Long-serving Australian prime minister
The New York Times
Malcolm Fraser, who became prime minister of Australia during a constitutional crisis but later won three elections and led his country for eight years, died early Friday. He was 84. A statement released by his family said he died "after a brief illness."
Fraser was one of Australia's longest-serving prime ministers, a fiscal conservative who championed multiculturalism and condemned the policy of apartheid in South Africa. His rise to power in 1975 came as a result of an unprecedented political tempest.
Sir John Kerr, the governor general and the appointed representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Australia, dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and appointed Fraser to lead a caretaker government.
The abrupt end of Whitlam's Labor government came during a crisis over spending. Fraser, as head of the opposition, had refused to approve Labor's 1975-76 budget unless Whitlam called a new election.
Despite the controversy, Fraser's coalition went on to win majorities in both houses of Parliament in the 1975 election, a feat it repeated in the next two elections.
Fraser dominated Australian politics until 1983, embracing multiculturalism and land rights for Australia's indigenous Aboriginal people while championing economic conservatism and rejecting deregulation. He also welcomed the arrival of tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who settled in Australia after fleeing their war-ravaged country.
Speaking to reporters after Whitlam died in October, Fraser said that despite their differences during the 1975 crisis, the two never bore each other any personal animosity.
Oldest U.S. woman vet, served in Pacific
The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO -- The nation's oldest female military veteran has died. She was 108.
Lucy Coffey was found dead in her bed in San Antonio on Thursday morning. Friend Queta Marquez, Bexar County veterans service officer, said Coffey had been sick for about a week and had a chronic cough.
The Indiana-born farm girl was working at a Dallas grocery store the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The San Antonio Express-News reported that she quit the store in 1943 to join the new Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, which stationed her around the Pacific. She spent a decade in Japan before she moved to San Antonio.
She visited Washington on an Honor Flight. She met President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who spent 30 minutes with her.
Twisted Sister rock band's drummer, 55
The Associated Press
A.J. Pero, the drummer for the heavy-metal band Twisted Sister, died Friday. He was 55.
The band said Anthony Jude Pero died of an apparent heart attack while touring with Adrenaline Mob, a group with which he played in between engagements with Twisted Sister.
Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French said Pero was on a tour bus Friday morning when Adrenaline Mob band members tried unsuccessfully to awaken him, then called an ambulance. He was taken to a hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he was declared dead shortly after 11 a.m.
Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider called Pero "the final piece in a band that would become an international sensation and one of the greatest live rock acts to ever hit the stage."
Pero joined Twisted Sister in 1982, right before the Long Island bar band exploded onto the burgeoning heavy metal scene after nearly a decade of slogging through small clubs. Wearing makeup and glam costumes, the highly visual band was a perfect match for the fledgling MTV video network and become one of its mainstays with hits that included "I Wanna Rock."
Metro on 03/21/2015