New York conducts drill to enhance emergency-handling capacity

Police officers, firefighters and health workers in New York City held an emergency disaster drill in Brooklyn on Sunday as a part of  "Operation Winter Sun," an exercise designed to test their skills for emergency response. 　　

In the drill the emergency workers, joined by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), handled a variety of tasks, including rescues involving bio-hazardous materials and effective communication between different sectors.

"The training and lessons that we have gained from this drill will both discourage possible terrorist attacks and perfect our ability to respond to such events should they take place," Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as saying.

The drill, organized by the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), was designed to prepare rescue workers for a potential terrorist attack in New York City.

About 500 first responders from around the city took part in the drill. The expense of the drill was covered by the Department of Homeland Security, local TV channel One reported.

On May 10, a drill on terrorist bio-attack was held in Brooklyn. The drill was reportedly a success on the whole, but there were some communication problems, official sources said. A volunteer patient gave emergency workers a "C" mark, complaining of being put in the waiting room unattended for half an hour.

Belgian ruling coalition wins election

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's Liberal-Socialist coalition would remain in power but its junior coalition partners, the Greens, were rejected, initial election results showed Sunday.

The ruling Liberals and Socialists are expected to win a clear parliamentary majority in Dutch-speaking northern Flanders and French-speaking southern Wallonia in this linguistically divided nation of 10 million people, Euro News Television reported.

Latest projections by the VRT broadcasting network have predicted that the Liberals and Socialists would hold 96 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament.

"This is a fantastic result. The government emerges stronger from these election results," 50-year-old Verhofstadt told cheering members of his Flemish Liberal Party.

The far-right Vlaams Blok, based in the northern city of Antwerp, has had the best performance in its 25-year history although technical hitches are delaying counting. But the Blok will be blocked out of the new government because all mainstream parties refuse to cooperate with the far-right party, which surged onto the political stage in the 1980s with an anti-immigration program.

By lowering taxes and balancing the budget, Verhofstadt's six-party coalition government has been popular in his first four-year term in office since 1999. Belgium has a compulsory voting system. All legitimate voters are obliged to vote. In the general election Sunday, 7.5 million voters cast their ballots.

Verhofstadt is set to form a center-left government without the defeated Greens, which were fired by the prime minister in the middle of the election campaign. With the Greens out of the government coalition, Belgium is likely to see some hard political bargaining in the next few days over which mix will make up the next coalition.

EU assures Romania of accession in 2007

The European Union (EU) is committed to helping with Romania's arranged accession to the 15-member bloc in 2007, if it could satisfy all the three criteria set by the EU.

The accession of Romania is part of the inclusive and irreversible process of EU enlargement, said a press release from the 9th meeting of the EU-Romania Association Council which was held here on Monday.

The meeting, chaired by Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou, welcomed the EU statement that it would like to welcome Romania as a EU member in 2007.

"In this context, the Association Council noted that the Union (EU) reiterated its determination to assist Romania in its efforts to step up preparation for accession, within the comprehensive framework that has been established by the revised Accession Partnership and the Commission's Roadmap for Romania," said the press release.

The EU has put forward proposals for a significant increase in pre-accession assistance to Romania.

The Association Council furthermore noted that future rotating presidencies of the EU and the European Commission will be mandated by the European Council to make sure that the pace of accession negotiations on all remaining chapters, including chapters with financial implications, is maintained and matches the efforts of Romania.

It also welcomed Romania's contribution to the work of the European Convention and looked forward to its participation as observer in the next Intergovernmental Conference.

The Association Council reviewed Romania's preparation for accession in light of the latest Regular Report issued by the European Commission in October 2002, the Accession Partnership revised in April 2003, and the Romanian National Program for Adoption of the Acquis which was revised in June 2002.

The EU leaders decided at the Copenhagen summit last December that it would finish accession negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria in 2004 so that they can gain EU full membership by 2007.

Three US soldiers killed in Iraq

Three US soldiers were killed and four injured in Iraq, the Central Command of the United States said in a statement on Sunday.

A US soldier from the Fourth Infantry Division was killed by "a hostile gunshot" early Sunday in Iraq, the Central Command said.

On Saturday, another US soldier died and three others were injured when they detonated unexploded ammunition in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, one US Marine died and another was wounded when they traveled in a transport truck that rolled over on a road about 30 km southeast of Al Samawah in southern Iraq.

The Marine, the statement said, "died of his injuries en route to the hospital and one is listed in stable condition and expected to fully recover."