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.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS