy charges this week in the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Khadr, who was 15 when captured during a battle in Afghanistan, is the first person since World War Two prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a minor.

He is the only person held responsible for the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 American troops have died in hostilities during nine years of an ongoing war.

Khadr admitted throwing the grenade that killed a special forces soldier, U.S. Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer, during a 2002 firefight in which Khadr himself was shot twice in the back and blinded in one eye.

Speer’s widow, Tabitha Speer, cried and rocked back and forth during her testimony and showed photos of her husband with their young daughter and baby son, now aged 11 and 8.

She told the military jury Khadr had the choice to leave with the women and children before the firefight broke out at the al Qaeda compound where he lived, but chose instead to stay and fight U.S. forces.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Six days before a young Canadian lobbed a fatal grenade at a U.S. soldier, that soldier had run into a minefield and rescued two injured Afghan children, the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay naval base learned on Wednesday.

The military jurors who will sentence Toronto native Omar Khadr heard testimony about the special forces medic Khadr admitted murdering during a firefight in Afghanistan, U.S. Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer.

“Chris risked his own life and his opportunity to go back to his children because there were two Afghan children who had been injured in an active minefield,” a colleague and friend identified only as Sergeant Major Y testified. “Chris went into that active minefield and rescued those children.”

Speer was posthumously awarded the Soldier’s Medal, which commemorates acts of heroism, he said, stopping his testimony several times to breathe deeply and hold back tears.

The incident occurred on July 21, 2002, six days before Speer’s unit engaged in a firefight at a compound where the then-15-year-old Khadr lived and worked with a group of al Qaeda bomb-makers.

In his guilty plea on Monday, Khadr admitted he threw the grenade that hurled shrapnel into Speer’s brain, becoming the fifth prisoner convicted in the much-criticized tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay naval base and the first person since World War Two prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile.

Speer died 12 days later at a military hospital in Germany, a loss that fellow soldiers said devastated their unit.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A Canadian who admitted he was a teen terrorist has grown more dangerous after being “marinated in radical jihadism” at the Guantanamo detention camp, a psychiatrist told a U.S. war crimes tribunal on Tuesday.

Toronto native Omar Khadr pleaded guilty on Monday to all five terrorism charges against him, including conspiring with al Qaeda to commit terrorist acts and murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade during an Afghanistan firefight.

Now 24, he was captured at age 15 and has been locked up with adult prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba for more than eight years. At his sentencing hearing, the U.S. military jury heard from a forensic psychiatrist hired by prosecutors to meet with Khadr and assess his dangerousness.

The witness, Dr. Michael Welner, described Khadr as the angry and remorseless favorite son of a senior al Qaeda member, and as held in high esteem by other prisoners because he killed a U.S. soldier.

Welner said Khadr had been “steeped and marinaded in radical jihadism” among fellow captives at Guantanamo. Khadr memorized the Koran, grew more dangerous and devout and became a highly sought-after prayer leader, he said.

“He is the rock star at Gitmo,” Welner said, referring to the navy base by its nickname.

Khadr’s guilty plea made him the first person since World War Two convicted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile. His lawyers argued unsuccessfully that he was a child soldier who should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.