In the news
Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of Muslim, Coptic, Hindu and Catholic refugees, declaring them children of the same God, in a gesture of brotherhood at a time when anti-Muslim and anti-migrant sentiment has climbed since the Brussels attacks.
Brittney Garret, 24, survived a 60-foot fall into Lake Waco after she lost control of her pickup on a bridge in Waco, Texas, causing it to straddle a guardrail, splitting the cab and floorboard and resulting in her falling through the opening into the lake, where she swam to shore, police said.
Kevin Colls, an archaeologist with Staffordshire University, said ground-penetrating-radar scans of the grave of William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon’s Holy Trinity Church indicate that the playwright’s skull appears to be missing.
Greg Davenport, 44, of Liberty Township, Ohio, chose to wear a sign for 10 days publicly proclaiming “I am a thief. I stole from WalMart” rather than serve 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to trying to steal a 52-inch television, officials said.
Michael Johnson, a city councilman in Selma, Ala., said the city is planning to crack down on scofflaws who don’t obey a 3-yearold law that requires that horses wear diapers when their owners ride them on city streets.
Jeffrey Grubbs, 45, of Benton, Mo., was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and child endangerment after police said he used the butt of a handgun as a hammer to drive a thumbtack into a wooden plaque as he worked on a volunteer project at an elementary school.
Robert Bentley, 73, the governor of Alabama and a former Baptist deacon, admitted saying “some inappropriate things” to the woman who is his senior political adviser but denied having an affair with a recently fired staff member, as the worker alleges.
Austin Edenfield, 21, an ex-student at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, pleaded guilty to placing a noose on the school’s statue of James Meredith, the university’s first black student whose integration of the campus in 1962 triggered rioting that was suppressed by U.S. troops.
David Presley, 32, of Walton County, Ga., lost part of one leg just below the knee when he was hit by shrapnel after he and some friends put 3 pounds of Tannerite into an old lawnmower and then shot it to make it explode, officials said.