In the news

■ Adam Michael Siemer, 35, a food-service supervisor at a penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., faces felony drug charges after authorities said they found more than 40 grams of methamphetamine in his prosthetic leg during a search of the prison’s death-row unit.

■ Guenter Krings, an official in Germany’s Interior Ministry, said “it seems that many people don’t really understand the dangers” of the country’s liberal approach to New Year’s pyrotechnics, as the government urges revelers to show restraint amid concerns about pollution and reports of more than 800 firework-related eye injuries in each of the past two years.

■ Harvey Curry, the police chief in Newton, Miss., said authorities believe that rising tensions after a dice game led to a shooting at a home that left three people injured.

■ Andrea Marie McMeans, 28, faces charges of driving under the influence and child endangerment after she and her 2-month-old baby were rescued from a pickup that had run off a Lumpkin County, Ga., road and down an embankment, landing in a creek, authorities said.

■ Nyoky Steven Bull, 20, was arraigned on a murder charge, accused of luring an acquaintance outside his home in Norton Shores, Mich., then fatally shooting him with a crossbow bolt.

■ Semone Jeffries, whose mother owns Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville, Tenn., said the popular restaurant plans to reopen as soon as possible after a hit-and-run driver crashed into the strip mall that houses the eatery, starting a fire that led to smoke and water damage.

■ Samantha Ford, 37, was charged with two counts of murder after police in Margate, England, concerned about the welfare of Ford’s children after she was hospitalized because of a car crash, went to her home and found the bodies of her 23-month-old twins.

■ Scott Tyler, police chief of Palmetto, Fla., said a man, who crashed his car while fleeing a traffic stop and broke into the nearby garage of city Commissioner Brian Williams, has been hospitalized after Williams shot him twice.

■ Randy Santel, a professional eater, received an ovation from onlookers at KC Finn’s in Jackson, Tenn., as he notched the 694th food-challenge victory of his career, taking 12 minutes and 40 seconds to finish a meal that included a pound of fries and a burger consisting of 8 half-ounce beef patties and 16 slices of cheese.