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President Barack Obama is back in the U.S. after a trip that took him to Mexico and Costa Rica over three days. Air Force One arrived Saturday night at Maryland’s Andrews Air Force Base, outside of Washington. In Mexico, Obama cheered advances in that nation’s economy and voiced his support for an overhaul of U.S. immigration policies. While visiting Costa Rica, the president urged leaders in Central American to integrate their economies, reduce their high energy costs and confront violence in the region.

CALIFORNIA

Change in weather

aids wildfire fight

A big cool-down in weather calmed a huge wildfire burning in Southern California coastal mountains Saturday, and firefighters worked to cut miles of containment lines while conditions were favorable. Despite the favorable conditions, evacuation orders remained in place for residents in several areas as nearly 1,900 firefighters using engines, bulldozers and aircraft worked to corral the blaze in Ventura County west of Los Angeles.

TEXAS

Lawyer says plant

had skimpy insurance

The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing 14 people, injuring more than 200 others and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the surrounding area had only $1 million in liability coverage, lawyers said Saturday. Lawyer Randy C. Roberts, representing several clients in claims against West Fertilizer’s owners, said he expects the plant’s owner to ask a judge to divide the $1 million in insurance money among the plaintiffs, and then file for bankruptcy. He said the news of the small policy came as no surprise because “it’s rare for Texas to require insurance for any kind of hazardous activity.”

KYRGYZSTAN

Bodies of two victims

found in plane wreck

Authorities said Saturday that two bodies had been found in the wreckage of an American tanker airplane that crashed soon after taking off from the Manas airport in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan on Friday. Kyrgyz firefighters found the bodies after putting out a fire at the crash site, said government spokeswoman Nurzada Toktogulova, said in a telephone interview. The plane, a KC-135 Stratotanker that was used for midair refueling over Afghanistan, typically carries a crew of three, though it was not clear how many were aboard Friday or if all were U.S. service members. The plane crashed in a hilly area near the town of Kara-Balta a few minutes after takeoff.

ARIZONA

Gun buyback held

before law takes effect

Just days after Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law designed to hinder police participation in gun buyback events, the city of Phoenix on Saturday held the first of three buybacks that organizers are calling the largest effort of its kind in the state’s history. The law Brewer signed April 29 takes effect this summer and requires cities and counties to sell surrendered weapons instead of destroying them, barring police and supporters of the events from accomplishing their key goal: cutting the number of guns on the streets. Opponents of the buybacks said destroying guns is a waste of government funds.

SAUDI ARABIA

Kingdom’s girls cleared

to play school sports

Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools for the first time in a decision announced Saturday, the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s official press agency, SPA, reported that private girls’ schools are now allowed to hold sports activities in accordance with the rules of Shariah, or Islamic law. Students must adhere to “decent dress” codes and Saudi women teachers will be given priority in supervising the activities, according to the Education Ministry’s requirements. The decision makes sports once again a stage for the push to improve women’s rights, nearly a year after two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympics.

FLORIDA

Bomb school students

honor fallen alumni

The elite school that trains bomb technicians from all branches of the military held a somber ceremony Saturday to mark the deaths of 11 graduates killed in the line of duty last year. Families of the fallen and military dignitaries watched as the men’s names were added to a memorial wall. The 11 deaths in 2012 bring the number of military bomb technicians killed in duty to 298 since World War II. The Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal school is on a remote swath of the sprawling Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. Bomb disposal technicians from all branches of the military must graduate from the school’s intense program, which has a noncompletion rate of more than 30 percent.

MALI

Suicide attack hits

country’s troubled north

A suicide bomber on a scooter attacked a Malian army patrol in the troubled northern city of Gao on Saturday as other militants in a car sprayed the troops with gunfire sparking a clash that left three suspected militants and two soldiers dead, an official said. The attack, in which four other soldiers were wounded, underscores the challenges facing the country following a French-led military intervention, which succeeded in liberating the three main towns occupied by the al-Qaida-linked groups in northern Mali. While the initial military campaign has succeeded in securing the largest population centers in the north, the extremists have found refuge in sparsely populated areas, from where they strike using roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

EGYPT

Copts celebrate Easter

after sectarian clashes

Thousands of Egyptian Christians on Saturday marked Coptic Easter at the same church that was the site of sectarian clashes weeks earlier. Worshippers, as well as Muslim figures opposed to President Mohammed Morsi, gathered at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo for the evening mass, which lasts several hours. In April, Pope Tawadros II, head of Egypt’s Coptic Church, criticized Morsi, an Islamist, for not protecting the church, which serves as the papal seat, when policemen fired tear gas into the cathedral’s grounds during clashes between Christians inside and a Muslim crowd outside.

UNITED KINGDOM

Senior politician arrested

for questioning on sex charge

A senior politicians in Britain’s Conservative Party was arrested for questioning on suspicion of rape and sexual assault. Deputy House of Commons Speaker Nigel Evans, 55, from Lancashire, northwest England, has served in Parliament for two decades. British police do not identify people arrested for questioning who have not been charged. Asked about the arrest of Evans, Lancashire police said in a statement that a 55-year-old from Lancashire had been arrested on Saturday on suspicion of sex charges.

BELGIUM

Train derailment forces

thousands to evacuate

Hundreds of people were evacuated after a train carrying chemicals derailed and caught fire in northern Belgium. Amateur video showed the train ablaze in the early hours of Saturday; in daylight, the train cars could be seen forming a zig-zag over the track. Authorities were investigating if a death of someone in the area of the derailment was linked to the accident. A statement by police said 17 people were injured.

PAKISTAN

Bombings kill three people

as historic election nears

Two blasts in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi killed three people near the office of a political party critical of the Taliban, a police officer said, heightening tensions ahead of the country’s historic election next Saturday. Officer Aamir Farooqi said the explosions late Saturday also wounded another 22 people. A spokesman for the Taliban, Ahsanullah Ahsan, claimed responsibility. Pakistan has been experiencing a wave of violence connected to the elections, mostly at the hands of Taliban militants targeting various political parties and their candidates. The vote will be the country’s first transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another.

MALAYSIA

Vote today could mark

shamed politician’s return

Malaysian politicians made a final campaign push as an independent survey showed Prime Minister Najib Razak’s long-ruling coalition running neck and neck with the opposition alliance ahead of today’s general election. A survey released by polling house Merdeka Center predicted Najib’s National Front coalition could win 85 parliamentary seats, while a three-member opposition alliance led by Anwar Ibrahim will take 89 seats. It said 46 seats were too close to call while two seats will go to smaller parties. If the opposition wins, it will mark a remarkable comeback for Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who was fired in 1998 and subsequently jailed on corruption and sodomy charges that he claims were fabricated by his political enemies. He was released from jail in 2004.

MASSACHUSETTS

Harvard professor

apologizes for comment

Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor and author, apologized Saturday for saying economist John Maynard Keynes was less invested in the future because he was gay and had no children. Ferguson said his remarks at an earlier conference were “as stupid as they were insensitive.” During a question-and-answer session after a prepared speech at the Altegris Strategic Investment conference in Carlsbad, Calif. on Thursday, Ferguson was asked to comment about Keynes, an influential 20th century British economist who advocated government spending as a way to make up for lagging demand in a down economy.