BELLEFONTE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, on the eve of his sentencing for molesting 10 boys, on Monday denied he committed the “alleged disgusting acts” and said his wife has been his only sex partner.

Sandusky, 68, in a taped statement carried by Penn State’s student radio station, said he was wrongly convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse, crimes for which he could spend the rest of his life behind bars after his sentencing on Tuesday in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

BALTIMORE, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard is on the
front lines of national security, but it struggles to complete
its missions with one of the world’s oldest maritime fleets and
a multibillion dollar replacement program years behind schedule.

The cash-strapped service operates with frequent breakdowns
and obsolete gear in what one U.S. congressman has called a
“death spiral,” of too few ships and too many missions.

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – A Pennsylvania judge will hold a closed-door briefing with attorneys on Monday to make final preparations for the sentencing hearing of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach convicted of molesting 10 boys.

Judge John Cleland could send Sandusky 68, to prison for up to 373 years when he hands down the sentence on Tuesday at the courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the scene of a June trial that focused national attention on the issue of child sexual abuse.

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – A key witness in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal sued Pennsylvania State University on Tuesday for more than $8 million on whistleblower, defamation and misrepresentation grounds.

Mike McQueary, a former Penn State assistant football coach, claimed in the suit filed in Center County Court that he lost his job, was misled and publicly scorned because he had told about one of the attacks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s most famous political dissident, Ai Weiwei, launches his first major U.S. art exhibition on Sunday with some unflinchingly political works, including an image of his brain bleeding from a police beating.

The show, “Ai Weiwei: According to What?” at Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum groups sculpture, photography, video, audio and installation work.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leading U.S. car rental companies have agreed to back Senate legislation to pull vehicles from the road when recalled for safety defects, lawmakers and the firms said on Thursday.

The legislation brings car rental companies in line with auto dealers, who are barred from selling a car being recalled for a defect until the fault is repaired.

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – Convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky will face sentencing immediately after an October 9 hearing to determine if the former Penn State assistant football coach is a sexually violent predator, a judge said on Monday.

The hearing will be held at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, Judge John Cleland said in an order published online. A sentencing conference will be held October 8.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A giant panda at Washington’s National Zoo has given birth to a cub, the zoo said on Monday, ending the zoo’s seven-year spell without panda offspring.

The panda, Mei Xiang, gave birth late on Sunday at the zoo’s panda complex, the zoo said in a statement. She was artificially inseminated in April using thawed frozen sperm from the zoo’s other giant panda, Tian Tian, after he failed to impregnate her.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, was praised in a NASA memorial service at the National Cathedral on Thursday as a humble hero who led mankind into space.

Mourners who filled the vast Episcopal cathedral to mark Armstrong’s death last month heard him eulogized as a dedicated team player who shunned the limelight for decades after piloting the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The victims of September 11 will be remembered “no matter how many years pass,” President Barack Obama said on Tuesday during one of three main ceremonies marking the 11th anniversary of the attacks in which nearly 3,000 people were killed by airliners hijacked by Islamist militants.

Two of the passenger jets brought down the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center, another hit the Pentagon outside Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers aboard that flight fought back against the hijackers.