N. Korean nuclear threats spotlight US missile defense

N. Korean nuclear threats spotlight US missile defense

WASHINGTON

As North Korea rattles its nuclear saber, threatening to bomb the U.S. at “any moment,” a nerve-jangling question hangs in the air: If Pyongyang did launch a nuclear-armed missile at an American city, could the Pentagon’s missile defenses overcome their spotty test record and shoot it down beyond U.S. shores?

America has never faced such a real-life crisis, and although officials say they are confident the defenses would work as advertised, the Pentagon acknowledges potential gaps that North Korea or others might be able to exploit, someday if not immediately.

The Pentagon has poured at least $84 billion into missile defense over the past decade and is planning to spend an additional $3.3 billion over the next five years for a single element of the system, known as Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD.

Pakistani leader vows to hunt down militants

LAHORE, Pakistan

In an emotional televised address, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Monday to hunt down and defeat the militants who have been carrying out attacks like the Easter bombing that targeted Christians and killed 72 people.

“We will not allow them to play with the lives of the people of Pakistan,” Sharif said. “This is our resolve. This is the resolve of the 200 million people of Pakistan.”

Fidel Castro to Obama: We don’t need your ‘presents’

HAVANA

Fidel Castro responded Monday to President Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter recounting the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba, writing that “we don’t need the empire to give us any presents.”

The 1,500-word letter in state media titled “Brother Obama” was Castro’s first response to the president’s three-day visit last week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two countries’ history of Cold War hostility. Obama did not meet with the 89-year-old Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raul Castro, the current Cuban president.

Alaska volcano ash cloud grounds flights, limits travel

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Strong winds Monday pushed an ash cloud from an Alaska volcano into the heart of the state, grounding flights and limiting travel to western and northern communities off the road system.

Pavlof Volcano, one of Alaska’s most-active volcanoes, is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula, the finger of land that sticks out from mainland Alaska toward the Aleutian Islands.

The volcano in the 8,261-foot mountain erupted about 4 p.m. Sunday, spitting out an ash cloud that rose to 20,000 feet.

Lightning over the mountain and pressure sensors indicated eruptions continued overnight.

Associated Press