Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- About 134,000 South military personnel are involved in efforts to contain the country's worst ever foot-and-mouth outbreak, the agriculture ministry said Thursday.

Authorities have killed more than 2 million animals, and fear the epidemic could cost the country $1.4 billion, the ministry said.

The country has lost millions of dollars in exports already from the 129 confirmed cases, according to the ministry for food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The $1.4 billion cost takes into account vaccinations, culling and compensation for farmers.

Up to 22% of the swine population is being culled and almost 4% of cattle. Vaccinations are continuing across the country as the government tries to limit the number of animals that need to be destroyed.

The government introduced travel restrictions for livestock and ordered cattle markets to be shut shortly after the latest outbreak on November 28 in the southern city of Andong.

As a result, pork and beef imports are up and retail prices of both have risen almost 9% in just one month.

The spread of bird flu is also putting pressure on South Korean farmers, with almost 4 million birds being culled so far.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture describes foot-and-mouth disease as "a severe, highly contagious viral disease of cattle and swine." There are vaccines, but they must be matched to the specific type and subtype of virus causing the outbreak.

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An Afghan journalist suffered first-degree burns in an acid attack in the capital earlier this week, a report said.

Razaq Mamoon is a writer and television presenter, according to Reporters Without Borders, a media rights organization.

Mamoon was attacked with acid Tuesday night as he left home, the group said. He is hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries.

A suspect, identified only as Rafiullah, has been arrested, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

Reporters Without Borders is urging the Afghan government to fully investigate the attack.

"We have already identified a dozen or so cases of violence against Afghan journalists for 2011," the group said. "The authors and originators of this barbarous act must be swiftly identified and arrested."

Acid attacks on journalists are not common in the country, according to NIA, an Afghan organization that protects journalists.

(CNN) -- In three separate attacks, militants on motorcycles torched trucks in Pakistan on Friday that were taking fuel and supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, police said.

In all three attacks, militants cut off the moving trucks and opened fire, said police official Muhammad Ashraf.

The attacks happened in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. They targeted three fuel tankers and a supply truck.

A driver of one the trucks was killed and a passenger was injured, police said.

The attacks come less than a week after militants set fire to at least 10 NATO fuel tankers in the province.

Militants in Pakistan increasingly have been trying to undermine NATO forces in Afghanistan by attacking their supply trucks.

NATO officials have downplayed the impact of the attacks on operations in Afghanistan, but they have also started to use more alternate routes in countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A speaker claiming to be terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden warned in an audiotape aired Friday that the release of two French journalists abducted by militants hinges on France's military role in Afghanistan.

"We repeat the same message to you," said the speaker in an audiotape played on the Al-Jazeera satellite news network. "The release of your prisoners from the hands of our brethren depends on the withdrawal of your soldiers from our countries."

One U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN that the tape "sends a chill up your spine," as it refers to "a couple of human beings whose lives are at stake."

However, the official said it is unclear how much influence bin Laden might have over the fate of the hostages.

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Another counterterrorism official said he would not discuss whether it was in fact bin Laden on the latest tape other than to say, "there has never been a recording that has been false" about its claim to be him.

On the tape, the speaker, believed to be al Qaeda chief bin Laden, warns the French government that its alliance with the United States will prove costly.

"The dismissal of your President (Nicholas) Sarkozy to get out of Afghanistan is the result of his subservience to the United States and this (dismissal) is considered to be the green signal to kill your prisoners without delay," the speaker said.

He goes on to say that "we will not do that at the time that suits him (Sarkozy) and this position will cost you dearly on all fronts, in France and abroad."

France, however, said the message would not deter it from its Afghanistan strategy.

"We are determined to stay in Afghanistan with our allies for the Afghan people," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.

The first U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN that bin Laden's continuing messages serve as a "reminder" and an "in your face" signal that he is still out there.

But, that official said, "the relevance (of the tapes) are on the wane. ... His message doesn't resonate as well."

The second U.S. official said the tape is an effort by bin Laden to prove "he is present, that he is engaging."

