SYDNEY // Australia's defences against infectious diseases and biological weapons have been boosted by the opening of a National Centre for Biosecurity, which experts believe will help protect the country from such threats as Sars and bird flu, as well as attacks by militants or rogue scientists.
The centre will look at ways to combat biological warfare, naturally occurring diseases and the theft or misuse of sensitive research on micro-organisms along with the dangers posed by synthetic biology, in which a living virus or bacteria can be created from scratch. Much of the facility's work will concentrate on 22 germs and poisons, which are considered by the Australian government to be "agents of concern", including anthrax, plague, smallpox and botulinum toxin.
Christian Enemark, the co-director of the new biosecurity project, says researchers will be on the front line of efforts to counter biological terrorism. "It's quite an eerie feeling … Most of the concerns surrounding weapons of mass destruction have been very much nuclear weapons-orientated, but more and more we're seeing the idea of biology losing its innocence." In 2001, the deadly anthrax bacteria was sent through the US postal service in contaminated envelopes. Five people were killed and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was convinced the attack was carried out by a US army microbiologist, who committed suicide this summer before he could be charged.
Australia's new biosecurity centre is a joint venture between the Australian National University in Canberra and the University of Sydney. It will employ 50 academics, who will provide "independent and fearless advice" to politicians. The Australian government has stated that the risk of a "weaponised pathogen" such as anthrax being used on home soil was low, but Peter Curson, a professor of population and security at the University of Sydney, insists there is no room for complacency.
"I've always been interested in the potential of people being used as vectors of disease," he said. "It's not a great extension of reality to suggest that could actually be used in a concentrated, deliberate way." Prof Curson points to evidence from the Amazon region of South America, where claims have been made that groups representing unscrupulous forestry or farming companies have bribed people with respiratory infections to mix with native tribes in an attempt to spread disease and weaken the natives' resolve against encroachment by developers.
Australia has suffered serious outbreaks of infectious diseases in the past. In 1925, 600,000 cases were reported of dengue fever, which is caused by a virus carried by mosquitoes. "You could easily see an event like that paralysing the economic and social structure of a country like Australia," Prof Curson said. Australia has never suffered a terrorist attack, biological or otherwise. But the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, brought this isolated continent to the front line of international terrorism, and its people were gripped by a sense of fear and vulnerability.
Clive Williams, a former officer in the Australian Intelligence Corps, said he believed those feelings of anxiety had faded since last November's federal elections. "I think the public perception is that the [former] Howard government tended to exaggerate the threat of terrorism in Australia and also had been much more vocal in its support of the United States and had been involved in the coalition in Iraq.
"One of the things the new Rudd government did was to announce a withdrawal of its combat elements from Iraq. People relaxed a bit after that, because their perception was that we wouldn't be a likely target for extremists here." Mr Williams said such complacency was misplaced. "The threat of terrorism is more likely to come from disaffected internal elements than it is from somebody coming in from outside these days. One of the problem areas is the fixated individual, who might not be an Islamist or be politically motivated. Those people acting alone are very difficult to pick up."
Biosecurity specialists say embittered scientists could pose a threat, along with radical groups, and that Australia must remain vigilant. "It is still very difficult to assess the likelihood of a biological attack," Mr Enemark said. "But it's important to bear in mind that such an attack would be invisible and insidious, and there are some who would argue that a terrorist attack has much more impact if it is physical and extremely visible."
pmercer@thenational.ae
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Emergency phone numbers in the UAE
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
RESULTS
6.30pm Handicap (TB) US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Golden Goal, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
7.05pm Dubai Racing Club Classic Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,410m
Winner: Walton Street, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
7.40pm Dubai Stakes Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Switzerland, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
8.15pm Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner Lord Giltters, Adrie de Vries, David O’Meara
8.50pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Military Law, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.
9.25pm Al Fahidi Fort Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Land Of Legends, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
10pm Dubai Dash Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,000m
Winner Equilateral, Frankie Dettori, Charles Hills.
RESULTS
Light Flyweight (48kg): Alua Balkibekova (KAZ) beat Gulasal Sultonalieva (UZB) by points 4-1.
Flyweight (51kg): Nazym Kyzaibay (KAZ) beat Mary Kom (IND) 3-2.
Bantamweight (54kg): Dina Zholaman (KAZ) beat Sitora Shogdarova (UZB) 3-2.
Featherweight (57kg): Sitora Turdibekova (UZB) beat Vladislava Kukhta (KAZ) 5-0.
Lightweight (60kg): Rimma Volossenko (KAZ) beat Huswatun Hasanah (INA) KO round-1.
Light Welterweight (64kg): Milana Safronova (KAZ) beat Lalbuatsaihi (IND) 3-2.
Welterweight (69kg): Valentina Khalzova (KAZ) beat Navbakhor Khamidova (UZB) 5-0
Middleweight (75kg): Pooja Rani (IND) beat Mavluda Movlonova (UZB) 5-0.
Light Heavyweight (81kg): Farida Sholtay (KAZ) beat Ruzmetova Sokhiba (UZB) 5-0.
Heavyweight (81 kg): Lazzat Kungeibayeva (KAZ) beat Anupama (IND) 3-2.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
