NEW YORK

Freedom Tower construction to begin

Nearly three years after the twin towers fell, a 20-ton block of granite will be set in place Sunday to mark the official start of construction on the 1,776-foot tower that will rise on the site of the World Trade Center

But plans for the site are far from being set in stone.

The design of the $1.5 billion Freedom Tower, announced last year as a compromise between feuding architects, is still changing. Trade center leaseholder Larry Silverstein still has not signed an anchor tenant for the 70-story tower. And a recent trial over insurance proceeds limited how much he can collect, prompting some to question whether all five proposed office towers on the site will be built.

Connecticut

Cereal Spider-Man toy won’t go to Conn., N.H.

Cereal boxes that contain a “Spidey Signal” toy will not be shipped to Connecticut or New Hampshire after Kellogg Co. agreed Friday that the toy’s mercury batteries violated the states’ environmental laws.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal threatened earlier this week to sue the company and stores that sold the cereal.

“Kellogg has come to its Spidey-senses,” Blumenthal said Friday. “No Connecticut superhero, especially Spider-Man, should be fueled by mercury.”

The Battle Creek, Mich.-based company confirmed the agreement, which also requires the company to ask retailers to return cereal boxes that contain the toy.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Formerly conjoined twins head home early

Thirteen days after they were separated, the formerly conjoined twins Erin and Jade Buckles were released from the hospital Friday — several weeks earlier than expected.

The 4-month-old girls headed home to Woodbridge, Va., from Children’s National Medical Center, where they were separated June 19.

“We’ll disconnect the phone, disconnect the doorbell and just enjoy our family for a few days,” said their father, Kevin Buckles, at a news conference shortly before the family left the hospital.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Court asked to take up first detainee cases

Human rights lawyers filed new appeals on behalf of nine Guantanamo Bay detainees Friday, citing this week’s Supreme Court ruling and pressing the government to justify its detention of the terror suspects or let them go.

A federal court was urged to rule that the nine detainees were being unlawfully held at the military prison in Cuba. They were the first appeals since the Supreme Court’s ruling this week that the prisoners may use U.S. courts to challenge their detentions.

“This is the beginning of trying to enforce precisely what the Supreme Court mandated as a way to obtain justice,” said Jeffrey Fogel, of New York Center for Constitutional Rights.

Appeals were filed on behalf of two British citizens, three French citizens, a German Turk, a Jordanian Palestinian refugee, an Iraqi refugee and a Canadian, Fogel said.