Washington, D.C.: Roberts: Kansas now better prepared in case of attack

Kansas is better prepared to face the threat of terrorism after the activation of a new team that will respond to chemical, nuclear or biological attacks, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts said Friday.

The state’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team is composed of 22 full-time members of the Kansas Army and Air National Guard. In the case of an attack, the team will provide rapid assessment and initial detection of chemical or biological agents.

“Kansans should sleep a little more soundly tonight with today’s critical announcement by the Department of Defense,” Roberts said Friday. “Kansas now has the ability to protect both urban and rural areas from terrorist attacks very devastating in nature.”

Louisiana: Body of missing student found near serial killing site

Authorities confirmed Friday that a missing Louisiana State University student had been found dead in a rural Baton Rouge marsh, not far from where a woman murdered by a serial killer was found last year.

Carrie Lynn Yoder’s death has not been linked to the killer, who has murdered four women since September 2001, but a task force investigating the killings has been assisting the Yoder investigation.

The East Baton Rouge Parish coroner’s office said Friday that Yoder’s death had been classified as a homicide. The office did not release how she died.

Yoder, a graduate student in ecology, disappeared March 3 from her home just off the university’s campus.

A fisherman found her body Thursday in rural southeastern Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin — the same area where one of the serial killer’s victims, Pam Kinamore, was found dead last summer.

South Korea: U.S. aircraft carrier deploys as part of military exercise

The USS Carl Vinson cruised today outside a South Korean port, preparing to join a major joint military exercise despite objections by North Korea.

The carrier was deployed off Busan on South Korea’s southeast coast as U.S. leaders sought to show their military commitment to the Korean Peninsula, embroiled in a crisis over the communist North’s reluctance to give up its nuclear ambitions.

The Japanese government, meanwhile, said it was considering strengthening its missile defenses amid reports that North Korea is preparing to test a medium-range missile capable of reaching Japan.

The announcement came a day after Japan’s Defense Agency said it had deployed an Aegis-equipped destroyer — which includes top-of-the-line surveillance systems and ship-to-air missiles — in the waters between Japan and North Korea.

A major newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, reported Friday that Tokyo plans to acquire advanced U.S.-made Patriot anti-missile rockets to deploy from July.