British security cabinet meets over ex-spy's poisoning





London (dpa) - The British government will hold another top-level security meeting, named Cobra, on Saturday in the wake of the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter with a nerve agent.



 
Hospitals have treated a total of 21 people, including Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, since the pair were found unconscious on a bench on Sunday in the British city of Salisbury.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd toured Salisbury on Friday, and met a 38-year-old policeman who was also poisoned and remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Rudd is set to chair the Cobra meeting on Saturday, Downing Street said, and be informed on the status of the investigation. It is the second such meeting since the poisoning came to light.
The poison was a nerve agent, police said, but refrained from specifying which one earlier in the week.
Police asked for military assistance on Friday as they expanded their investigation into the pair's attempted murder.
Some doubt whether the government will ever be in a position to say categorically where the nerve agent came from.
But Ulf Schmidt, an expert in the history of chemical and biological weapons, told dpa that forensic analysis could yield tiny clues that point to how, and perhaps even where, the nerve agent was produced.

Saturday, March 10th 2018
(dpa)
           


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