The Hip-Operation Crew, with an average age of 81, prove that age is no barrier to reaching the world championships, says Margaret Jennings.

A two-week-old scare over a deadly livestock disease on a small New Zealand island has proven to be no more than a hoax as police originally suspected, officials have said.

Police rushed to an island near New Zealand’s biggest city today after the prime minister received a letter claiming foot-and-mouth disease had been spread among thousands of livestock there, though officials said it probably was a hoax.