Posted on 06/24/2002 6:09:04 PM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations and the New York City Fire Department have conducted their first joint exercise - tackling a mock explosion and fire in the 39-story U.N. headquarters building, a U.N. spokesman said Monday.
In Sunday's drill, 26 vehicles and 150 firefighters responded to the hypothetical explosion on the 26th floor and a subsequent fire that included two possible casualties, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
The U.N. headquarters building overlooking Manhattan's East River was reported to be a terrorist target following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The New York landmark was evacuated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and again the following day, and mail delivery was halted for several weeks because of the anthrax threat.
The United Nations has been condemned by Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings. In a videotaped statement in November, he accused the world body of siding with the United States.
To make the simulation as real as possible, smoke machines pumped non-lethal smoke into the 26th and 27th floors, and once those floors had filled up sufficiently with the simulated smoke, the fire alarm was sounded, Eckhard said.
Water was pumped into the 26th floor and it was later mopped up, he said.
"The main thing was to test the communications between our security personnel and the fire department," he said.
Afterward, U.N. security officials "agreed that the exercise had gone well," Eckhard said.
But there was one casualty: the U.N.'s fire pump couldn't handle the 500 pounds of water pressure being pumped by the New York Fire Department and developed some leaks. It is being repaired, said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq.
AP-ES-06-24-02 1950EDT
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAC0HA0V2D.html
If any doubt this guy has no intelligence...
Just one man's opinion...
That was pre-9/11.
AP Geneva, June 24
An estimated 639 million small arms are held by individuals, police, military and guerrillas around the world, a UN supported study said on Monday.
The revised estimate in the second annual Small Arms Survey exceeded the 550 million estimated in the first edition published last year.
Peter Batchelor, one of the authors of the 329-page survey, said the revision didn't necessarily mean the number of arms had grown but was "based on better data and we think improved estimation techniques and particularly some much better data we received from Asia last year."
The weapons included small arms ranging from pistols and rifles to mortars under 90 mm and shoulder-fired rocket launchers. ,p. "For guerrillas, less concerned with tactical accuracy than political impact, the mortar is an ideal light weapon," the study said. "The mortar is an easy weapon to improvise from scrap."
The study said the bulk of small arms - 59.2 per cent are privately owned.
Government armed forces own the second largest amount- 37.8 per cent. Police have 2.8 per cent and insurgents 0.2 per cent.
China proved to be one of the most difficult countries to obtain information about the number of small arms, but the survey concluded that "the actual total probably is much greater than commonly assumed."
"Many Chinese people, such as those from major cities and coastal regions, are under the impression that guns are scarce in their society, strictly licensed and confined to the criminal underworld and the remote regions."
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