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WORLD NEWS Thursday 8 March 2018

UK police: Russian ex-spy was attacked with nerve agent

By DANICA KIRKA body's organs. They can
JILL LAWLESS be administered in gas or
LONDON (AP) — A Russian liquid form, causing symp-
ex-spy and his daughter toms including vomiting,
fighting for their lives in an breathlessness, paralysis
English hospital were at- and often death. Officials
tacked with a nerve agent have not offered a progno-
in a targeted murder at- sis for Skripal and his daugh-
tempt, British police said ter.
Wednesday. Sally Davies, the chief med-
The case has further ical officer for England, said
strained relations between there was a low risk to the
Russia and Britain, which public.
has said it will respond Police and forensics officers
strongly if the Russian gov- continued to scour several
ernment is linked to the at- sites in and around Salis-
tack. It has overtones of a bury on Wednesday. Police
2006 fatal attack on a for- kept residents away from
mer Russian spy that was an Italian restaurant and
blamed on the Kremlin. a pub in the city, and cor-
In that incident, a radioac- doned off part of a business
tive poison was used. The park about nine miles (14
choice of a nerve agent kilometers) away, near the
in the latest case follows Police officers guard a cordon around a police tent covering the the spot where former Russian ancient stone monument
double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill Sunday following exposure
the use of the banned to an "unknown substance" in Salisbury, England, Wednesday, March 7, 2018. of Stonehenge. Detectives
nerve agent VX to kill the (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) appealed for information
estranged half-brother of from anyone who visited
North Korea's leader last in a critical condition in in- former Russian agent who not provide the officer's either the Zizzi restaurant or
year. tensive care after being ex- had served jail time in his name or specifics about his the Bishop’s Mill pub in Salis-
Sergei Skripal, 66, and his posed to the substance." homeland for spying for condition. bury on Sunday.
33-year-old daughter Yulia Police have declined to Britain before being freed Rowley didn't say what Residents saw their usually
were found unconscious speculate on who might in a spy swap. nerve agent was suspect- placid town, famed for its
on a bench in the south- be behind the attack. The Rowley said a police officer ed in the attack. Nerve 13th-century Gothic cathe-
western English city of Salis- Russian government has who treated Skripal and his agents are chemicals that dral, turned into the center
bury on Sunday, triggering denied any involvement daughter at the scene was disrupt the messages sent of a criminal probe with
a police investigation led in the attack on Skripal, a in serious condition. He did by from the nerves to the Cold War echoes.q
by counterterrorism detec-
tives. Baffled police initially Germany:
said the pair had come into
contact with an unknown Far-right terror group sentenced to long prison terms
substance.
"Having established that a
nerve agent is the cause By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER cilities and left-wing politi- ugee protests and attacks. The group carried out sev-
of the symptoms leading us Associated Press cal targets. German news agency dpa eral attacks in 2015, includ-
to treat this as attempted BERLIN (AP) — A German The Dresden regional court reported that the group's ing blowing up the car of a
murder, I can also confirm court on Wednesday sen- said in its verdict all seven two ringleaders, 29-year- Left party politician and a
that we believe that the tenced eight Germans men and one woman, old Timo S. and 26-year-old Left party office in Freital,
two people who became to between four and ten aged between 20 and Patrick F., were sentenced as well as two bombings
unwell were targeted spe- years in prison for forming 40, were guilty of forming to 10 and nine-and-a-half of refugee homes in which
cifically," Metropolitan Po- a far-right terrorist organi- the so-called terrorist "Fre- years in prison, respectively. windows were blown out
lice counterterrorism chief zation, attempted murder ital Group," named after Their full names were with- and one asylum-seeker suf-
Mark Rowley said. and carrying out bomb at- a Dresden suburb that has held in line with German fered facial cuts.
Police said the two "remain tacks on asylum-seeker fa- seen a number of anti-ref- privacy rules. q