Authorities isolate virus to a region in Britain

Authorities isolate virus
to a region in Britain

LONDON — Britain relaxed a nationwide ban on moving livestock Wednesday after authorities isolated the foot-and-mouth virus to a region near a government laboratory and a private company that developed vaccines for the disease.

The European Union maintained a ban on British meat and dairy exports, saying it would review the decision in two weeks. Britain retained a self-imposed export ban on such products.

Chief veterinarian Debby Reynolds said farmers outside a surveillance zone set up around the farms where the outbreaks occurred would be able to send their animals to slaughterhouses as of midnight Wednesday. The surveillance zone comprises a six-mile radius around the affected farms.

Health and safety experts were working to determine whether the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak came from a high-security government laboratory or from a private pharmaceutical company on the same site — and whether its spread was accidental or deliberate.

CNN, Grace: Dismiss suit
over mother’s suicide

OCALA, Fla. — Lawyers for CNN and Nancy Grace have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses the TV host of pushing the mother of a missing toddler to suicide through aggressive questioning.

CNN and Grace say the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Melinda Duckett’s family would “severely chill” journalists’ coverage of missing-persons cases, according to federal court documents filed last week.

Duckett, 21, was on Grace’s show a year ago after her son Trenton went missing from her apartment. Grace grilled the woman, accusing her of hiding something because Duckett did not take a lie-detector test and answered vaguely regarding her whereabouts.

Police later named Duckett the prime suspect in the boy’s disappearance.

Duckett shot and killed herself the day the taped interview was scheduled to broadcast. The lawsuit blames Grace for severe emotional distress that led to the suicide.

Pakistan considers
a state of emergency

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The government of embattled Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said today it may impose a state of emergency because of “external and internal threats” and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.

Tariq Azim, minister of state for information, said some sentiment coming from the United States, including from Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama, over the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan “has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public.”

The Pakistani government’s comments on a possible emergency declaration came hours after Musharraf abruptly announced he was canceling a planned trip to Kabul, Afghanistan on today to attend a U.S.-backed tribal peace council aimed at curtailing cross-border militancy by the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The decision to cancel the trip appeared to be linked to the government’s deliberations over declaring a state of emergency.

Priest jogs in the nude,
faces indecency charge

FREDERICK, Colo. — A Catholic priest faces an indecent exposure charge after jogging in the nude about an hour before sunrise.

The Rev. Robert Whipkey told officers he had been running naked at a high school track and didn’t think anyone would be around at that time of day, a police report said.

He told officers he sweats profusely if he wears clothing while jogging. “I know what I did was wrong,” he said in the report.

Whipkey did not return phone messages. His attorney, Doug Tisdale, told the Daily Times-Call of Longmont that Whipkey had no comment.

Whipkey, 53, was arrested around 4:30 a.m. June 22 in this town about 20 miles north of Denver.

Associated Press