I wonder if they will try to blame the Russians again.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...-spy-police-say.html

A British couple hospitalized in critical condition were exposed to the same nerve agent that nearly killed former Russia spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March, London's Metropolitan Police said Wednesday.

Authorities did not say whether the couple, identified by multiple media outlets as 45-year-old Charlie Rowley and 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess, were exposed to the same batch of Novichok that poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Samples from both patients had been sent to the Porton Down defense research laboratory for testing.

Metropolitan Police spokesman Neil Basu said the agency's counterterrorism officers were leading the investigation.

"The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us," said Basu, who added that there was "nothing" in the couple's background to suggest that they were targeted for poisoning. No one else has reported similar symptoms to the victims.

Wiltshire Police declared a "major incident" earlier Wednesday, four days after the couple were found unconscious at a home in Amesbury. Amesbury is eight miles from Salisbury, where the Skripals were found unconscious March 4.

Authorities said they initially believed the couple fell ill after using heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated batch of drugs.

Prime Minister Theresa May's office said she was being kept updated on the case, "which understandably is being treated with the utmost seriousness."

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, was convicted of spying for Britain before coming to the U.K. as part of a 2010 prisoner swap.

After spending weeks in critical condition, the Skripals were released from the hospital and taken to an undisclosed location for their protection. Doctors say they don't know what the long-term prognosis is.

Britain accuses Russia of poisoning the Skripals, a claim Moscow strongly denies. The case sparked a diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, including the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from both sides.

The two Amesbury victims were at Salisbury District Hospital, which also treated the Skripals.

Sam Hobson, a friend of the couple, told the Associated Press that he was with the couple on Saturday when they fell ill. He said Rowley told him that "Dawn was complaining of a headache, so she went to have a bath and then he had a thump in there and she was on the floor having a fit and foaming at the mouth."

Hours later, Hobson said Rowley was packing his belongings to visit Sturgess in the hospital when "he started sweating really badly, so he had a shower, and then he went to his room for a bit, got to rest, come out and he was a bit tired and sat down for a bit and then that's when he got up and started acting weird and he said that he felt he had been poisoned and that, then he was rocking against the wall making funny noises and his eyes were wide open, glazed, red and pinpricked and he was just sweating, dribbling, making weird noises, I was speaking to him and was getting no response."

The day before, Hobson said he and the couple were in Salisbury's Queen Elizabeth Gardens, not far from where the Skripals were found foaming at the mouth and slipping in and out of consciousness.

"They must have picked up something ... and got contaminated because no one else that we were with had been poisoned and no one else is sharing the symptoms," Hobson said. "It's just them two."

Police have cordoned off the park as well as a home in Amesbury, believed to be Rowley's, and other places the pair visited that day, including a church and a pharmacy. Basu described the cordon as a "precautionary measure while we continue to investigate how they came into contact with the substance."

Salisbury and surrounding towns have only recently begun to recover from the frightening weeks at the center of an international spy drama.

Police from 40 departments in England and Wales returned home in June after months working on the Skripal case, and specially trained workers have spent months decontaminating sites around the city.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wcb6092,

People have survived exposure to nerve agents, including employees of facilities where they were worked with. The lethal dose is small, but not so small that a survivable dose can’t be smaller. I am currently reading a “Textbook of Military Medicine,” Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, that discusses some cases. If the agent had been applied to somethings the victims touched, the doses they received might have been extremely small.

Military training about such things tends to be dramatically black/white: “If you don’t have you mask and atropine, you’re going to die!” That minimizes the, “Do I hafta?” pushback.

Remember President Trump talked about pulling out of Syria? Boom a chemical attack in Syria by Assad.

President Trump to meet with President Putin on July 16th. Boom another nerve agent attack in the UK.

Why would Syria and Russia have the worst timing in the world?

Russia 'must explain nerve agent poisoning'

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44727191

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has called on Russia to explain the Novichok poisoning after two people were exposed to it in Wiltshire.

The couple, believed to be Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury on Saturday and remain in a critical condition.

Mr Javid said the nerve agent used in the latest poisoning was the same type as that which ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal was exposed to in March.

He said 100 counter-terrorism officers were working with Wiltshire Police.

UK woman poisoned by same nerve agent as Russian spy dies, police say

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...dies-police-say.html

he British woman who was recently poisoned by the same nerve agent that almost killed a Russian spy and his daughter earlier this year has died, police said Sunday.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died more than a week after authorities believe she was exposed to Novichok — the agent that poisoned Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal in March.

Charlie Rowley, a 45-year-old man who was also exposed to the agent, remains in critical condition, according to London's Metropolitan Police Service.

