Bits and Bites from around the World > Suu Kyi moved to Solitary Confinement; 22 Students die celebrating graduation; UFOs in Russia and US Navy

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Myanmar junta moves deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi

to solitary confinement

Has the military had enough of Burma's conscience?

By Clyde Hughes

   

In April, the junta-led government sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in prison on a corruption conviction.

Military prosecutors said she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold.

File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

June 23 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military-led government said on Thursday that it's moved former civilian leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to a solitary confinement prison in Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi, 76, has been in the custody of the military junta since a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. She has since been charged with nearly two dozen criminal offenses, including corruption and using unauthorized communications devices. The charges could keep her in prison for the rest of her life.

"By the law, it's confirmed that [Suu Kyi] has been moved to the prison," Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said, according to CNN. "And she's been kept at separate confinement well."

Deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to several years in prison on various

criminal charges that were filed after the junta takeover in Februry 2021. File Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE

Many senior members of Suu Kyi's government and party are among those held in Naypyidaw. Adviser and Australian economist Sean Turnell is also detained there.

Myanmar military brutalizing children, creating 'lost generation,' U.N. says

In April, the junta-led government sentenced Suu Kyi to five years in prison on a corruption conviction. Military prosecutors said she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold.

Suu Kyi has rejected the accusations and some independent legal experts have said they are sham charges intended solely to legitimize and justify the military takeover last year.

Since Suu Kyi's removal, the Myanmar military has tried and convicted Suu Kyi on other charges -- including possessing unauthorized walkie-talkies and violating COVID-19 restrictions. She'd already been sentenced to six years in prison on separate charges.

I seriously doubt that she will survive prison. The government can do what it likes there. There should be serious international repercussions for this.

At least 22 'students' dead in South African nightclub

while 'celebrating end of exams'

By JACK WRIGHT and ELIZABETH HAIGH FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:26 EDT, 26 June 2022

At least 22 people have been found dead inside a nightclub in South Africa amid claims they were poisoned. 

Police rushed to the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, a township in the southern city of East London, in the early hours of Sunday after receiving reports from the public.

Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said those killed in the club are believed to be aged between 18 and 20.

The Eastern Cape provincial community and safety department official Unathi Binqose ruled out a stampede as cause of death. He said he understood the patrons were students 'celebrating pens down, a party held after writing (high school) exams'. 

However, regional newspaper DispatchLive reported claims those who died were exposed to some kind of poison. 

Empty bottles of alcohol, wigs and even a pastel purple 'Happy Birthday' sash lay strewn on the dusty street outside the double-storey Enyobeni Tavern, according to Unathi Binqose, a safety government official who arrived at the scene at dawn. 

Local reports suggest none of the bodies had any obvious wounds or injuries, ruling out suggestions that a stampede or similar tragic incident would have occurred. 

At least once a year you hear about multiple deaths at Indian weddings where alcohol was provided, often made with toxic ingredients. This could be a similar catastrophe.

Crowds gather as forensic personnel investigate Enyobeni Tavern, in Scenery Park, today

Local media also reported: 'Bodies are lying strewn across tables, chairs and on the floor; with no obvious signs of injury'. 

Crowds of people, including parents whose children were missing, gathered on Sunday outside the tavern where the tragedy happened in the city of East London, while mortuary vehicles collected the bodies.

Senior government officials rushed to the southern city. They included national Police Minister Bheki Cele, who broke down in tears after emerging from a morgue where the bodies were being stored.

'It's a terrible scene,' he told reporters. 'They are pretty young... It breaks (you).'

The provincial government of Eastern Cape said at least eight girls and 13 boys had died. Seventeen were found dead inside the tavern. The rest died in hospital.

Drinking is permitted for over-18s in township taverns, commonly known as shebeens, which are often situated cheek by jowl with family homes or, in some cases, inside the homes themselves.

But safety regulations and drinking-age laws are not always enforced.

'We have a child that was there, who passed away on the scene,' said the parents of a 17-year-old girl.

'This child, we were not thinking was going to die this way. This was a humble child, respectful,' said grieving mother Ntombizonke Mgangala, standing next to her husband outside the morgue.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is attending the G7 summit in Germany, sent his condolences.

He voiced concern 'about the reported circumstances under which such young people were gathered at a venue which, on the face of it, should be off-limits to persons under the age of 18'.

The authorities are now considering whether to revise liquor licensing regulations. South Africa is among the countries in Africa where most alcohol is consumed.

'The number has increased to 20, three have died in hospital. But there are still two who are very critical,' the head of the provincial government safety department Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe said on local TV. This was before the confirmed death toll rose to 22.

