Combined briefs package

PENNSYLVANIA

Sandusky conviction challenge Tuesday

Jerry Sandusky’s challenge to his child molestation conviction goes before a state appeals court on Tuesday, as the former Penn State assistant football coach seeks to overturn a sentence that could keep him behind bars for life. Pennsylvania’s Superior Court will decide whether prosecutors made an improper reference to the fact that Sandusky did not testify, whether jury instructions were mishandled and whether the defense should have been given more time before trial to digest a large volume of investigative material.

TEXAS

Park reopens roller coaster after death

Six Flags reopened the Texas Giant roller coaster Saturday for the first time since a rider died at the North Texas amusement park, with new precautions and warnings for people lining up more than an hour to board. The ride opened with redesigned restraint bars and new seat belts, as well as a trial seat that riders could sit in before entering the line. The ride has been closed since Rosa Ayala-Goana fell 75 feet to her death in July. Her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Six Flags.

IRAQ

Funeral bombing, attacks kill 25

A suicide bomber attacked a funeral Saturday in northern Iraq attended by members of an ethnic minority, part of a series of assaults that killed at least 25 across the country, officials said. In the suicide attack, the bomber detonated his explosive belt inside a tent during the afternoon ceremony held by members of the Shabak minority near the city of Mosul. Elsewhere, police said a roadside bomb hit a car in Dujail town, just north of Baghdad, killing the driver and his wife. Gunmen also stormed a tile factory in eastern Baghdad, killing the factory owner and a worker, police said.

NEW YORK

State OKs pet-human burials

New regulations will allow New York animal lovers to spend eternity with their pets. Officials have finalized rules allowing pet cemeteries to accept the cremated remains of humans. The cemeteries can bury pet owners’ ashes as long as they do not charge a fee for it and don’t advertise human burial services. Ed Martin, owner of the 117-year-old Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester County, says he gets five or six requests a year from humans who want to have their ashes buried with their pets.

SPAIN

Separatists’ referendum request rejected

Spain’s prime minister rejected a request by the leader of Catalonia to approve a referendum that would allow the northeastern region to decide whether to secede. In a written reply, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told Artur Mas, leader of the economically powerful region, “the ties that bind us together cannot be undone without enormous cost” and that the two politicians should hold talks instead. Rajoy’s answer Saturday officially rebuffs the pro-separatist request Mas made in July. Spain’s constitution says only the central government can call a referendum.

MICHIGAN

Air bag defect forces Suzuki recall

Suzuki is recalling 193,936 cars and SUVs because of a defective air bag sensor in the front passenger seat. Grand Vitara SUVs from the 2006 through 2011 model years and SX4 small cars from the 2007 through 2011 model years are involved. The Japanese automaker said no accidents or injuries have been reported because of the defect. Suzuki will notify owners starting next month.

SOMOLIA

Center eulogizes American militant

American jihadi Omar Hammami was murdered “in cold blood,” a Somalia-based Islamic center said, backing up reports that the militant from Alabama was killed Thursday by his rivals within the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab. The Islamic World Issues Study Center published a tribute online describing the killings of Hammami, 29, and two other militants as a “tragedy,” saying al-Shabab should be “directing their arrows at the enemies of the group,” according to a report issued Saturday by SITE Intel Group, an American private company that analyzes terror threats.

NIGERIA

Youths retaliate, kill police officer

Angry youths in a vigilante group mobbed and killed a police officer and threatened others Saturday in retaliation for the killing of one of their members in northeast Nigeria, police and military officials said. The Civilian Joint Task Force was formed by residents to help capture Boko Haram suspects in and around Maiduguri, where the Islamic insurgents formed years ago. It was not clear if the slain police officer was the same one who shot and killed the vigilante.

PENNSYLVANIA

Judge upholds EPA’s cleanup plan

A judge rejected a bid by farm industry groups to block federal and state pollution limits designed to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay through tighter rules for wastewater treatment, construction along waterways and agricultural runoff. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was within its authority to work with six states and Washington, D.C., to set and enforce standards to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that drain from rivers into the bay and harm the nation’s largest estuary.