Two Britons exposed to nerve agent used on Russian spy: police

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Police cordoned off a number of areas in Amesbury. (AFP)
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A general view shows the main entrance to Salisbury District Hospital in Salisbury, southern England, on July 4, 2018 where a man and a woman are in critical condition after exposure to nerve agent and being found unconscious at a house in Amesbury. (AFP / Geoff Caddick)
Updated 05 July 2018
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Two Britons exposed to nerve agent used on Russian spy: police

  • Victims have similar symptoms to former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal
  • Man and woman found unconscious in Amesbury, not far from Salisbury

AMESBURY, UK: A British couple left critically ill in an English village were exposed to Novichok — the same nerve agent used in the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the nearby city of Salisbury this year, police said on Wednesday.
Counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the incident after tests at the Porton Down defense laboratory confirmed the nature of the substance, which Britain says is a Soviet-made military grade nerve agent.
“It’s the same nerve agent. Whether we can ever tell if it’s the same batch will be up to scientists to determine,” Neil Basu, head of counter-terrorism police, told reporters.
“The priority for the investigation team now, is to establish how these two people have come into contact with this nerve agent,” he said.
Basu said there was no evidence to suggest that the man and the woman, named locally as Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, “were targeted in any way.”
The two fell ill on Saturday in Amesbury, close to where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed on a bench on March 4 in an incident that sparked a bitter diplomatic crisis with Russia.
“The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us,” Basu said.But Basu said there was no evidence the man and the woman had “recently visited any of the sites that were decontaminated” after the poisoning of the Skripals.
“This remains a low risk to the general public,” he said.
“We’re satisfied that if anyone was exposed to that level of nerve agent by now they would be showing symptoms.”


The 44-year-old woman collapsed first and an ambulance was called at around 0915 GMT, while the 45-year-old man fell ill later and an ambulance was called at 1430 GMT.
Police had initially assumed that the two had consumed a contaminated batch of drugs.
But samples from both patients were sent to Porton Down on Monday “due to concern over the symptoms the man and woman were displaying,” Basu said.
Both are still in a critical condition and are at Salisbury District Hospital — the same facility where the Skripals were treated.
Local man Sam Hobson, 29, told AFP he was a friend of the pair and said he saw the man fall ill.
“He was sweating loads, dribbling, and you couldn’t speak to him, he was making funny noises and he was rocking backwards and forward,” Hobson said.
“It’s like he was in another world.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he would be chairing an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday on the case and a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said she was being “regularly updated” on the situation.
In Salisbury, local residents said they were “shocked” that their quiet area was again hitting the headlines.
“I was shocked to hear that something had happened so soon after the last contamination scare,” Patrick Hillman, 70, told AFP.
The Skripal poisoning “really affected business and life in general in Salisbury” in recent months, he said.
“It is a bit of a scare,” said John Reid, 84.
Police launched two helplines for those worried about possible contamination.

Security cordons have been set up around the areas where the pair went before they fell ill, with security boosted in both Amesbury and Salisbury.
Local resident Natalie Smyth, 27, told AFP she saw fire engines and ambulances arrive at the house on Saturday.
“They shut the road. They said it was a chemical incident and then that it was drug-related.
“It is so strange, it is such a quiet place,” she said, indicating that the emergency services personnel were wearing protective suits.
But Robert Yuill, a local councillor, said the emergency services reaction to the incident was “far less intense” than after the Skripal poisoning.
The police said local residents should expect to see officers in protective suits at “a number of sites” in the coming days.
Skripal, 67, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, collapsed on March 4 in Salisbury and were treated for an extended period of time before being released from hospital.
A police officer who came to their aid, Nick Bailey, was also taken to hospital.
The police said they suspected the nerve agent may have been smeared on a front door handle in liquid form.
Moscow has rejected British accusations of involvement in the Skripal poisoning, which sparked a diplomatic crisis that saw Russia and the West expelling dozens of diplomats in tit-for-tat moves.


