Around the World: March 24, 2015

Here's what's happening across the United States and around the world today.

Obama to meet with Afghanistan's president
 
CAMP DAVID, Maryland (AP) — President Barack Obama welcomes Afghanistan's new president to the Oval Office today to talk about the future relationship between the two countries.
 
President Ashraf Ghani wants Obama to keep more U.S. troops in Afghanistan for longer.
 
Obama has promised to pull remaining U.S. troops out by the end of his presidency.
 
But deficiencies in the Afghan security forces, heavy casualties among the army and police, a fragile new government and the threat by Islamic State fighters have persuaded Obama to slow the withdrawal.
 
NEW: Thousands protest woman's mob killing in Afghan capital
 
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Thousands of Afghans marched through the capital Kabul today, demanding for justice for a woman who was beaten to death by a mob after being falsely accused of burning a Quran.
 
Men and women of all ages carried banners bearing the bloodied face of Farkhunda, a 27-year-old religious scholar killed last week by a mob. Farkhunda, who went by one name like many Afghans, was beaten, run over with a car and burned before her body was thrown into the Kabul River.
 
Organizers of today's march estimated 3,000 people took part, calling it one of the biggest demonstrations in Kabul's history. Marchers chanted "Justice for Farkhunda!" and "Death to the killers!"
 
Police say 18 people have been arrested and 13 police officers have been suspended as part of its investigation.
 
NEW: Tunisia: Museum hit by terrorist attack delays reopening
 
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The curator of the Tunisian museum targeted by a terrorist attack says it's postponing its reopening.
 
The National Bardo Museum in Tunis was scheduled to reopen today for the first time since gunmen opened fire on tourists March 18. The attack killed 21 people, and two gunmen were killed by police.
 
The curator tells Radio Shems the museum is delaying the reopening, and it will probably reopen Sunday instead. He did not elaborate on what prompted the last-minute change, only citing logistics and security.
 
Authorities have arrested several people in the attack, the worst in Tunisia in 13 years, and are still hunting for the suspected mastermind.
 
Officials have said none of the museum's major archaeological treasures sustained damage.
 
US counterterrorism strategy in Yemen collapses amid chaos
 
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Yemeni officials say the U.S. counterterrorism strategy in Yemen has all but collapsed as the country descends into chaos.
 
Operations against militants have been scaled back dramatically amid the fall of the government and evacuation of U.S. personnel. What had been consistent pressure on Yemen's al-Qaida affiliate has been relieved, the officials say, and a safe haven exists for the development of an Islamic State offshoot.
 
It's a swift transformation for an anti-terror campaign President Barack Obama heralded just six months ago as the template for efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The shift has left Obama open to criticism that he failed to anticipate the risks of a strategy that aims to put fragile governments and beleaguered local security forces at the forefront.
 
Canada to extend anti-IS mission, strike targets in Syria
 
TORONTO (AP) — Canada's prime minister is expected to announce a one-year extension of its military mission against the Islamic State group.
 
Senior government officials say Prime Minister Stephen Harper will speak about it to Parliament today.
 
An official says Canada will also expand air strikes on targets in Syria. They have been limited to IS targets in Iraq thus far.
 
NEW: Angelina Jolie has ovaries, fallopian tubes removed
 
UNDATED (AP) — Angelina Jolie says she has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to prevent cancer.
 
The actress and filmmaker made the announcement today in an op-ed in The New York Times. She says a blood test showed a mutation in the BRCA1 (BRAH'-kuh 1) gene, which gave her an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. She had a double mastectomy in 2013.
 
Jolie says she had the procedure done last week. She still has her uterus, adding that uterine cancer does not run in her family. Her grandmother, mother and aunt died of cancer.
 
Jolie says she will look for ways to strengthen her immune system to prevent cancers.
 
Her husband, Brad Pitt, was in France and is flying to the U.S.
 
Woman who spent 22 years on death row to speak out
 
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona woman who spent 22 years on death row for her 4-year-old son's death will today speak out for the first time since her case was formally thrown out of court Monday.
 
In 1989, two men took Debra Milke's (MIHL'-keez) son to the desert near Phoenix and shot and killed him.
 
