The goverment agency that owned the site of the World Trade Center, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, announced Friday evening that it will be joining a suit against Saudi Arabia and others filed last week by investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald for damages caused by the September 11 attacks.

The Port Authority annoucement came hours before the three-year statute of limitations on such suits was about to expire. The Cantor suit, in which it seeks $7 billion in compensation, also names Osama bin Laden, Al-Quaida, and other terrorists as defendants. BBC has more; USA Today has background on the Cantor lawsuit in this article from September 3.

A US Army sergeant who fled the South Korea Demilitarized Zone in 1965 and later appeared in North Korea propaganda films surrendered to US military authorities in Japan Saturday. Charles Jenkins, now 64, turned himself in to the Provost Marshal of Camp Zama, the main US facility 25 miles southwest of Tokyo, and expressed willingness to face the charges against him.

Jenkins eventually married a Japanese citizen who was one of the 15 Japanese kidnapped by North Korea to be used as trainers for the intelligence program. The Japanese and American governments have been discussing how to handle the case. The charges against Jenkins may include desertion, soliciting others to desert, aiding the enemy, and encouraging disloyalty. His court-martial will likely begin in the next few weeks. CNN has more. From Camp Zama, Japan's Mainachi Shimbun has local coverage.

A US military court sitting in Baghdad Saturday sentenced Specialist Armin Cruz of the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion to eight months in prison in connection with abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib. Cruz had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of maltreating prisoners and conspiring with others to maltreat them. Among other things, he is said to have forced Iraqi detainees to strip and crawl on the floor. Cruz was also reduced in rank and given a bad-conduct discharge. He was the first military intelligence officer to be court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal; his name was recently mentioned in an Army report on the Abu Ghraib abuses [PDF] issued by US Army Major General George Fay. Reuters has more.

UPDATE: An official military press release on Cruz's plea and sentencing is now available here from Multi-National Force Iraq.