Australian police arrest 13 people and seize a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine from a fishing boat

Updated 6 sec ago
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Australian police arrest 13 people and seize a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine from a fishing boat

  • The drugs had a sale value of $494 million and equaled as many as 11.7 million street deals if they had reached the country of 28 million people
  • The smugglers made two attempts to transport the drugs to Australia by sea from a mothership floating hundreds of kilometers offshore
WELLINGTON: Australian police seized a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after the suspects’ boat broke down off the coast of Queensland, authorities said Monday.
The drugs had a sale value of 760 million Australian dollars ($494 million) and equaled as many as 11.7 million street deals if they had reached the country of 28 million people, federal police said in a statement.
Investigators told reporters in Brisbane that the drugs were transported from an unidentified South American country.
The arrests on Saturday and Sunday followed a monthlong investigation after a tipoff that the Comancheros motorcycle gang was planning a multi-ton smuggling operation, Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said.
The smugglers made two attempts to transport the drugs to Australia by sea from a mothership floating hundreds of kilometers (miles) offshore, Jay said. Their first boat broke down, and the second vessel foundered on Saturday, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until police raided the fishing boat and seized the drugs, he said.
The mothership was in international waters and was not apprehended, Jay said.
Authorities have seized more than one ton of cocaine before, Jay said, but the weekend’s haul was the biggest ever recorded in Australia.
Those charged are accused of conspiring to import the drug into Australia by sea and were due to appear in various courts on Monday. The maximum penalty under the charge is life in prison.
Some were arrested on the boat while others were waiting on shore to collect the cocaine, police said. Two were under age 18 and all were Australian citizens, they said.
“Australia is a very attractive market for organized criminal groups to send drugs such as cocaine,” Jay said.

Over 40 people hospitalized in Georgia during protests over the suspension of EU talks

Updated 16 min 55 sec ago
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Over 40 people hospitalized in Georgia during protests over the suspension of EU talks

  • Georgia’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 27 protesters, 16 police and one media worker were hospitalized
  • Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze warned that ‘any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law’

TBILISI: A third night of protests in the Georgian capital against the government’s decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union left 44 people hospitalized, officials said Sunday.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament Saturday night, throwing stones and setting off fireworks, while police deployed water cannons and tear gas. An effigy of the founder of the governing Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili — a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — was burned in front of the legislature.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 27 protesters, 16 police and one media worker were hospitalized.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze warned that “any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law.”
“Neither will those politicians who hide in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility,” he said at a briefing Sunday.
He insisted it wasn’t true that Georgia’s European integration had been halted. “The only thing we have rejected is the shameful and offensive blackmail, which was, in fact, a significant obstacle to our country’s European integration.” The government’s announcement came hours after the European Parliament adopted a resolution criticizing last month’s general election in Georgia as neither free nor fair.
Kobakhidze also dismissed the US State Department’s statement Saturday that it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia. The statement condemned Georgia’s decision to halt its efforts toward EU accession.
“You can see that the outgoing administration is trying to leave the new administration with as difficult a legacy as possible. They are doing this regarding Ukraine, and now also concerning Georgia,” Kobakhidze said. “This will not have any fundamental significance. We will wait for the new administration and discuss everything with them.”
Kobakhidze also confirmed that Georgia’s ambassador to the US, David Zalkaliani, had become the latest of a number of diplomats to stand down since the protests started.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and enlargement commissioner Marta Kos released a joint statement Sunday on the Georgian government’s decision to suspend negotiations.
“We note that this announcement marks a shift from the policies of all previous Georgian governments and the European aspirations of the vast majority of the Georgian people, as enshrined in the Constitution of Georgia,” the statement said.
It reiterated the EU’s “serious concerns about the continuous democratic backsliding of the country” and urged Georgian authorities to “respect the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, and refrain from using force against peaceful protesters, politicians and media representatives.”
The ruling Georgian Dream party’s disputed victory in the Oct. 26 parliamentary election, which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s aspirations to join the EU, has sparked major demonstrations and led to an opposition boycott of parliament.
The opposition has said that the vote was rigged with the help of Russia, Georgia’s former imperial master, with Moscow hoping to keep Tbilisi in its orbit.
Speaking to The Associated Press on Saturday, Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili said that her country was becoming a “quasi-Russian” state and that Georgian Dream controlled the major institutions.
“We are not demanding a revolution. We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again,” Zourabichvili said.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support earlier this year after the passage of a “foreign influence” law widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.


Russia’s air units destroy 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian agencies report

Updated 29 min 32 sec ago
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Russia’s air units destroy 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian agencies report

Russia’s air defense systems destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions overnight, RIA state news agency reported on Monday, citing Russia’s defense ministry.