Authorities accused Milke of arranging the killing, saying she didn't want the child anymore. Milke's conviction was based entirely on a confession she supposedly made to a detective who an appeals court said had a history of misconduct.
 
Firing of Milwaukee police officer who shot man upheld
 
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A panel of police commissioners in Milwaukee has upheld the firing of a white officer who fatally shot a black man last year.
 
The three-commissioner panel ruled Monday night that firing Christopher Manney was the proper punishment. The panel earlier found that Manney violated department protocol when he tried to search the man moments before they began fighting.
 
Manney shot and killed 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton last April after a confrontation in a downtown park. Prosecutors found the shooting was justified, but Chief Ed Flynn still fired Manney, saying he improperly initiated a pat-down.
 
Manney appealed to the panel for reinstatement. He told the commissioners that he wants "to be a cop," and that he's helped people his whole life.
 
Police: 5 wounded in shooting near Tennessee university
 
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Police say five people have been injured in a shooting near a college campus in northern Tennessee.
 
Clarksville Police spokeswoman Natalie Hall says officers responded just before 9 p.m. Monday to a report of shots fired. She says although the shooting happened about two blocks from Austin Peay State University, police have no reason to believe it had anything to do with the school.
 
Hall says four people had "serious injuries." Two were airlifted to a Nashville hospital and two were taken to a Clarksville hospital. Police had no further information about the fifth victim.
 
Police haven't identified a suspect or suspects.
 
The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle reports APSU issued an alert saying there did not appear to be a danger to the university but urging students to "take precautions" to ensure their safety.
 
Report: NYC courthouses inaccessible for disabled people
 
NEW YORK (AP) — A new report has found numerous problems with New York City courthouses that make them inaccessible or unduly difficult to navigate for disabled people.
 
Attorneys who represent the disabled identified design flaws at courthouses and detention pens in all five boroughs, a lack of proper signage and ineffective makeshift solutions.
 
The review by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest was provided to The Associated Press ahead of its release today.
 
The report found makeshift criminal court proceedings for Staten Island defendants in wheelchairs take place on the first floor because there's no elevator to the second floor courtroom.
 
In other cases, detainees in Manhattan have been carried down stairs to be booked and processed.
City Councilman Rory Lancman says he's working on a bill to require annual accessibility audits.
 
Police: Suspect in abduction, chase dies after shooting self
 
VILLAGE OF MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. (AP) — Authorities say a 20-year-old man accused of abducting a woman from a southeastern Wisconsin hospital and fleeing from sheriff's deputies in an exchange of gunfire has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
 
Mount Pleasant Police Chief Tim Zarzecki tells WISN-TV he was notified of the man's death Monday night.
 
Racine police say officers tracked the man to a home in the Village of Mount Pleasant and found him hiding in the bushes. They say the man threatened to shoot himself with a handgun, and did so despite intervention efforts. He was taken to a Milwaukee hospital, where he later died.
 
Several schools in Racine County canceled classes Monday as authorities searched the area for the man.
 
Authorities said the woman was shaken but otherwise unharmed after the incident.
 
China executes 3 over knife attack at Kunming train station
 
BEIJING (AP) — A court in southwestern China has executed three men convicted of masterminding a knife attack last year that killed 31 people outside a railway station in the city of Kunming.
 
Today's executions came after China's Supreme Court upheld their convictions for the crimes of murder and organizing and leading a terrorist organization.
 
Last March, five knife-wielding assailants hacked 31 people to death. Four of the attackers were shot dead. Another one was captured and sentenced to life in prison.
 
Rio's mayor says Olympic venue water still dirty
 
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The mayor of Rio de Janeiro acknowledges that his goal of cleaning up the city's blighted waterways in time for the 2016 Olympics will likely not be met.
 
Eduardo Paes tells a Brazilian TV network (SporTV) that cleaning up the sewage- and trash-filled waterway where the Olympic sailing events are to be held "is something that we should have been able to achieve."
 
Some athletes are concerned about falling ill from being exposed to the sewage-filled water of Guanabara Bay, where the Olympic sailing events are to be held.
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