Anti-missile test successful
For the first time, a Navy ship at sea successfully shot down a long-range missile in its final seconds of flight, the military said Wednesday.
The test was seen as an important step toward giving ships the ability to shoot down weapons as they are about to hit their targets. Until now, the Standard Missile 2 was only launched from ships to intercept a long-range missile in the early or middle stage of flight.
For the test, a missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai was destroyed in its final stage by an SM-2 launched from USS Lake Erie.
The Pearl Harbor-based Lake Erie is equipped with technology that allows it to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since 2004, U.S. warships with ICBM tracking technology have been patrolling the Sea of Japan, on the lookout for missiles from North Korea.
New York
Man guilty of plot to blow up subway
A high school dropout who drew the attention of undercover police with his anti-American rants after Sept. 11 was convicted Wednesday of plotting to blow up one of Manhattan’s busiest subway stations in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
A federal jury in Brooklyn deliberated two days before convicting Shahawar Matin Siraj of conspiracy and other charges in a case that cast a spotlight on how authorities sought to monitor radical Muslims after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He faces up to life in prison.
Siraj, 23, listened to the verdict with downcast eyes. The defense had sought to portray him as an impressionable simpleton who was lured into a phony plot by a paid informant eager to earn his keep. Prosecutors disputed that claim, arguing that even if it was not the defendant’s idea to bomb a subway station, no law-abiding citizen would have gone along with it.
Washington
Senate toughens mine safety rules
The Senate voted on Wednesday to require safety upgrades at underground coal mines following fatal accidents in Kentucky and West Virginia, and House lawmakers pledged to act soon.
The measure would require coal mine operators to keep more emergency air supplies underground and to better seal off abandoned sections of mines.
Lawmakers said changes must be made following Saturday’s explosion at a southeastern Kentucky mine that left five people dead. The accident occurred just a few months after a pair of accidents at West Virginia mines killed 14 people.
The bill, which was approved on a voice vote, would require miners to have at least two hours of oxygen available instead of one, as under the current policy. It also would require mine operators to store extra oxygen packs along escape routes and to perform checks on the devices to ensure they work.