In the news
President Barack Obama, having complained of a sore throat for a few weeks, was told by his physician after a fiber-optic exam revealed “soft tissue swelling” that acid reflux was responsible for the irritation.
Joshua Wong, 18, a leader of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy student protests, ended his hunger strike after 4½ days, saying his doctor had advised him to do so as his health deteriorated.
Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, prime minister of Somalia, was voted out by parliament, ending several rowdy legislative sessions and ongoing political infighting between Ahmed and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.
Mate Kocsis, mayor of a district in Budapest, Hungary, is proposing mandatory drug tests for children between the ages of 12 and 18, as well as for elected politicians and journalists.
Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, the unarmed New York City man whose police-chokehold death sparked protests across the U.S., said her family has been moved by the thousands who have taken to the streets in peaceful demonstration.
Gregory Graf, 53, faces a homicide charge after confessing to the shooting death of his stepdaughter Jessica Padgett, 33, according to a Pennsylvania prosecutor who said Graf also will be charged with abuse of a corpse because he recorded himself sexually abusing the body.
Agustin Gomez Perez, a young farmer in southern Mexico demanding the release of his father, an indigenous leader, is in “serious but stable” condition after allowing a fellow protester to douse him with gasoline and set him on fire.
Bobby G. Mosley Sr. of Townville, S.C., pleaded guilty to a single count of operating an illegal gambling business in a family-run sweepstakes enterprise that prosecutors say serviced more than 600 Internet cafes across the country, raking in proceeds of more than $242 million.
Fred B. McKinley, an author whose book chronicles the struggles of Timothy Cole, a Texan who died in prison after a wrongful conviction on rape charges, is pushing Texas Tech University to confer a posthumous honorary degree on the U.S. Army veteran.
Bilal Sharif, 9, an Afghan born with his bladder outside his body, received a visit at his Pennsylvania school from U.S. Army Maj. Glenn Battschinger, who helped bring Bilal to the U.S. for surgery in 2012.