ATEHNS: A senior veterinary official in Greece was replaced after it emerged that sheep had been “buried alive” in a disease control move, a regional governor said Thursday.
“We received a complaint concerning live animals in the burial process,” Dimitris Kouretas, governor of the central region of Thessaly, told reporters.
“This merits further investigation. For this reason I replaced the veterinary supervisor” responsible for the area of the incident, Kouretas said.
Officials since early July has been trying to contain an outbreak of sheep and goat plague near the central city of Trikala.
The disease known as Peste des Petits Ruminants, or PPR, is highly contagious to sheep and goats but does not affect humans. Meat and pasteurised milk are also safe to consume, officials said.
The Greek agriculture ministry has said it is the first time the disease has been detected in the country.
Over 2,400 sheep have been culled since the first case was detected on July 11 near the town of Kalabaka, according to the agriculture ministry.
Farmers and officials have said the disease was likely brought into the country by imported livestock.
“Non-stop checks are underway” by scores of vets, Agriculture Minister Kostas Tsiaras told Skai radio, adding that some had interrupted their summer holidays.
Tsiaras noted that Greek farmers had increased animal imports after local flocks were decimated in last year’s disastrous floods caused by Storm Daniel.
Tens of thousands of sheep perished at the time.
Non-EU imports “are mainly from Romania, Turkiye and Albania,” the minister said, adding that the animals’ origin would be investigated.
The governor’s office has temporarily shut down local abattoirs and farmers have been instructed to keep their flocks indoors.
Sheep ‘buried alive’ in Greece amid disease cull: official
https://arab.news/zeted
Sheep ‘buried alive’ in Greece amid disease cull: official
- Officials since early July has been trying to contain an outbreak of sheep and goat plague
- The disease known as Peste des Petits Ruminants, or PPR, is highly contagious to sheep and goats
India plans AI ‘data city’ on staggering scale
- ‘The data city is going to come in one ecosystem ... with a 100 kilometer radius’
NEW DELHI: As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new “data city” to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says.
“The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it,” said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India’s AI push.
“And as a nation ... we have taken a stand that we’ve got to embrace it,” he said ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi.
Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15 billion investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States.
And a joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries, Canada’s Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11 billion to develop an AI data center in the same city.
Visakhapatnam — home to around two million people and popularly known as “Vizag” — is better known for its cricket ground that hosts international matches than cutting-edge technology.
But the southeastern port city is now being pitched as a landing point for submarine internet cables linking India to Singapore.
“The data city is going to come in one ecosystem ... with a 100 kilometer radius,” Lokesh said. For comparison, Taiwan is roughly 100 kilometers wide.
Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had “received close to 25 percent of all foreign direct investments” to India in 2025.
“It’s not just about the data centers,” he explained while outlining a sweeping vision of change, with Andhra Pradesh offering land at one US cent per acre for major investors.
