Singapore, Malaysia practice chemical attack response<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Singapore\/Sydney, Australia<\/p>\n
Singaporean and Malaysian rescue workers lumbering in red and
\nyellow protective suits practiced responding to chemical attacks
\nand spills on Thursday on a bridge linking the two countries.<\/p>\n
Fear of terrorist attacks has brought together the neighboring
\ncountries, prone to disagree over many other issues.<\/p>\n
"Post 9\/11, a lot has been going on, but we are confident we
\ncan deal with the (toxic terror) issue," said Malaysian Police
\nSuperintendent Tan Soon Fuan.<\/p>\n
The two countries have stepped up security ties between
\nthemselves and Indonesia following recent terror attacks in the
\nregion, including the Oct. 12 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, which
\nkilled nearly 200 people.<\/p>\n
Singapore thwarted a plot by Jamaah Islamiyah, a group allied
\nto al-Qaeda, to attack Western embassies, U.S. Navy ships and
\nother targets in the island nation a year ago.<\/p>\n
"We are quietly confident we can deal with toxic issues but we
\nhave to conduct these exercises regularly and not be lulled into
\na false sense on confidence," said Lam Joon Khoi, head of
\nSingapore's National Environment Agency, which supervised the
\nchemical clean-up drill.<\/p>\n
The neighbors simulated a chlorine gas spill at their land
\nlink in Tuas, with more than 100 police, fire department,
\nhazardous material response units and coast guard personnel from
\nboth nations participating in the three-hour drill.<\/p>\n
Forty thousand metric tons (44,000 tons) of hazardous
\nmaterials cross the Tuas link each year, Singapore authorities
\nsaid. Stringent inspections take place on both sides of the
\nborder.<\/p>\n
Singapore and Malaysia have close social and economic ties and
\nshare generally polite relations. But the Southeast Asian
\ncountries have clashed on several issues, ranging from a long-
\nrunning water supply dispute to a 1979 claim over a small islet
\nlying at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Straits.<\/p>\n
Both are also dealing with several less-contentious
\ndisagreements over border crossings, airspace, pension savings
\nand railway land.<\/p>\n
The two former British colonies were federated in 1963 but
\nsplit amid bitter political disagreements two years later.<\/p>\n
Separately on Thursday, Australia's armed police and other
\nemergency services also practiced their counterterrorism skills,
\nsaving a mock hostage and defusing a bomb during an exercise in
\nSydney.<\/p>\n
But New South Wales state political leader Bob Carr said the
\noperation proved there were still kinks to iron out in their
\ncapacity to respond to a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
Police, bomb technicians, fire officials and hazardous
\nmaterials experts joined the exercise in which a gun-wielding
\nmock terrorist took a man hostage in a high-rise building in the
\ninner Sydney suburb of Alexandria.<\/p>\n
Bomb technicians were also called in to stimulate defusing an
\nexplosive device and hazardous materials units practiced
\nneutralizing chemical threats. Carr said the exercise simulated
\nthe actual conditions emergency services would face in the event
\nof such a threat in Australia.<\/p>\n
Australia has been on heightened alert since the Bali bombings
\nwhich killed more than 180 people, 88 of them Australian
\ntourists.<\/p>\n
Last month the federal government said it had received
\n"credible threats" of a terrorist attack in Australia over the
\nnext couple of months.<\/p>",
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