In the news

■ Joe Burnsed, a spokesman for the University of Georgia Extension office in Walton County, identified a 4-foot snake killed in Social Circle as a ball python, noting that the species of snake native to Africa and commonly sold in pet stores was “not one of our usual snakes.”

■ Chad Pate, an assistant commander with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Marine Patrol, said conditions at Smith Lake impeded search operations for a Fultondale man whose body was recovered after a six-week search by multiple agencies.

■ Lynette Muse , a Louisiana woman, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 31-year-old transgender woman whose body was found near Amite, according to the St. Helena Parish sheriff’s office.

■ Larry Arnowitz, 66, a former St. Louis alderman, was sentenced to one year in prison and six months of house arrest and was ordered to repay more than $21,000 in campaign funds after he used the money to pay his home mortgage and other personal expenses, according to prosecutors.

■ Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said park officials were investigating the deaths of 11 elephants in Pandamasue Forest, but have ruled out poachers because the elephants’ tusks had not been removed.

■ Maynor Valera-Zuniga and Kristin Valera-Zuniga were arrested and charged in the kidnapping of a 1-year-old boy, who was found unharmed, after he was taken at gunpoint from his mother as she walked him in a stroller in Chamblee, Ga., authorities said.

■ Kristen Waggener, a city spokeswoman for Bryan, Texas, said three people were killed and a fourth was critically injured when a single-engine plane crashed at Coulter Field Airport, where federal investigators were working to determine the cause of the crash.

■ Sheldon Silver, 76, a former New York Assembly speaker, started his 6½-year prison sentence in a 2015 corruption case after District Judge Valerie Caproni overturned his most recent appeal, saying she had no option but to punish him for what she called “corruption, pure and simple.”

■ Hanneke Sanders, a spokeswoman for a central Netherlands police department, said police are in the early stages of investigating the heist of the 17th-century painting “Two Laughing Boys” from a museum in Leerdam, which was previously stolen in 2011 and 1988.