US may send Patriot missile to Lithuania
VILNIUS, Lithuania — U.S. defense officials said a longrange Patriot missile battery may be deployed to the Baltic region later this year as part of a military exercise. The move, if finalized, would be temporary but signal staunch U.S. backing for Baltic nations concerned about the threat from Russia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday declined to confirm the specific deployment, but said, “We are here in a purely defensive stance. Everyone knows this is not an offensive capability. For anyone who says otherwise, I would just say I have too much respect for the Russian army to think that they actually believe there’s any offensive capability.”
At a news conference with Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaite, Mattis said the U.S. “will deploy only defensive systems to make certain that sovereignty is respected. The specific systems that we bring are those that we determine necessary.”
Asked about a potential Patriot deployment, Grybauskaite would only say that “we need all necessary means for defense and for deterrence, and that’s what we will decide together.”
“We are hopeful that we can put this moment behind us and get back to serving our customers,” Spirit Airlines spokesman Paul Berry said in a statement.
The U.S. District Court ruling comes a day after anger and confusion boiled over at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Monday night as nine Spirit Airlines flights were canceled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded, according to airport officials.
What followed was chaos as frustrated passengers clashed with Spirit employees, and law enforcement officers tried to maintain order.
Video from the Florida airport showed crowds clustered around Spirit Airlines ticket counters, with people pushing, screaming and cursing. London was charged along with her mother Wednesday with preparing acts of terrorism and plotting murder.
The Metropolitan Police said Rizlaine Boular, 21, and two other women — one of them Boular’s mother, Mina Dich, 43 — are accused of preparing terrorist acts and conspiracy to murder “a person or persons unknown.”
Boular, Dich and 20-yearold Khawla Barghouthi were detained April 27 during police raids in London and nearby Kent county. Boular was formally arrested upon her release from a hospital three days after she was shot and injured.
All three are due in court today. face” — a sign authorities want to avoid a repetition of the violence that followed the country’s disputed 2009 poll.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments came as the country’s intelligence minister said his agents already disrupted one plot to cause unrest. Meanwhile, windows at a campaign office of President Hassan Rouhani were broken by vandals.
So far, however, there has been no sign of major problems ahead of the May 19 election.
girls so that families can identify them, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said. “They will then organize to bring the parents to Abuja to see their daughters,” he said.
One father said he was thrilled to find out his daughter was among those released in exchange for five Boko Haram commanders. But Abana Ishaya said he cannot travel the long distance from his home in northern Nigeria to the capital without the government’s invitation and assurance that he will see her.
Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in April 2014, bringing the extremist group’s deadly rampage in northern Nigeria to the world’s attention. A first group of 21 girls was freed in October and they have been in government care since then, despite calls by families and human rights groups for them to be released to their loved ones.