It's a "morale factor to remind the people who follow him that he's still out there," the second official said.

But this official said bin Laden's message is more "inspirational" than operational. Some could take his message as "a directive," but there is no indication he is "leading" an operation, the official said.

The official said there has been no change in the U.S. belief that bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan somewhere along the border with Afghanistan.

Taliban militants captured the journalists -- Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier from France 3 Television -- in December 2009 and threatened to kill them if their demands were not met, including the release of some detainees held by France.

France has 3,750 troops in Afghanistan, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Al Qaeda's North African wing has made the same withdrawal demands pertaining to the safety of five French nationals abducted in Niger.

Just a few days before the US and the UK launched on 7 October the first attacks against targets inside Afghanistan, teams of health workers and volunteers went ahead with a planned drive to immunize all of the estimated 36 million children under five in Afghanistan and Pakistan against poliomyelitis.


Between 23 and 27 September, about five million children in Afghanistan and 30 million in Pakistan were given polio vaccine, despite massive population movements caused by the political situation. The campaign was organized by the Taliban health ministry with assistance from WHO and UNICEF, and with the cooperation of the opposition Northern Alliance. The two countries together form a single reservoir for wild poliovirus, which circulates across the border between them. They are two of the remaining ten countries in the world that are priority targets of the global initiative to eradicate polio by 2005.

"The timing of these polio immunizations was critical, as both countries are on the verge of eradicating this dreaded disease," said Dr Hussein Gezairy, director of WHO's Eastern Mediterranean regional office. It was also critical to conduct at least the first round of immunizations before the onset of winter. A second round is planned for 6–8 November.

Dr Naveed Sadozai, WHO's polio team leader for Afghanistan, told the Bulletin that teams of health workers on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border had been strengthened to cope with the huge numbers of people trying to leave Afghanistan. Speaking from Islamabad in Pakistan, he said: "We have had our cross-border teams in place for seven days this time, instead of the usual three, and they have been immunizing every incoming and outgoing child."

National Immunization Days, as the mass polio vaccination campaigns are called, organized by the global polio eradication initiative, have since 1988 led to a dramatic reduction in the numbers of polio cases in these countries. To date in 2001, only 8 cases have been detected in Afghanistan, all in and around Kandahar province, vs 120 cases recorded last year from throughout the country. Pakistan has reported 42 cases to date in 2001 — a two-thirds reduction from last year, with the greatest number in the North-West Frontier province bordering Afghanistan.

Full immunization coverage data are not yet in, but Sadozai said he did not expect coverage to have been as good as it would have been had the situation been normal. "Afghanistan has made tremendous strides to eradicate polio so we were clear that we were not going to give up."

Even at normal times, the Afghan population is very mobile, Sadozai said. Between 5% and 10% of its people are nomadic and it is usual for whole families to move to a different part of the country to celebrate a wedding or visit a relative. To cope with these habits, health workers not only visit homes but also form "floating teams" to "catch" children in markets, at entrances and exits to and from cities, and at places such as bus stations.

Initial figures from the September immunization drive are encouraging, Sadozai said. In Kabul, 80% of the expected number of children had been immunized, but in surrounding rural districts more than the expected number of children were reached, reflecting the population movements out of the capital. "When we receive the results from the provinces bordering Pakistan we will have a better picture," Sadozai added.

All UN international staff had been evacuated from the country before the vaccination campaign, so the polio team was made up solely of national staff, with international staff trying to orchestrate the effort from Pakistan. Polio initiative coordinator Dr Bruce Aylward said national staff had not been evacuated because they have their lives — homes, families, friends — in the country. WHO will continue to support them and has taken measures, he said, to try and ensure their safety.

One reassuring factor was the successful outcome of negotiations between the UN agencies, the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. Sadozai said so-called "days of tranquillity" negotiated in the past for polio vaccination campaigns had been "more or less respected by every faction", enabling health workers to gain access to all children in the area.


Sharon Kingman, London, UK