A visibly shocked head of the Eastern Cape Province Oscar Mabuyane spoke from outside the scene, a building surrounded by houses in an area called Scenery Park.

'It's absolutely unbelievable, we can't understand it, losing 20 young lives just like that,' he told reporters, condemning 'this unfortunate consumption, unlimited consumption of liquor'.

'You can't just trade in the middle of society like this and think that young people are not going to experiment,' he said.

Local television showed police officers trying to calm down a crowd of people gathered outside the club in the city, which lies on the Indian Ocean coast, nearly 620 miles south of Johannesburg.

Mr Kinana told the Newzroom Africa rolling news channel: 'The SAPS confirms that about 17... were found dead inside a local cabin in Scenery Park, in the area of East London.

'We received this report in the early hours of Sunday. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation as we speak.

'We do not want to make any speculations at this stage. Our investigation is continuing.'

Russia’s secret UFO files reveal fighter jet was buzzed by strange lights

& 600mph craft moving like ‘no human aircraft’

Henry Holloway

10:50, 27 Jun 2022

RUSSIAN pilots encountered strange lights in the sky and soldiers witnessed objects moving in ways like no human aircraft, secret documents reveal.

Newly uncovered Cold War-era files reveal that it was not just the US who was experiencing encounters with strange objects in the sky - but the same phenomena was being seen in the Soviet Union.

KGB documents showing a sketch of a saucer shape firing a beam'

KGB documents show scores of reports by Russian soldiers, airmen and pilots as they observed eerie shapes, huge objects, glimmering lights and mysterious flashes.

Some of the most striking reports include a Russian colonel who reported a shape-shifting object which fired a "beam of light" towards the ground.

Others include a MiG-21 pilot who was baffled by a mysterious object, and a witness who saw an object that did not move like any known human machine.

The Sun Online can reveal these documents as Russia waded into the UFO debate - which has become a hot topic in Washington DC.

There is much more on this story at the Scottish Sun, including more photos and documents.

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Dozens of sailors confirm their warships were swarmed by

'at least 100' otherworldly UFOs

> Naval crew have told documentary maker Jeremy Corbell that US warships were swarmed in 2019 by 'at least 100' UFOs with unexplainable capabilities

>Last year Corbell published videos from the warship incidents that set social media ablaze

>The videos were verified by the Pentagon and showed flashing objects hovering above US Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean 

>In an historic hearing on UFOs last month, Navy chiefs tried to explain away the incident, saying they were 'reasonably confident' the objects were drones

>Corbell is now hitting back, claiming that he has 'dozens' of accounts from crew, investigators and briefed officials who say that the UFOs were otherworldly 

>The nature and origin of the craft are still unknown, and witnesses say that they flew in ways that would put publicly known drone technology to shame

>A crewman with direct knowledge of the case, who spoke to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity, called the incident 'world-changing' 

By JOSH BOSWELL and CHRIS SHARP FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Please go to the Daily Mail for the full story, more photos and videos.

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Covid-19 > 50 poisonings from Rapid Test kit; Nerve damage for some long-Covid cases; More Warnings for Covid-19 test kits

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50 calls made to poison control centres overexposure

to COVID-19 rapid test kit ingredients

CBC News · 

Posted: Feb 24, 2022 3:04 PM ET 

A health care worker hands out COVID-19 rapid tests to people at the Bear Creek rapid test

distribution centre in Surrey, B.C. on Jan. 18. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

At least 50 calls have been made to poison control centres in Canada over accidental exposure to certain ingredients in COVID-19 rapid test kits, which can be poisonous if swallowed or absorbed through the skin, warns Health Canada.

In an advisory released on Thursday, the federal department stressed the kits are safe and effective when used as intended. However, many test kits include liquid solutions with chemical preservatives, such as sodium azide and ProClin preservatives that can pose a danger if ingested — particularly for children and pets.

"Small doses of sodium azide can lower blood pressure, and larger doses may cause more serious health effects. ProClin is also found in many kits. It contains chemicals that can cause skin and eye irritation, as well as allergic reactions," the advisory continues.

It also notes that the various rapid test kits made available for people to use from local health units, schools, workplaces or other avenues might not have labelling or instructions that disclose the risks associated with "misuse or accidental ingestion."

Health Canada recommends to:

Keep rapid antigen test kits and solutions out of the reach of children and pets.

Do not swallow the solutions, and avoid eye and skin contact.

Wash hands thoroughly after use. If spillage occurs, rinse well with water.

Follow all instructions for proper disposal.

Report any health product-related side effects or complaints to Health Canada.

Contact your local poison information and control centre in cases of accidental ingestion of chemicals or direct skin exposure.

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Nerve damage may explain some cases of long COVID, U.S. study suggests

60% of patients in small study had nerve damage, which may point to new treatments

Thomson Reuters · 

Posted: Mar 02, 2022 11:57 AM ET 

This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the United States. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. (NIAID)

A small study of patients suffering from persistent symptoms long after a bout of COVID-19 found that nearly 60 per cent had nerve damage possibly caused by a defective immune response, a finding that could point to new treatments, researchers have found.

The new U.S. study involved in-depth exams of 17 people with so-called long COVID, a condition that arises within three months of a COVID-19 infection and lasts at least two months.

"I think what's going on here is that the nerves that control things like our breathing, blood vessels and our digestion in some cases are damaged in these long COVID patients," said Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author on the study published in the journal Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation.

As many as 30 per cent of people who have COVID-19 are believed to develop long COVID, a condition with symptoms ranging from fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, chronic pain, sensory abnormalities and muscle weakness.

Oaklander and colleagues focused on patients with symptoms consistent with a type of nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy. All but one had had mild cases of COVID-19, and none had nerve damage prior to their infections.

After ruling out other possible explanations for the patients' complaints, the researchers ran a series of tests to identify whether the nerves were involved.

"We looked with every single major objective diagnostic test," Oaklander said. The vast majority had small fibre neuropathy, meaning damage to small nerve fibres that detect sensations and regulate involuntary bodily functions such as the cardiovascular system and breathing.

Findings consistent with earlier study

The findings are consistent with a July study by Dr. Rayaz Malik of Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar that found an association between nerve fibre damage in the cornea and a diagnosis of long COVID.

In the current study, 11 of the 17 patients were treated with either steroids or intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), a standard treatment for patients with small nerve fibre damage caused by an immune response. Some improved though none were cured.

While the results would only apply to long COVID patients with this type of nerve damage, it is possible that immunotherapy could be helpful, said Dr. Avindra Nath, an expert in neuroimmunology at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and a study co-author.

"To me, it suggests that we need to do a proper prospective study of these kinds of patients" testing the drugs in a randomized trial, Nath said.

My question is, what would these symptoms typically be misdiagnosed as?

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FDA Warns of Possible False Results From Some COVID-19 Tests

By Jack Phillips

Epoch Times 

March 2, 2022

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday said that three rapid COVID-19 tests should not be used because of the potential for producing false results.

The FDA told people to stop using the Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test, the SD Biosensor Inc. STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag Home Test, and the Flowflex SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test (Self-Testing).

“The FDA is concerned about the risk of false results when using” those tests, according to the agency. These tests have “not been authorized, cleared or approved by the FDA for distribution or use in the United States,” the agency added.

All three tests work via nasal swab, the agency said. It recommended that health care providers have patients submit to new testing if they’ve used any of the three tests fewer than two weeks ago.

Epoch Times Photo: The FDA said ACON Laboratories has recalled all of its Flowflex tests, SD Biosensor has recalled its tests, and Celltrion USA has recalled all of its DiaTrust tests.

“People should not use the Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test that is in green and white packaging,” the FDA said, including a photo of the test.

Epoch Times Photo

(FDA)

SD Biosensor’s “unauthorized test may be packaged in a white and magenta box,” the FDA said.

In February, the FDA issued warnings about the E25Bio COVID-19 Direct Antigen Rapid Test, the Empowered Diagnostics CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test, and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test for similar reasons. Recalls were also initiated for the tests.

And the ACON Laboratories tests are packaged in a dark blue box, according to the agency.

Epoch Times Photo

(FDA)

The FDA said it has “not received reports of injuries, adverse health consequences, or death associated with use of” any of the three tests.

In a statement, ACON Laboratories stated that the unauthorized tests are an “adulterated and misbranded counterfeit product.”

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning people to stop using the Empowered Diagnostics CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test,” the health agency’s statement said at the time. “These tests were distributed with labeling indicating they are authorized by the FDA, but neither test has been authorized, cleared, or approved by the FDA for distribution or use in the United States.”

It also comes as some poison control centers warned people not to improperly use at-home COVID-19 tests because they contain sodium azide, a potentially toxic substance. Some local poison control centers and hospitals have warned about an uptick in phone calls about exposures to the chemical.

Tests made by Flowflex and Celltrion contain the substance.

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Russophobia - Skripal Poisoning Handling Leaves Room for Manipulation

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UK Defense ministry document reveals Skripals blood samples

could have been manipulated

By Dilyana Gaytandzhieva - Dilyana.BG

September 3, 20210

Incredible transformation: Yulia Skripal (left) following the alleged poisoning with the deadliest known nerve agent Novichok. Yulia and her father Sergei Skripal (right) before the alleged nerve agent poisoning.

New evidence has emerged of gross violations during the UK investigation into the alleged poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury on 4th March 2018. The new revelations put into question the main evidence that the Skripals were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.

The blood samples taken from the Skripals could have been tampered with so that they test positive for Novichok, newly disclosed information obtained from the UK Ministry of Defense reveals. Furthermore, documents show that Russia was not the only country in the world that could be linked to the nerve agent Novichok.

The US had covered up its own Novichok program masked as research on fourth generation nerve agents (FGAs) and muzzled the Organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW) a decade before the Skripals attack.

Breach of chain of custody

Newly disclosed information obtained from the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) under the Freedom of Information Act questions the integrity of the main evidence that the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, namely their blood samples. The ministry is in charge of the British military laboratory DSTL Porton Down which analyzed the Skripals blood samples and reportedly identified Novichok.

“Our searches have failed to locate any information that provides the exact time that the samples were collected”, the ministry states. The information held by MOD therefore indicates that the samples were collected at some point between 16:15 on 4 March 2018 and 18:45 on 5 March 2018 (the approximate time according to MOD when the samples arrived at DSTL Porton Down). Even the time of arrival at Porton Down is indicated as “approximate”.

The lack of this information is gross violation and breach of the chain of custody. The UK NHS protocol requires that a request form accompany all specimens sent to the laboratory and clearly state the exact (not approximate) date and time of collection. This newly disclosed information questions the whole Skripals Novichok poisoning story. The fact that the chain of custody of these blood samples was broken directly suggests that they could have been manipulated and tampered with.

There is so much more on this story, some of it a little technical. There is also some reference to the Navalny poisoning. Read it at DILYANA.BG. 

How UK Police Painstakingly Traced Suspects in Skripal Nerve-Agent Attack

Jonathon Gatehouse, CBC News

In this handout photo issued by the London Metropolitan Police, Salisbury Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander

Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are shown on CCTV on Fisherton Road, Salisbury, the day of the nerve-agent attack.

(Metropolitan Police via Getty Images)

There are somewhere between 4 million and 6 million CCTV cameras in the United Kingdom, according to the best estimates.

The Metropolitan Police in London operate 10,000 of them. The city's underground has 11,000 in use. And the major rail network that spans the country boasts 4,000 more.

All of which helps explain how British investigators were able to track almost every step of the two Russian men they charged today in connection with the March 4 Novichok poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern city of Salisbury.

Alexander Petrov, right, and Ruslan Boshirov are suspected of poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal

and his daughter Yulia. (EPA-EFE)

A team of 250 officers examined 11,000 hours of footage to zero-in on their suspects and then piece together how they carried out the attack.

Standing in the House of Commons this morning, Prime Minister Theresa May outlined the "painstaking and methodical work" that led police to identify and charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in absentia with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and possession and use of the deadly nerve agent. And to link the men to the later, presumably accidental, poisoning death of Dawn Sturgess and the sickening of her boyfriend Charlie Rowley.

May explained how the Russian pair arrived at London's Gatwick airport at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 2, aboard an Aeroflot flight. They then travelled to the city centre by train, taking the tube to their discount hotel near the main site of the 2012 Summer Games.

In this photo issued by the Metropolitan Police, Salisbury Novichok poisoning suspects Alexander

Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are shown on CCTV at Salisbury train station on March 3.

(Metropolitan Police via Getty Images)

They journeyed by train to Salisbury the next afternoon, on what police believe was a reconnaissance mission, returning to London two hours later.

May described how on Sunday, March 4, the day the Skripals fell deathly ill, the two men took a morning train to Salisbury. They were filmed walking along a road near Sergei's home just before noon. By late afternoon, they were back in London and one their way to Heathrow, where they boarded another Aeroflot flight to Moscow, touching down in Russia before British authorities even figured out what they were dealing with.

"There is no other line of inquiry beyond this," May told the Commons, saying her government believes the two men are agents of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service.

A reasonable assumption, although it is certainly possible they were working for someone who wants to destroy Putin. If that were the case, I seriously doubt that Putin would protect them as he appears to be doing. 

Skripal was, apparently, sharing info on Russian oligarchs to MI5, which would be the obvious motive for attempting to kill him. It means, Putin may not have been involved, or Putin may have been protecting the oligarchs, of which he is one. Again, his protection of the agents who appear to have administered the Novichok, may indicate the latter to be true.

