21.   Applicants undergo criminal background checks through an FBI database relying on local departments for fingerprints.

22.   Federal agencies are helping to plan the exercise, though it will center on the immediate response to an attack, which would be handled by local departments.

23.   Hundreds of police recruited from state and local departments in the eastern United States would back up local and federal personnel.

24.   Kim White, a spokeswoman for the local Essex Police department, said authorities are well prepared for hijackings.

25.   The COPS program encourages local departments to use the new officers in community policing programs that involve citizens and other public agencies in police work.

26.   The newspaper said the Ministry of Public Health has instructed local health care departments to strengthen control of the disease.

27.   The real problem was in the internal structure of the local departments that controlled general administrative powers.

28.   In order to employ a foreign national, employers must obtain authorisation from the migration services and from the local labour department.

29.   Criticism of the local authorities has been all the harsher because the local department of public prosecutions has since freed all but one of those arrested.

30.   The report said Wang got hold of the apartments and villas either by pulling rank in local housing departments or by using public funds to purchase them.