BALI, Indonesia

Meeting with China premier added to Obama schedule

The White House has added a last-minute meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to President Obama’s Asia schedule as the two nations confront weighty issues on security and the economy.

Obama and Wen were to meet this morning on the sidelines of an East Asian security summit in Indonesia. Neither leader was expected to make statements to the media.

It comes on the last day of a nine-day Asia trip that Obama has focused on bulking up America’s presence in Asia, including sending Marines to Australia, in moves largely seen as hedges against China’s rise.

STILLWATER, Okla.

Basketball coach, assistant killed when plane crashes

Kurt Budke turned Oklahoma State’s women’s basketball team into a winner and hoped he’d found the place where he’d coach until he retired.

Miranda Serna had passed up opportunities to leave his side, staying loyal to the man whom she had helped to win a junior college national championship and then rebuild a big-time college program.

Having succeeded together, Budke and Serna died together — perishing in a plane crash on a trip aimed at building their team’s future.

Budke, the head coach, and Serna, his assistant, were killed Thursday when the single-engine plane transporting them on a recruiting trip crashed in steep terrain in Arkansas, the university said Friday. The pilot, 82-year-old former Oklahoma state Sen. Olin Branstetter, and his 79-year-old wife, Paula, also died when the plane sputtered, spiraled out of control and nosedived into the Winona Wildlife Management Area near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock. There were no survivors.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Governor signs into law changes to pension system

Rhode Island’s governor has signed into law sweeping changes to the state’s public pension system.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee said Friday that the measure will help restore the state’s fiscal health and prevent the need for tax increases or budget cuts to pay for escalating pension costs.

The new law is intended to save billions of dollars in future years by suspending retiree pension increases, raising retirement ages and creating a new benefit plan combining traditional pensions with 401(k)-style accounts. The changes will affect 66,000 active and retired state workers, teachers and municipal employees.

Chafee signed the measure a day after lawmakers overwhelmingly passed it. Without the changes, Rhode Island needs $7 billion to fully fund its pension fund.

Public-sector unions have vowed to file a lawsuit challenging the new law.

NEWARK, N.J.

Baby taken from couple who named kids for Nazis

New Jersey child welfare officials have taken custody of a baby born to a couple whose other three children with Nazi-inspired names were removed nearly two years ago.

Heath and Deborah Campbell made headlines in 2009 when a supermarket refused to decorate a birthday cake for their son Adolf Hitler Campbell.

An attorney for them said a child named Hons was born Thursday at Hunterdon Medical Center. Pasquale Giannetta said state child services representatives took custody of the baby at the hospital.

Giannetta said a court hearing has been scheduled for Monday to determine whether the agency will keep custody. Agency officials declined to comment.

In court filings, the agency said the children were in danger because of previous violence in the Campbell home.

— From news service reports