JAPAN DEPLOYS ITS FIRST MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM

Japan deploys its firstmissile defense system
TOKYO -- Japan began deploying its first advanced Patriot missile defense system today near Tokyo, part of an effort to accelerate missile defense capabilities following North Korea's missile and nuclear tests last year, officials said. The installment comes about a year earlier than originally scheduled. Two PAC-3 launchers have arrived at the Iruma Self-Defense Forces base in Saitama, just north of Tokyo, the Defense Ministry said. Last month, the U.S. military deployed its newly operational detachment of Patriot missiles at a base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, where most of the American troops in the country are based. Japan also plans to introduce Standard Missile-3 or SM-3 missile interceptors on its destroyers over the next few years. The Patriots would be used as a last resort if SM-3 interceptors, fired from U.S. or Japanese ships, fail to knock out incoming missiles.
Gates calls for legislationto close detention center
WASHINGTON -- Congress and the Bush administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Gates said the challenge is figuring out what to do with hard-core detainees who have "made very clear they will come back and attack this country." He said it may require a new law to "address the concerns about some of these people who really need to be incarcerated forever, but that doesn't get them involved in a judicial system where there is the potential of them being released," Gates told the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee. Gates' comments came as the Pentagon released the transcript from a Guantanamo hearing involving a Saudi linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he got money transfers from two hijackers inside the United States hours before the planes struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Student shoots himselfin the leg during class
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- A high school student with a gun in his pocket shot himself in the leg Thursday during science class, authorities said. The 18-year-old was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police Capt. David Knipes said. Authorities did not say whether the shooting was accidental, but no charges were immediately filed. "He did not provide us any details," Knipes said. Other students were in the classroom, but Knipes did not know how many. Officials called the 10:30 a.m. shooting "an isolated incident" and said everything was calm about an hour afterward. The student, Damien Julius Singleton, led the school's basketball team in scoring this past season and scored more than 1,000 points in his career, according to the Sun News of Myrtle Beach. He was also a former wide receiver on the football team.
FDA advisers endorseprostate cancer vaccine
WASHINGTON -- Federal health advisers have endorsed an experimental vaccine to treat advanced prostate cancer as safe and effective. The Food and Drug Administration advisers voted unanimously Thursday to say Provenge is safe. They then voted 13-4 to say there is substantial evidence that it works in treating advanced prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormone treatment. The FDA isn't required to follow the advice of its advisory committees, but it usually does. A final FDA decision on whether to approve Provenge, also called sipuleucel-T, is expected May 15. The vaccine is made by Seattle-based Dendreon Corp. If approved, Provenge would become the third cancer vaccine but the first that is therapeutic. FDA-approved vaccines against liver and cervical cancer are both preventive.
Space station crewrelocates vehicle
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The three crew members of the international space station took a brief trip outside Thursday, relocating a Russian Soyuz vehicle to make room for another spacecraft to dock next month. Dressed in Russian spacesuits, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams piled into the Soyuz vehicle, which undocked from the space station and traveled about 80 feet to another docking port. As is a standard precaution when the crew leaves the outpost, crew members prepared the space station for operating without humans in the event that they wouldn't be able to return. They docked again to the space station without any problems about 25 minutes after departing. The relocation of the Soyuz made room for the arrival April 9 of another Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and space tourist Charles Simonyi, who is paying 20 million for his 13-day trip to space.
Associated Press