In the news

■ Neil Patrick Harris , 41, is going for an awardsshow trifecta, set to host the 2015 Oscars after four hosting stints at Broadway’s Tony Awards and two at TV’s Primetime Emmy Awards.

■ Richard Flanagan , 53, an Australian novelist, was awarded the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, about an Australian surgeon who is held in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and forced to work on the Thailand-Burma Railway.

■ Karen Holloway, of Lenoir City, Tenn., who fell behind on her yardwork, was cited by the city over her overgrown property and had to spend six hours in jail.

■ Barry Hazle Jr. , 46, a Redding, Calif., atheist and former parolee, will receive $1.95 million from the state after he was sent back to prison for refusing to participate in a religiously tinged inpatient treatment program.

■ John Thornton, 30, of Southington, Conn., was charged with breach of peace and threatening after police say he grabbed a mop out of a hotel employee’s hands and began “mopping aggressively” over the worker’s shoes.

■ Bishop Thomas Tobin, the leader of Rhode Island’s Catholics, suggested in a diocesan newspaper that voters could write in Mother Teresa’s name or sit out the Nov. 4 election because the candidates aren’t “terribly promising” on the abortion issue.

■ Nicola Sturgeon , Scotland’s deputy first minister, was named the next leader of the Scottish National Party, replacing Alex Salmond, who is stepping down after failing to secure independence in a referendum last month.

■ Ara Darzi , the chairman of the London Health Commission, has advised Mayor Boris Johnson to ban smoking in London’s parks and at landmarks like Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.

■ Prayuth Chan-ocha , Thailand’s interim prime minister, who seized power in a military coup, said the country’s next elections may not occur until 2016, although he earlier set a target date of October 2015.

■ Sheik Nimr al-Nimr ,a revered Shiite Muslim cleric and government critic in Saudi Arabia, was convicted of sedition, and sentenced to death.

■ Philip Kienholz, 30, of Erie, Pa., who was sentenced to 16 months to four years in prison, said in court that he assaulted his dentist with a tire iron because he couldn’t afford dental treatment and knew he’d get it in prison.