WASHINGTON (AP):

The United States Supreme Court agreed to review whether Guantánamo Bay detainees can use federal courts to challenge their confinement, reversing an April decision not to hear arguments on the issue.

The unusual turnabout was announced without comment from justices who had twice before issued rulings critical of the way the Bush administration washandling detainees. Arguments are expected in the fall.

Meanwhile on Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives said they want to cut U.S. President George W. Bush's budget for the prison in half, beating the administration to the punch in shutting down the facility for terror detainees.

There was no indication why the justices changed course from three months ago, but lawyers for the prisoners pointed to intervening events as having changed the complexion of the long-running controversy.

A week ago, lawyers for the detainees filed a statement with the Supreme Court from a military officer who alleged U.S. military panels that classified detainees as enemy combatants for the past four years relied on vague and incomplete intelligence.

HAVANA (AP):

Communist Cuba's parliament said Friday that a 47-year-old plot to assassinate Fidel Castro still reflects the reality of U.S. policy toward the island.

CIA documents made public this week described the agency's recruitment of a former FBI agent in August 1960 to use mobsters and poison pills to kill Castro.

"What the CIA recognises is not old history. It is present-day reality and the facts show it," stated a resolution approved unanimously by Cuba's National Assembly.

Acting President Raul Castro, seated next to the empty chair of his recuperating older brother Fidel, presided as the legislature passed a declaration that "the CIA documents reveal part of the efforts to kill comrade Fidel Castro and bring death and pain to our people."

"The conduct of the Bush government clearly shows its intention to keep employing the worst possible tactics against Cuba."

Revelations about the CIA plot were among hundreds of pages of CIA internal reports, known as "the family jewels," released this week. The documents show that in August 1960, the CIA recruited an ex-FBI agent to approach mobster Johnny Roselli to take part in a plot against Castro, who took power in January 1959.

The agency gave him six poison pills, which they tried unsuccessfully to have other people put in Castro's food. The plot was scrapped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961, and U.S. authorities retrieved the poison pills.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP):

Puerto Rico's Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a voter-endorsed plan for a new unicameral legislature that was blocked by the island's House of Representatives.

"Any other decision on our part would be opposite to the democratic system of government and to the Constitution that we are sworn to defend," Chief Justice Federico Hernández Denton wrote in Friday's 23-page decision.

In a July 2005 referendum, voters in the U.S. Caribbean territory overwhelmingly approved the concept of reorganising the legislative branch under a single house, saying it would streamline government and reduce political infighting.

Opponents said it would create a system that would be less open and democratic, with fewer checks and balances. The 27-member Senate had approved a bill allowing for another referendum on the issue. But in January, the larger House voted not to take up the measure, effectively killing it.

Senate President Kenneth McClintock said the court's decision affirmed that the 2005 referendum had created "exaggerated expectations" among voters that a one-house legislature would be established.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP):

Bermuda on Friday reported an 18 per cent increase in the number of tourists flying into the mid-Atlantic British territory during 2007's first quarter, attributing the boost to an influx of visitors from the United States.

The increase over the same period last year comes as several Caribbean islands are reporting tourism slumps. Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados and St. Lucia have all posted decreases in air passengers, according to figures from the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

"All thepeople who make our tourism product what it is have even more reason to hold their heads high, because this undeniable surge in visitor numbers is coming at a time when our colleagues in the Caribbean are struggling," said Premier Ewart Brown, who is also the minister of tourism."

Bermuda, known for pink-sand beaches, diving and tax-free shopping, has been recovering from a decline in tourism in 2005 that the government blamed on high airfares and fears of hurricanes. During the first quarter, 32,946 American air passengers visited the island 640 miles (1,030 kilometers) east of the U.S., compared with 26,732 in 2006.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP):

An ex-police captain has been exonerated and freed from prison in the 2004 slaying of his brothers-in-law, his attorney said Friday. Relatives of the two victims, Harry Sanabria, a 43-year-old metal worker from Stormville, New York, and Dominican tailor Hector García , expressed outrage at a panel of judges' decision to overturn ex-Captain Eleccio Soto Roa's murder conviction.

"All the healing that had taken place has just gone by the wayside," Diana Sanabria, sister of one of the victims, said by telephone from New York City.

The men were killed while riding in an SUV with Soto Roa near the northern city of Cabrera on July 4, 2004.

A witness testified at two trials that he heard gunshots from inside the vehicle, saw it crash into a tree and then saw Soto Roa emerge from the back seat and flee with a gun in his hand, according to Mercedes Pena Javier, a lawyer for the victims' families.

After the initial conviction, Soto Roa was thrown off the police force and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But in a June 22 trial ordered by an appeals court, judges ruled that evidence had not been properly filed and refused to consider the results of a ballistics test, lawyers for both sides told The Associated Press.