Here's what's happening across the United States and around the world today.
EU summit leaders face calls to take swift action to end tragedy of Mediterranean migrants
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders gathering for an extraordinary summit are facing calls from all sides to take emergency action to save lives in the Mediterranean, where hundreds of migrants are missing and feared drowned in recent days.
The leaders will examine a plan to respond to the crisis, after more than 10,000 migrants were plucked from seas between Italy and Libya in a week, and are widely expected to approve swift action.
EU President Donald Tusk urged the 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."
A key part of the action plan is to crack down on the people-smugglers operating off Libya and destroy their boats, to stop people sneaking into Europe.
"European Union naval operations in the Horn of Africa have successfully fought piracy — and a similar initiative must be developed to effectively fight against human trafficking in the Mediterranean," Italian Premier Matteo Renzi wrote in a New York Times opinion piece. "Trafficking vessels should be put out of operation."
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Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
Malta honors dead of Mediterranean's worst migrant disaster as smugglers face questioning
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — European officials honored the dead of the Mediterranean's worst-ever migrant disaster Wednesday as more would-be refugees arrived in Italy and prosecutors questioned the suspected smugglers.
Twenty-four caskets containing the only bodies recovered from the weekend capsizing that left an estimated 800 dead were laid out for an interfaith memorial service on the grounds of Malta's main hospital.
Wails from members of Malta's African community punctuated the ceremony, which included Christian and Muslim prayers.
"We mourn them, because irrespective of our creed, nationality, race, we know that they are our fellow human beings," Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said during the service.
Malta's president and prime minister, Italy's interior minister and the EU's migration commissioner attended.
Pakistan prime minister, army chief in Saudi Arabia to push for negotiations in Yemen conflict
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's top leaders are in Saudi Arabia to push for negotiations in the Yemen conflict.
In Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesman Tasnim Aslam says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif will meet King Salman on Thursday to discuss the crisis.
Pakistan welcomed the kingdom's decision to halt the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels.
But hours after Saudi Arabia declared an end to its nearly monthlong air campaign in Yemen, new airstrikes hit the Iran-backed rebels and their allies on Wednesday — suggesting the U.S.-backed offensive will be scaled back but not halted completely.
Both predominantly Sunni majority countries, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are close allies.
Man's death after arrest in Baltimore exposes tensions between community and the police
BALTIMORE (AP) — The death of Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man critically injured while in police custody, has sparked demonstrations across the city that touch on the fears many from his neighborhood say they feel about their everyday interactions with police.
"He was a typical Sandtown kid," said Sean Price, who grew up in Baltimore's Sandtown neighborhood where Gray lived. "He wasn't perfect but neither is anybody. This isn't anything new. Freddie Gray is just a microcosm of what happens every day in Sandtown, in Baltimore."
The Sandtown neighborhood in West Baltimore surrounds blocks of red-brick public housing called the Gilmor Homes. Trees are sparse amid abandoned lots overgrown with grass and crumbling, burned-out row homes, their doors and windows boarded up.
Gray was arrested April 12 after police "made eye contact" with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said, and both men started running. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van.
Exactly what happened in the van and how he was injured are still unknown. But he died a week later in a hospital of what police described as "a significant spinal injury."
As body cameras find a place in policing, some officers seek them out on their own
NEW RICHMOND, Ohio (AP) — The dramatic body camera video shows the slaying suspect charging at the officer, screaming — pleading, even — for him to open fire.
"Shoot me!" yells Michael Wilcox to the backpedaling officer, who keeps the suspect at bay until he ultimately surrenders when backup arrives.
The widely circulated video from Officer Jesse Kidder's own personal body camera illustrates not only the kind of life-or-death moments officers can face, but also how some in law enforcement are getting cameras on their own if their departments can't.
While some police around the country have balked at the use of body cameras, saying they would subject them to an unreasonable level of monitoring, interest in supplying them to officers is growing. Studies of camera use by police in Rialto, California, and Mesa, Arizona, showed steep declines in citizen complaints and in use of force by officers.
In the Ohio village of New Richmond, where Kidder's restraint last week in the face of a potentially deadly suspect has drawn wide acclaim, police chief Randy Harvey said the video shows why he'd like to have the wearable cameras for all his officers. But he needs to figure out to pay for them, an issue for many departments, large and small.
Victims describe devastating injuries, profound loss during Boston Marathon bombing trial
BOSTON (AP) — The long-lasting impact of the Boston Marathon bombing was brought home to jurors as the loved ones of two of the people killed in the attack described their profound loss.
The testimony came on Wednesday, the second day of the penalty phase in the trial of convicted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The jury first heard from the family of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who was shot and killed by Tsarnaev and his brother as they tried to flee days after the bombings.
Joseph Reynolds, Collier's stepfather, said his wife could not get out of bed for months after her son's death and has still been unable to return to work, two years later.
Reynolds and Collier's brother, Andrew, described Sean Collier as a kid who always had a strong sense of right and wrong, even putting bugs outside rather than killing them.
It's gilt by association: 2016 candidates drop names to boost appeal, go way beyond Reagan
WASHINGTON (AP) — This is name-dropping season for the 2016 presidential hopefuls.
They're salting their speeches, interviews and tweets with mentions of everyone from the old standby, Ronald Reagan, to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., rapper Nicki Minaj and astronomer Galileo.
It's all part of a not-so-subtle effort to boost their own appeal by borrowing from the luster of others.
Call it gilt by association.
There's a flip side, too: Republicans tossing out the names of Democratic foils to rile up the GOP faithful (and gin up campaign contributions).
Afghan museum seeks to remember, not glorify, horrors of war against Soviet Union
HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — The Jihad Museum in the Afghan city of Herat sits in a hillside garden, surrounded by blooming rose bushes and the detritus of the war against the Soviet Union — a war that claimed thousands of lives in this city alone.
A MiG fighter jet and an attack helicopter captured from the enemy are parked on a manicured lawn in front of the circular building, which is covered in tiles listing the names of those who died in the war.
At its center is a diorama with hundreds of half-life-size figures engaged in still-life battles of the anti-Soviet "jihad," or holy war. It is built against a painted backdrop that provides a three-dimensional illusion so bridges, roads, jets and helicopters project into the distance.
"Mujahedeen" warriors man anti-aircraft guns, capture Soviet tanks, bomb jeep convoys, kill captives and drag their wounded off the battlefield. Local warlord and former mujahedeen leader Ismail Khan, who was Herat's governor from 2001-05 and remains a powerful local political force, stars in many scenes leading the fight.
Visitors view the scenery from above amid a soundtrack of gunfire, bombings and screams that bring the war to life. Lights flash and fires burn beneath tanks. Bloody corpses litter the ground and spill out of jeeps and tanks, and burka-clad women stand on rooftops throwing rocks at the enemy as attack helicopters roar overhead.
Calbuco volcano erupts in southern Chile for first time since 1972; nearby town evacuated
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The Calbuco volcano erupted Wednesday for the first time in more than 42 years, billowing a huge ash cloud over a sparsely populated, mountainous area in southern Chile.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of the 1,500 inhabitants of the nearby town of Ensenada, along with residents of two smaller communities.
The National Mining and Geology Service issued a high alert, barring access to the area around the volcano, which lies near the cities of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt, a little more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Chile's capital, Santiago.
"For us it was a surprise," said Alejandro Verges, regional emergency director of the Los Lagos region where the eruption took place. He said Calbuco wasn't under any special form of observation.
Authorities said a large amount of ash was observed but no hot rocks or lava had been seen by late in the day. No injuries were reported.
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