In the news

■ Herbert Fritz, an 84-year-old Austrian man who was a co-founder of a banned Austrian far-right party, was freed by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers after having been imprisoned in the country since last year.

■ Jerron Lightfoot, a Tonganoxie, Kan., man, pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter after he crashed into a Kansas City, Mo., patrol car and killed an officer, nearby pedestrian and the officer’s K-9 partner last year.

■ Miles Harford , a 33-year-old former funeral home owner in Colorado, was arrested following several allegations of him hoarding the cremated remains of at least 35 people in his home while hiding a body in a hearse and storing remains elsewhere.

■ James Gordon of Deland, Fla., said “They’re calling these ‘events.’ I’m calling this ... Tuesday afternoon,” after winning the first event, a barbecue pork and sausage eating contest, at the Florida Man Games in St. Augustine.

■ Andie Nelson of Arlington, Va., called it “the highlight of my year” after participating in the Memphremagog Winter Swimming Festival at the namesake lake, a frozen body of water in Vermont near the Canadian border.

■ Tinashe Farawo, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson, said “we have a fully-fledged team that includes the police looking for the tourist,” as searches for a missing 67-year-old Australian tourist got underway.

■ Alexa Schultz, a thirdyear ecology student at the University of Georgia and co-author of a study on Joro spiders, said, “I think the spiders are here to stay,” as the study suggested Joro spiders have grown more adaptable to human environments as they tolerate busy roads more and more.

■ Tyler Loudon of Houston, pleaded guilty to insider trading after being accused of making $1.7 million in illegal profits by buying and selling stocks based on the work conversations his wife had with BP while she worked remotely at home.