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Foot And Mouth – Bombing Blunder – OCR

- FOOT AND MOUTH: Foot and Mouth disease is in Europe and breaking out in Central and South America, and some New Zealand farmers fear it may be only a matter of time before it reaches New Zealand. A case has been confirmed in France and Argentina. The NZ Government has banned imports of animal products form Europe and Argentina. People travelling from Argentina and Europe will be closely scritinised at customs. Federated Farmers believe New Zealand border control has the ability to keep foot and mouth out, and say an outbreak here would be crippling to the economy. MAF denies people are walking straight through Auckland airport from Britain. They are working out a plan in case foot and mouth does break out here.

- BOMBING BLUNDER: A NZ army Colonel is on his way to Kuwait to observe the inquiry into the bombing blunder that killed NZ SAS Major John McNutt. John McNutt’s family have spoken publicly for the first time since his death, and say he will be greatly missed by his family and mates in the Army. An early assessment of what went wrong in Kuwait suggests a mistake in ground control was at fault.

- OCR: The reserve Bank has cut its cash rate by a quarter of a per cent to 6.25 per cent, good news for home owners, not so good for savers. All major banks have dropped their floating mortgage rate to 8.25 per cent. The drop should see confidence in the New Zealand economy continue, in contrast to the world trend.

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