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WORLD NEWS Thursday 28 November 2019

Chemical weapons watchdog

adds Novichok to banned list

By MIKE CORDER cluding sarin, ricin and sul- The convention, which out-
THE HAGUE, Netherlands fur mustard on the conven- laws the production and
(AP) — Member states of tion's so-called Schedule 1 use of chemical weapons,
the global chemical weap- of banned substances. came into force in 1997.
ons watchdog agreed The change was proposed Novichok was developed
Wednesday to update their by the United States, Cana- by the Soviet Union during
list of banned substances da and the Netherlands. the Cold War. It rose to infa-
for the first time by adding In months of discussions my when it was used in the This Friday May 5, 2017 file photo shows the headquarters of the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),
the nerve agent used in the leading up to this week's attempted assassination in The Hague, Netherlands.
attempted assassination meeting, Russia initially ob- March 2018 of Russian spy Associated Press
last year of a former Russian jected to the proposed turned double agent Ser-
double agent. changes but later relent- gei Skripal. attack!" Weapons Convention's
The decision to add Novi- ed after it also proposed Britain accused Russia of OPCW Director-General Annex on Chemicals has
chok nerve agents to the adding chemicals to the the March 2018 attack on Fernando Arias welcomed been updated," Arias said.
Chemical Weapons Con- banned list. Moscow's pro- Skripal and his daughter, the decision after the chair- "This is an important devel-
vention was reached by posal also was adopted by Yulia, in the English town of man of the annual meeting opment that demonstrates
consensus at the annual consensus. Salisbury. Moscow denied banged his gavel to indi- the adaptability of the
meeting of the 193 mem- Officials at the Russian Em- involvement. cate that the proposal had convention to changing
ber states of the Organiza- bassy didn't return a call Dutch Foreign Minister Stef been approved without a threats while enhancing
tion for the Prohibition of seeking details of their pro- Blok said in a tweet: "I fully vote. the OPCW's ability to re-
Chemical Weapons. posal and the OPCW didn't support this strong response "This is the first time in its main vigilant, agile, and fit
Novichok joins agents in- elaborate on it. to the #Salisbury chemical history that the Chemical for purpose."q

UN: Measles cases

spike in numerous

outbreaks worldwide

LONDON (AP) — The World Ukraine. Sizeable outbreaks
Health Organization says have also been reported
cases of measles are con- in Brazil, Bangladesh and
tinuing to spike globally, elsewhere.
with multiple large out- WHO noted that two large
breaks being reported epidemics in New York are
across Africa, Europe, Latin over but small outbreaks
America and the Middle elsewhere in the U.S. con-
East. tinue. As of Nov. 5, there
In an update on Wednes- were more than 440,200
day, the U.N. health agen- measles cases worldwide
cy said Congo has re- reported to WHO. In 2018,
ported more than 250,000 there were about 350,000
suspected cases this year, cases. Measles is among
including 5,110 deaths. In the most infectious diseases
Europe, there have been and can be prevented with
more than 56,000 cases in two doses of vaccine.q