In the news
■ Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor, physician to the president, wrote in a memo that a polyp removed from President Joe Biden’s colon was a benign, slow-growing but potentially pre-cancerous lesion that required no further action.
■ Valery Rashkin, 66, a member of the lower house of Russia’s parliament who has been critical of the Kremlin, was stripped of his immunity in a 341-55 vote, allowing prosecutors to press charges against him over the killing of an elk during a hunting trip, a charge the lawmaker says is politically motivated.
■ Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representative from Georgia, has introduced a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal — the legislative branch’s highest honor — to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who was found innocent of homicide and other charges related to his fatal shooting of two men during a protest against police violence last year.
■ Rick Smith, police chief of Kansas City, Mo., will leave his job in April, The Kansas City Star reported, after the embattled leader met with Mayor Quinton Lucas and Mark Tolbert, president of the board of police commissioners, just days after a detective was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a 2019 shooting.
■ Gary Wayne George, 57, of Prattville, Ala., a convicted sex offender, pleaded guilty to rape, sodomy, child pornography and other sex-related crimes, and was sentenced to six consecutive life terms, plus 190 years.
■ Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, 49, the son of Libya’s late dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, was disqualified from running for president in next month’s election, with the country’s High National Elections Committee citing previous criminal convictions.
■ Milos Zeman, 77, president of the Czech Republic, was readmitted to a hospital when he tested positive for covid-19 hours after he was discharged following more than a month of treatment for an unspecified illness.
■ Scott Spears, host of a morning radio show in Marion, Ohio, said an anonymous listener donated $1,000 for a reward to find a personalized dog collar stolen from the historic home of Warren G. Harding that was worn by the 29th president’s Airedale terrier, Laddie Boy.