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Text Messages Create Banana Republic

Pointing out stories you may have missed. A rumour spread by text message has badly hit the price of bananas from China's Hainan island. The messages claim the fruit contains viruses similar to Sars, the severe respiratory illness which has killed hundreds of people worldwide. Producers in Hainan say the resulting price slump is costing them up to $2.5 million a day. China's Agriculture Ministry has dismissed the Sars claim as baseless. Police are investigating its source. "It is utterly a rumour," a Chinese Health Ministry official said. "There has not been a case in the world in which humans have contracted a plant virus, and there is not any scientific evidence." Hainan bananas had already been subject to rumours they caused cancer, after the banana plantations were hit by blight earlier this year.

News source: BBC.