In the news

■ Pope Francis, speaking during his weekly catechism lesson at the Vatican, repudiated the idea that suicide bombers can be considered “martyrs,” saying true martyrs don’t harm others but rather are meek, honest and persecuted for their faith as true children of God.

■ Andy Mitchell of Rockwall, Texas, after giving Justin Korva a lift as the 20-year- old was walking 3 miles to work, got with his friends to set up a secret donation box at an area restaurant that raised enough money to buy Korva a used car as well as a year’s insurance, a $500 gas card and two years of oil changes.

■ Courtney Johnson, a Fort Worth Police Department officer accused of shooting and wounding a mentally impaired man who was holding a barbecue fork as he walked in Johnson’s neighborhood in 2015, has been fired after his related aggravated-assault trial ended in a hung jury.

■ Anthony Piercy, a Missouri state trooper, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor boating violation in the 2014 death of a 20-year-old man he had arrested and handcuffed, who fell from Piercy’s patrol boat and drowned in the Lake of the Ozarks.

■ Cindy Richmond said she had to send her mother home for some bigger clothes and diapers after Richmond’s son, Colin, was born at a hospital in Lexington, S.C., emerging at 14.4 pounds, too big for his newborn clothes.

■ Robbin Jetial, 23, was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of using a firearm and bolt cutters to rob people at three Waffle House restaurants in suburban Atlanta over a 24-hour period.

■ Kirk Sudduth, a Mississippi Transportation Department road crew supervisor, joked that “a dead cat” would smell better than rotten fish as workers Tuesday cleaned up a stinky, slimy pile of catfish parts that spilled from a truck onto a highway near Columbus.

■ Alice Evans, 61, of Marathon, Fla., faces a felony animal-cruelty count after telling sheriff’s deputies that she strangled her 12-yearold Chihuahua named Big John with his collar and buried him in her backyard because she was tired of the dog biting her, which it had done three times this year.

■ Monalisa Perez, 19, of Halsted, Minn., who wanted to make a YouTube video of herself shooting a book, is charged with second-degree manslaughter after the bullet killed her boyfriend, who was holding the book against his chest for her to hit from what she said was a foot away.