NATION & WORLD WATCH
Ex-Sen. Tom Coburn, conservative political maverick, dies at 72
OKLAHOMA CITY – Former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma family doctor and conservative political maverick who railed against federal earmarks and subsidies for the rich, died Saturday. He was 72. Coburn, who delivered more than 4,000 babies while an obstetrician in Muskogee, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer years earlier. First elected to the U.S. House in 1994, Coburn criticized the use of federal money for special state projects. He later served two terms in the Senate, having promised not to seek a third term.
Baltimore police investigate 3 shootings, including fatality
BALTIMORE – Police in Baltimore on Saturday were investigating several overnight shootings, including one that killed a man. Just before midnight Friday, officers were called to a shooting in the southern part of the city and found a man dead, with gunshot wounds. About 3 a.m., they found a man in his car in the northern part of the city with a gunshot wound to his shoulder. Around the same time, officers at a hospital talked to a man who said he was shot after his companion quarreled with another man, who shot him through his windshield.
Stranded tourists flown to safety from Mount Everest airport
KATHMANDU, Nepal – Scores of tourists on the foothills of Mount Everest have been flown to safety days after being stranded on the only airstrip serving the world’s highest mountain. Dhurba Shrestha, an official at the Tenzing Hillary Airport in Lukla, said 174 foreign tourists and four Nepali nationals left the mountain by air on Saturday in 12 small planes and two helicopters. Officials had been urging Nepal’s government to allow these rescue flights to the Everest region since the country imposed a lockdown last week.
Guinea voters back change that could extend president’s rule
CONAKRY, Guinea – Guinea has approved a change to its constitution, according to provisional results from a referendum that could see the West African country’s president remain in power for two more terms. Nearly 92% of voters on March 22 supported the change, according to the head of Guinea’s electoral commission, Amadou Salifou Kebe. The proposal would keep a two-term limit, but increase each term from five years to six. President Alpha Conde has implied the change could allow him to hold office for 12 more years.