Philippines’ Marcos says reported presence of Russian submarine ‘very worrisome’

Updated 02 December 2024
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Philippines’ Marcos says reported presence of Russian submarine ‘very worrisome’

  • A newspaper earlier reported that a Russian attack submarine surfaced inside Manila’s EEZ last week, citing security sources

MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday the reported presence of a Russian submarine in the Philippine’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea was “very worrisome.”
The Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper reported on Monday that a Russian attack submarine surfaced inside Manila’s EEZ last week, citing security sources.
“That’s very concerning. Any intrusion into the West Philippine Sea, of our EEZ, of our baselines, is very worrisome,” Marcos told reporters.
Marcos did not elaborate on the submarine’s reported presence, saying he would let the military discuss the matter.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. A Philippine Navy spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia’s embassy in Manila could not immediately be reach for comment.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership when President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing in 2022, just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two countries carried out live-fire naval exercises in the South China Sea in July.
Tensions between Manila and Beijing have escalated over the past year due to overlapping claims in the South China Sea. A 2016 arbitral tribunal ruled China’s historical claims to the disputed waterway had no basis, a decision Beijing rejects.


A landmark climate change case will open at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas

Updated 02 December 2024
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A landmark climate change case will open at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas

  • Vanuatu is one of a group of small states pushing for international legal intervention in the climate crisis

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The top United Nations court will take up the largest case in its history on Monday, when it opens two weeks of hearings into what countries worldwide are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations fight its devastating impact.
After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could simply disappear under rising sea waters, the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice last year for an opinion on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”
“We want the court to confirm that the conduct that has wrecked the climate is unlawful,” Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, who is leading the legal team for the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, told The Associated Press.
In the decade up to 2023, sea levels have risen by a global average of around 4.3 centimeters (1.7 inches), with parts of the Pacific rising higher still. The world has also warmed 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times because of the burning of fossil fuels.
Vanuatu is one of a group of small states pushing for international legal intervention in the climate crisis.
“We live on the front lines of climate change impact. We are witnesses to the destruction of our lands, our livelihoods, our culture and our human rights,” Vanuatu’s climate change envoy Ralph Regenvanu told reporters ahead of the hearing.
Any decision by the court would be non-binding advice and unable to directly force wealthy nations into action to help struggling countries. Yet it would be more than just a powerful symbol since it could serve as the basis for other legal actions, including domestic lawsuits.
On Sunday, ahead of the hearing, advocacy groups will bring together environmental organizations from around the world. Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change — who first developed the idea of requesting an advisory opinion — together with World Youth for Climate Justice plan an afternoon of speeches, music and discussions.
From Monday, the Hague-based court will hear from 99 countries and more than a dozen intergovernmental organizations over two weeks. It’s the largest lineup in the institution’s nearly 80-year history.
Last month at the United Nations’ annual climate meeting, countries cobbled together an agreement on how rich countries can support poor countries in the face of climate disasters. Wealthy countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035 but the total is short of the $1.3 trillion that experts, and threatened nations, said is needed.
“For our generation and for the Pacific Islands, the climate crisis is an existential threat. It is a matter of survival, and the world’s biggest economies are not taking this crisis seriously. We need the ICJ to protect the rights of people at the front lines,” Vishal Prasad, of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, told reporters in a briefing.
Fifteen judges from around the world will seek to answer two questions: What are countries obliged to do under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions? And what are the legal consequences for governments where their acts, or lack of action, have significantly harmed the climate and environment?
The second question makes particular reference to “small island developing States” likely to be hardest hit by climate change and to “members of “the present and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change.”
The judges were even briefed on the science behind rising global temperatures by the UN’s climate change body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ahead of the hearings.
The case at the ICJ follows a number of rulings around the world ordering governments to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In May, a UN tribunal on maritime law said that carbon emissions qualify as marine pollution and countries must take steps to adapt to and mitigate their adverse effects.
That ruling came a month after Europe’s highest human rights court said that countries must better protect their people from the consequences of climate change, in a landmark judgment that could have implications across the continent.
The ICJ’s host country of The Netherlands made history when a court ruled in 2015 that protection from the potentially devastating effects of climate change is a human right and that the government has a duty to protect its citizens. The judgment was upheld in 2019 by the Dutch Supreme Court.