BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are gathering today for an extraordinary meeting on how to respond to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean that’s left hundreds dead in just the past week. EU President Donald Tusk is urging leaders from the 28 nations “to agree on very practical measures,” including “strengthening search-and-rescue possibilities, by fighting the smugglers and by discouraging their victims from putting their life at risk, while reinforcing solidarity.”
PARIS (AP) — France’s prime minister says that since the summer of 2013, six attacks have been thwarted in the country. One attack was prevented from happening Sunday, after the would-be gunman apparently shot himself in the leg by accident and called for an ambulance. Prime Minister Manuel Valls tells French radio, “The threat has never been so significant.”
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Nine border guards are dead after the Taliban stormed a police checkpoint in northwestern Afghanistan. An official says that following Wednesday’s attack at the checkpoint in Badghis province, insurgents got into a gun battle and four attackers were killed. Officials say bomb squads today are trying to remove land mines the Taliban planted following the attack. The attack came just hours after the Taliban announced their spring offensive.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Former CIA Director David Petraeus (peh-TRAY’-uhs) is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina today after sharing classified material with his lover, the woman who was working on his biography. Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, which could carry up to one year in prison. The prosecution is asking for two years’ probation and a $40,000 fine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors and lawyers for the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 can’t seem to agree on the conditions that should be imposed if John Hinckley Jr. leaves a mental hospital for good. Hinckley’s attorney said yesterday during the opening of a multi-day hearing that his client is “clinically ready” to live in the community. Hinckley’s treatment team supports that position. Prosecutors want a judge to impose nearly three-dozen restrictions on Hinckley’s freedom.