Prince Charles, speaking at a Buckingham Palace awards ceremony, called people who deny human-made climate change a “headless-chicken brigade” that is ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.

Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary, paid a visit to Kiszkow, the village in western Poland where his maternal ancestors were married in the 19th century, and examined the marriage documents.

Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, both formerly imprisoned members of a Russian punk band, stopped in Amsterdam during their world speaking tour and urged politicians attending the Winter Olympics to criticize human-rights abuses in Russia.

Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, was appointed the United Nations special envoy for cities and climate change, a position that will give the billionaire businessman and philanthropist an international stage to press for action to combat global warming.

Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake City School District, said a cafeteria manager and a district supervisor have been placed on paid leave while officials investigate why lunches were taken from students who owed money on food accounts.

Hal Capps, a football coach at Mooresville High School in North Carolina, has been ordered to stop baptizing players and leading them in prayer, a district official said.

Cathy Horyn, 57, The New York Times’ chief fashion critic since 1999, is retiring to spend more time with her partner, Art Ortenberg, who is sick, the newspaper said.

Kaitlin Pearson, a 23-year-old Massachusetts teacher’s aide briefly placed on leave when the school district found out about her second career as a lingerie model, said she thinks she’s a good example for her students and that her special-needs elementary school pupils didn’t know about her other career and wouldn’t care because they are more interested in dinosaurs.

Harold Bell, a Connecticut prisoner who is serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault, was awarded $12,000 by a jury that concluded he suffered cruel and unusual punishment by being forced to sleep on a mattress that smelled of mildew and was missing much of its stuffing.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/01/2014