"This is shocking and tragic news," Neil Basu, head of U.K. Counter Terrorism policing, said. "Dawn leaves behind her family, including three children, and our thoughts and prayers are with them at this extremely difficult time."

The Metropolitan Police added that its detectives had launched a murder inquiry.

Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement she was "appalled and shocked" by Sturgess's death, and said, "Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being treated as a murder."

Police said Sturgess became ill at a home in Amesbury at around 10 a.m. on June 30 and was hospitalized. Roughly five hours later, Rowley also became ill.

Authorities confirmed on Wednesday that both Sturgess and Rowley were exposed to Novichok. Police suspect the couple was exposed through a contaminated item left over from the attack on the Skripals, which Britain blames on Russia. Russia has denied the allegation.

Amesbury is approximately eight miles from Salisbury, where the Skripals were poisoned. Police have cordoned off multiple sites in both cities and forensic searches were due to be carried out at the home where Sturgess and Rowley collapsed, and other sites the couple visited before they were sickened.

Police say the nerve agent that sickened Rowley and Sturgess was the same type that almost killed the Skripals, but scientists haven't been able to tell whether it was from the same batch.

Experts say just a few milligrams of the odorless Novichok liquid — the weight of a snowflake — is enough to kill a person within minutes.

The latest poisonings have further inflamed tensions between London and Moscow. U.K. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has demanded Russia provide information, saying it is unacceptable "for our streets, our parks, our towns to be dumping grounds for poison."

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Remember President Trump talked about pulling out of Syria? Boom a chemical attack in Syria by Assad.

President Trump to meet with President Putin on July 16th. Boom another nerve agent attack in the UK.

Why would Syria and Russia have the worst timing in the world?

Are you suggesting something nefarious other than by Russia?

Russia and Syria are capable of carrying out these attacks but the timing would suggest they would be working against their own interests.

Novichok has also been produced by Iran and the Check Republic. And probably other countries.

It might be a state looking to strain relations between Russia and the west (Iran) or another country. Or it could be Russia.

I would hope there would irrefutable evidence,and so far that has not been delivered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent

Look how the US entered World War 1 after the sinking of the Lusitania passenger ship by Germany. Britain was using passenger ships to transport arms in violation of international law. Germany found out and sunk it. Britain denied the claim and many years later the remains of the Lusitania have been explored and it was carrying munitions.

http://www.centenarynews.com/article?id=1616

bottle of Novichok found in victim's house

https://hotair.com/archives/20...atest-victims-house/

Back in March a Russian nerve agent was used in an attack on a Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. Both the Skripal’s survived the attack, but another similar incident took place on June 30th. Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were found unconscious in his home.

Sturgess was apparently homeless and had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The Sun reports that police initially suspected she had succumbed to a heroin overdose, but it was later determined she had been exposed to the same variety of Novichok used against the Skripals. In the wake of Sturgess’ death, Scotland Yard launched a murder investigation and this week it located the source of the contamination in Rowley’s home:

On Wednesday, 11 July, a small bottle was recovered during searches of Charlie Rowley’s house in Amesbury. It was taken to the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, Wiltshire, for tests.

Following those tests, scientists have now confirmed to us that the substance contained within the bottle is Novichok. Further scientific tests will be carried out to try and establish whether it is from the same batch that contaminated Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March – this remains a main line of enquiry for police.

Inquiries are under way to establish where the bottle came from and how it came to be in Charlie’s house.

Scotland Yard hasn’t determined this is the same batch of Novichok but other reports say it is the same variety. There was apparently very little left in the bottle for investigators to test

The Guardian understands tests show both Sturgess and Rowley handled the bottle with their right hands…

Sturgess, 44, died on Sunday, around nine days after she and Rowley, 45, were exposed to novichok. Police believe the nerve agent that contaminated the couple was discarded during the March attempted assassination of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in their Salisbury home. Skripal has been regarded by Vladimir Putin’s regime as a traitor for selling state secrets and then defecting to Britain.

Scientists hope there will be enough novichok left in the bottle for them to determine whether it came from the same batch used in the Skripal attack. They will compare whatever is left in the bottle with a small sample recovered from the door of the Skripal’s home. They now have small quantities from both incidents in their possession.

If the samples are found to be from the same batch, it would mean whomever ordered and carried out the Skripal attack would be suspects in the murder investigation launched after Sturgess died in hospital.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

...Inquiries are under way to establish where the bottle came from and how it came to be in Charlie’s house...

I'm wondering the same thing.

Huh?

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

...Inquiries are under way to establish where the bottle came from and how it came to be in Charlie’s house...

I'm wondering the same thing.

Apparently the sick guy (who seems to be the dead woman's love interest) found a perfume bottle with the stuff in it.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...me-bottle/787456002/