WASHINGTON — The Defense Department will appeal a military judge’s ruling that plea agreements struck by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and two of his co-defendants are valid, a defense official said Saturday.

The ruling last week voided Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s order to throw out the deals and concluded that the plea agreements were valid. The judge granted the three motions to enter guilty pleas and said he would schedule them for a future date to be determined by the military commission.

The department will also seek a postponement of any hearing on the pleas, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss legal matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. Rear Adm. Aaron Rugh, the chief prosecutor, sent a letter Friday to the families of 9/11 victims informing them of the decision.

The ruling by the judge, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, allowed the three 9/11 defendants to enter guilty pleas in the U.S. military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and would spare them the risk of the death penalty. The pleas by Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi would be a key step toward closing out the long-running and legally troubled government prosecution in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Government prosecutors had negotiated the deals with defense lawyers under government auspices, and the top official for the military commission at Guantanamo had approved the agreements. But the deals were immediately slammed by Republican lawmakers and others when they were made public this summer.

Within days, Austin issued an order saying he was nullifying them. He said plea bargains in possible death penalty cases tied to one of the gravest crimes ever carried out on U.S. soil were a momentous step that should only be decided by the defense secretary.

The judge had ruled that Austin lacked the legal authority to toss out the plea deals.

The agreements, and Austin’s attempt to reverse them, have made for one of the most fraught episodes in a U.S. prosecution marked by delays and legal difficulties. That includes years of ongoing pretrial hearings to determine the admissibility of statements by the defendants, given their torture in CIA custody.

US tourist mourned: Family members of a American tourist who was killed while on vacation in Hungary’s capital mourned their loss while a 37-year-old suspect was in custody Saturday.

The victim, Mackenzie Michalski, 31, of Portland, Oregon, was reported missing Tuesday after she was last seen at a Budapest nightclub. Investigating police reviewed security footage from local nightclubs where they observed Michalski with a man later identified as the suspect in several of the clubs the night of her disappearance.

The man was detained Thursday, and later confessed to the killing.

Before the confession, Michalski’s family and friends had launched an effort to find her, starting a Facebook group to gather tips on her whereabouts. Her parents traveled to Hungary to assist in the search, but while en route learned that she had been killed.

At a candlelight vigil Saturday night in Budapest, the victim’s father, Bill Michalski, told The Associated Press that he was “still overcome with emotion” at the death of his daughter.

“There was no reason for this to happen,” he said. “I’m still trying to wrap my arms around what happened ... I don’t know that I ever will.”

Police detained the suspect, an Irish citizen, on the evening of Nov. 7. Investigators said the suspect killed Michalski while they were engaged in an “intimate encounter” at his rented apartment.

Spain floods: Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in the eastern city of Valencia on Saturday to demand the resignation of the regional president in charge of the emergency response to catastrophic floods that left more than 200 dead and others missing.

A group of protesters clashed with riot police in front of Valencia’s city hall, where they started their march to the seat of the regional government.

Regional leader Carlos Mazón is under immense pressure after his administration failed to issue flood alerts to citizens’ cellphones until hours after the flooding started the night of Oct. 29.

Mazón, of the conservative Popular Party, is also being criticized for what people perceive as the slow and chaotic response to the natural disaster.

Ecuador politics: Ecuador’s Vice President Veronica Abad was suspended Saturday for 150 days accused of “unjustified abandonment” of her duties. It comes during a public rift between Abad and President Daniel Noboa that could have implications for Ecuador’s February elections.

Abad’s lawyer Dominique Dávila called the move “extremely serious” and claimed it may not have any legal backing.

Abad was accused by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of not following an order in September to temporarily transfer her from Israel — where she also serves as ambassador — to Turkey due to the conflict, arriving eight days after the order.

Abad had argued that she was not “properly prepared” for the trip to Turkey and that Ecuador’s government suggested “that I leave my children in Israel to go to Turkey alone.”

Pakistan bombing: A suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday at a train station in restive southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 26 people, including soldiers and railway staff, and wounding about 62 others, some critically, officials said.

The attack happened when nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, according to Hamza Shafqaat, a senior government administrator.

Shahid Nawaz, who is in charge of security at Quetta’s train station, said the attacker was disguised as a passenger and blew himself up among people at the station.

A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the attack.

NYC Christmas tree: The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree arrived Saturday in New York City, signaling the start of the holiday season in the Big Apple.

The 74-foot Norway spruce was driven into Manhattan’s Center Plaza, where it was hoisted in place by a crane. It will take 5 miles of light strands with more than 50,000 multicolored LED bulbs to decorate the tree, whose diameter measures 43 feet. A Swarovski star crown sparkling with 3 million crystals will top it.

The towering conifer was donated by the Albert family in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

The lighting ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 4.