Marty Walsh, Boston’s mayor, became the city’s first leader since a mayoral boycott began in 1995 to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which included gay-rights groups for the first time after decades of opposition.
James Robertson, 56, who gained fame after a newspaper reported he began walking 21 miles to work each day when his car broke down in 2005, has moved to a new, suburban Detroit apartment to escape people asking him for money after receiving thousands of dollars in online donations.
Javier Espinosa, a former hostage held by Islamic State extremists in Syria, described his experiences with Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed “Jihadi John,” saying the militant would take pleasure in carrying out mock executions and other forms of psychological torture against the journalist and his fellow captives.
Wahid Assy, owner of the restaurant and bar in Bamako, Mali, where a recent attack killed five people, has reopened the business with security from Malian authorities, vowing that “one must not yield to the fear of terrorism.”
Mahdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been sentenced by Iran’s Revolutionary Court to 15 years in prison on unspecified security and corruption charges, the official IRNA news agency said.
Darnell Devlin, 18, and Kenny Bell, 21, were denied bail in Tampa, Fla., accused of using a dog for fighting after cameras recorded the pair and two unnamed teens with Cabela, a dog that, before rescued and taken into veterinary care, was shot, tied to train tracks and left to die because it wouldn’t fight.
Darius Valcov, Romania’s finance minister, has submitted his resignation amid an investigation into suspicions that, when he was mayor of the southern city of Slatina, he took more than $2 million in bribes in exchange for favoring a local businessman.
Michelle Knight, 33, who was held captive and tortured by Ariel Castro for more than a decade in a Cleveland home, says she is conquering fears these days by reading Stephen King novels and planning to go sky diving to overcome a fear of heights.
Georgina Harwood of South Africa was joined by family members as she celebrated her 100th birthday with a tandem parachute jump near Cape Town and said she has plans to submerge her centenary with a shark-cage dive.