STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

State revokes pension for Sandusky and his wife

Jerry Sandusky’s sex crimes against children means he has to forfeit his $59,000 a year state pension.

Pennsylvania’s State Employees’ Retirement System is revoking his pension, effective Tuesday, the day he was sentenced to 30 to 60 years behind bars in a state prison. Sandusky’s attorney was notified Wednesday of the decision.

The pension system determined that Sandusky was a public employee when he committed sex crimes against two boys who were high school students in Clinton and Mifflin counties, Victims 1 and 9.

Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, was designated to receive half his pension in the event of his death, but the pension board revoked that, too.

ANKARA, Turkey

Turkish jets force Syrian passenger plane to land

Turkish jets on Wednesday forced a Syrian passenger plane to land at Ankara airport on suspicion that it might be carrying weapons or other military equipment, amid heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria that have sparked fears of a wider regional conflict.

The Syrian Air jetliner was traveling from Moscow when it was intercepted by F16 jets as it entered Turkish airspace and was escorted to the capital’s Esenboga Airport, the state-run TRT television reported.

Hours later, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Airbus A320 with 37 passengers and crew would be allowed to leave, but its cargo had been confiscated.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Protests, vigils spread over girl shot by Taliban gunman

Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group.

The shooting of Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley horrified Pakistanis across the religious, political and ethnic spectrum. Many in the country hoped the attack and the outrage it has sparked will be a turning point in Pakistan’s long-running battle against the Taliban, which still enjoys considerable public support for fighting U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Top U.S. officials condemned the attack and offered to help the girl.

A Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded.

Malala appeared to be out of immediate danger after doctors operated on her early Wednesday to remove a bullet lodged in her neck.

WASHINGTON

While North Pole losing ice, South Pole appears to gain

The ice goes on seemingly forever in a white pancake-flat landscape, stretching farther than ever before. And yet in this confounding region of the world, that spreading ice may be a cockeyed signal of man-made climate change, scientists say.

This is Antarctica, the polar opposite of the Arctic.

While the North Pole has been losing sea ice over the years, the water nearest the South Pole has been gaining it. Antarctic sea ice hit a record 7.51 million square miles in September. That happened just days after reports of the biggest loss of Arctic sea ice on record.

Shifts in wind patterns and the giant ozone hole over the Antarctic this time of year – both related to human activity – are probably behind the increase in ice, experts say.

— From news service reports