The prime minister yesterday branded an extortionist's claim to have infected a New Zealand island with a livestock disease as "bioterrorism," while police revealed that the extortionist threatened to release the virus on the mainland later this week.
Officials have not confirmed that any livestock have been infected with the deadly foot-and-mouth disease as alleged and stress that they believe the claims made in a letter Tuesday to Prime Minister Helen Clark are a hoax.
But they consider it an emergency that potentially could devastate the country's agriculture-dependent economy. The EU and Japan already have asked that livestock from the island be blocked from their markets.
"I regard this as a bioterrorism threat and very severe penalties are in place for such crimes," Clark said in her first public comments about the disease scare. "The implications for damage to our economy of a genuine scare would be catastrophic."
The letter warned that foot-and-mouth virus had been released Monday among stock on Waiheke Island near Auckland. It demanded ransom and changes in government tax policy. Police yesterday revealed that the letter writer also threatened to release the disease in New Zealand tomorrow.
"Friday is the next date for further threats," police assistant commissioner Peter Marshall said.
"We have to take this very seriously even though we are reasonably confident it is a hoax," Clark told a Canterbury student radio station.
Under the nation's Biosecurity Act, anyone convicted of spreading foot-and-mouth faces up to five years in prison. Under other laws, threatening to seriously damage the economy carries a seven-year sentence, and causing disease in animals carries a maximum 10-year sentence. Animals on Waiheke -- home to 18,000 sheep and 2,500 cattle -- have been quarantined and are being inspected every 48 hours for symptoms.
The letter claimed animals had been fed hay infected with foot-and-mouth virus on Monday. Incubation of the disease normally takes 4-7 days. Foot-and-mouth is a highly contagious virus that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs, causing sores, blisters and fever. It is deadly for livestock but harmless to people.
About half the economy in New Zealand, which has never confirmed a foot-and-mouth case, is based on agriculture and analysts believe an outbreak could affect a broad range of its annual US$22 billion in exports. Checkpoints have been set up at the island's two ports and airport, and controls imposed on the movement of all animals and animal products to and from the island.
Roger Morris, a leading foot-and-mouth specialist, said "it's most likely to be a hoax ... but one can never trust that it is a hoax. You must take all necessary measures, then confirm it was a hoax."
After New Zealand trade officials briefed 40 nations and the 15-member EU on the scare, the EU and Japan requested that no exports from the island be sent to their markets. Malaysia, Brazil and some small Middle East countries had still to give a formal response, and Mexico indicated it would likely inspect shipments from New Zealand before approving their import, said New Zealand Food Safety Authority executive director Andrew McKenzie. Australia did not ban imports.
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
ACCESS DISPUTE: The blast struck a house, and set cars and tractors alight, with the fires wrecking several other structures and cutting electricity An explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a one-year-old, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early on Thursday in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of a territorial dispute between the nation’s mining cooperatives turning fatal. The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp as two rival mining groups disputed access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, about 150km northwest of the country’s administrative capital of La Paz, said Colonel Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area. Agudo had initially reported six people killed,
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
RSS