• Stephen McGown, above, a South African man held by Al Qaeda in Mali for nearly six years, was freed in exchange for $4.2 million, according to a retired European intelligence official. [The New York Times]

• The father of Fatemah Qaderyan, the captain of an all-female Afghan robotics team that recently participated in a global competition in Washington, was among 37 people killed in an Islamic State attack on a mosque in Herat. [The New York Times]

• Fire engulfed the 86-story Torch Tower in Dubai, one of the world’s tallest residential buildings, for the second time in less than three years. Officials said everyone made it out safely. [The New York Times]

• Germany and Vietnam are at odds over a Vietnamese oil executive who disappeared from Berlin. Hanoi says he turned himself in to the authorities; Berlin says he was kidnapped at gunpoint. [The New York Times]

• Prince Henrik of Denmark, frustrated that his title is the queen’s prince consort and not “king consort,” said he no longer wished to be buried next to his wife, Queen Margrethe II. [The New York Times]