A U.S. federal judge has ordered President Barack Obama's administration to temporarily stop force feeding a Syrian detainee, who was born in Lebanon, at Guantanamo Bay prison and hand over videotapes of his treatment.

Abu Wa'el Dhiab, 42, was cleared for release by the Obama administration in 2009 but has remained at the U.S. naval base in Cuba for more than a decade without charge or trial. 

A Guantanamo inmate from Saudi Arabia -- accused of being a former al-Qaida recruiter -- refused to appear at a hearing Monday to avoid undergoing a body search, his representative said.

A six-member review panel is examining whether U.S. officials should continue to hold Muhammad Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shumrani, 39, without charge, repatriate him, or release him to a third country.

A U.S. man who hijacked an airplane in 1984 and diverted it to Cuba pleaded guilty to kidnapping Thursday in a Florida court over the infamous incident, The Miami Herald said.

By declaring himself guilty of kidnapping, William Potts, 57, who returned to the United States last year after serving jail time in Cuba, will avoid being sentenced for air-piracy, which carries a 20-year minimum sentence.

The wife of an American serving a 15-year term in a Cuban prison demanded Thursday that President Barack Obama personally intervene for his safe return.

Alan Gross, who turns 65 on Friday, was arrested in December 2009 for allegedly distributing telecommunications equipment in Cuba while he was working as a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was expected in the Cuban capital Monday for a two-day visit, the foreign ministry said, amid high tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Havana has sided with Russia in the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, but has yet to address the issue directly.

A U.S. Supreme Court justice on Monday raised questions about the scope of the government's authority to detain terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, offering a glimmer of hope to those held for years without charge.

The high court refused to hear the appeal of a Yemeni man held for 12 years at the U.S. military prison in Cuba, letting stand a lower court ruling that he could be detained simply because he was found to be "part of al-Qaida or the Taliban at the time of his apprehension."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Cuba Sunday, the first stop on a tour of four Latin America countries.

The purpose of the stop in Havana was to pave the way later this year for a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Jailed American Alan Gross is in "good condition," the Cuban government said Wednesday in response to news the USAID subcontractor had gone on a hunger strike to press for his release.

The foreign ministry said Gross was being "held in a hospital not because his health requires it but because it guarantees that he receives specialized care by highly qualified medical personnel."

Alan Gross, an American subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development who was imprisoned in Cuba in 2009, has gone on a hunger strike to press for his release, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Gross launched the fast on April 3 to protest his "inhumane treatment" and call on both Cuba and the United States "to resolve this shameful ordeal," he said in a message relayed to Agence France Presse by lawyer Scott Gilbert.

Two Cuban spies who recently completed prison terms in the United States told state-run television that their mission monitoring anti-Castro groups there had been worth their lengthy incarceration.

"I don't view it as a sacrifice, I look at it as something that I simply had to do," Fernando Gonzalez, who was released in February after 15 years in U.S. prison, said in a broadcast that aired late Saturday.