NZ foot-and-mouth scare proves a hoax

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.

Someone wrote a letter to Prime Minister Helen Clark on May 9 saying that foot-and-mouth disease had been released on Waiheke Island near Auckland, and that it also would be released on one of New Zealand’s main islands unless a ransom was paid.