In the news
Adnan Syed, 33, the subject of the popular podcast “Serial,” which examined his 2000 murder conviction in the 1999 strangulation of his ex-girlfriend and raised questions about Syed’s guilt, will be allowed to appeal his conviction, a Maryland court has ruled.
Lo Kin-hei of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, said the Chinese government confiscated 8,000 rolls of toilet paper and 20,000 packages of tissue paper that were to be sold during the Chinese New Year and that were adorned with unflattering images of the territory’s pro-Beijing chief executive, Leung Chun-ying.
Karen Shearon, 48, pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor aggravated-harassment charge after a guidance counselor at Staten Island High School in New York said Shearon threatened that she was “going to blow up the school” after she was told her daughter had failed a state exam.
Michelle Eidam, a captain with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, said a horse named Phantom was prancing around an outside bathtub that was used as her food trough when she fell into the tub and became stuck with her feet in the air for about 25 minutes until firefighters were able to turn the tub on its side and free her uninjured.
Raila Odinga, Kenya’s ex-prime minister, said “an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness is spreading” in the country after the latest round of violence, in which lawmaker George Muchai was gunned down by masked men in the capital city of Nairobi while he was buying a newspaper.
Rosie O’Donnell, 52, the comedian who is in her second stint as co-host of ABC’s The View, has said she will leave the talk show this week to focus on her five children.
Christoph Graf, a lieutenant colonel with the Swiss Guards in Vatican City, was promoted by Pope Francis to commander of the 500-year-old army, whose members stand vigilantly during papal ceremonies.
Maxxandra Ford, a Tampa, Fla., woman who said she didn’t know she was having a baby until 35 weeks into her pregnancy when she noticed a rapid weight gain, delivered Avery, a 14.1-pound boy.
Paul Collins, 64, of Centereach, N.Y., was sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing children during the late 1970s to 1980 while working as an aquatic director at the Arlington, Mass., Boys and Girls Club.