A still image from CCTV footage recorded on Feb. 27, 2018, shows former Russian spy Sergei Skripal

buying groceries at the Bargain Stop convenience store in Salisbury. (AFP/Getty Images)

"As we made clear in March, only Russia had the technical means, operational experience and motive to carry out the attack."

At a news conference in London, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, a senior counter-terrorism investigator, released a dozen images of the men, showing their arrival on British soil, journeys in London and Salisbury, and eventual departure.

He confirmed the Russian passports were authentic and that the men had used them to enter the U.K. on several previous occasions. But Basu said that police assume the names the men used are aliases, and appealed for information about their true identities.

Police also disclosed new details about how the Novichok was smuggled into the country, providing pictures of a bronze-coloured Nina Ricci 'Premier Jour' perfume box and bottle. The manufacturer says both are fakes.

The counterfeit perfume atomiser found at the property of Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley

had a modified spray mechanism. (Metropolitan Police via Getty Images)

Detectives believe that the two men sprayed the nerve agent over Skripal's front door using a long white plastic spray nozzle.

In mid-June, Charlie Rowley found the perfume box and bottle inside a charity donation bin in the nearby town of Amesbury and took it home. He spilled some of the bottle's contents on his hands while attaching the nozzle. Sturgess, his partner, sprayed a great deal more on her wrists and fell ill almost immediately.

The U.K. has issued Europe-wide arrest warrants for the two suspects and has added their names to Interpol's red notice list, but there will be no formal extradition request as the Putin government will not allow its citizens to be tried overseas.

"Should either of these individuals ever again travel outside Russia, we will take every possible step to detain them, to extradite them and to bring them to face justice here in the United Kingdom," May told the House of Commons.

Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in Salisbury along with her father, has recovered from the attack

and is seen here speaking to reporters in London on May 23. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

And in the interim, the U.K. will push for new EU sanctions against Russia, and will step up counter-intelligence operations against the GRU, the prime minister added.

But justice will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

In Moscow, Yuri Ushakov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that the names released by the British "do not mean anything to me."  

Andrey Kortunoy, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, suggested that "two photos and two maybe fake names doesn't mean that much."

An exceptionally cool response in a renewed Cold War.

Is Putin trying to take Russia back into the Soviet days? Does he consider them to be the glory days of the empire? They were certainly the glory days of the KGB; perhaps Putin thinks they are one and the same?

UK Restricting OPCW Access to Amesbury and Salisbury Cases, Says ex-UN Chemical Weapons Inspector

A police officer stands in front of screening erected behind John Baker House, Britain, July 5, 2018

© Henry Nicholls / Reuters

The UK is restricting the work of OPCW specialists involved in the investigation into the Amesbury poisonings, says a former UN chemical inspector, after Britain invited experts to assist with the case.

Detailing that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) remit will be limited by the UK’s ‘technical assistance request,’ Anton Utkin, a former UN chemical inspector in Iraq, stated: “The UK’s desire is that OPWC confirm the chemical agent, that the UK has already identified. That means that the OPWC specialists will be limited to take only those samples that UK will allow, they will interview only those people that the UK would allow.

“So it's very important for the UK that OPWC specialists only perform their requested tasks, otherwise the information about the investigation could spill out.”

It's kind of like detectives showing you slides of a crime scene, but only allowing you to see 3 or 4 of the dozens of slides, then demanding that you agree with their theory.

Experts from the OPCW will return to the UK following a request from the UK Deputy Permanent Representative who invited them to assist the work already taking place – in accordance with Article VIII 38 (e) of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In March, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury by what the UK government reported to be the Russian military-grade nerve agent ‘Novichok.’ The Skripals have since recovered and were discharged from hospital.

Utkin who has previously led the process of destroying chemical weapons in Russia, said of the poisonings of Yulia and Sergei Skripal, that: “If you read the report of the Salisbury technical assistance, the OPCW stated very clearly they were not allowed by the UK to identify other chemicals found in the sample, other than those that were requested. And we know that the UK asked to confirm only one chemical A-234 [referred to by the British government as Novichok].

“So here’s the question, why was the technical assistance only asked after such a long time after Sturgess and Rowley were exposed to the poison. Because the UK would like to make sure that the OPWC would be directed only to the right spot to take the samples.”

On July 4, British police reported that a local couple was poisoned in Amesbury, a town not far from where the Skripal incident occurred. One victim, Charlie Rowley, 45, recovered, while his partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in hospital.

The time that has passed from the initial poisoning to the London’s request, was also cause for concern for Utkin. “It might be too late to take samples [from Charlie Rowley] because after three-four weeks the chemical nerve agent, would be washed out of the body due to metabolism. It might be difficult to find the enzyme affected by the nerve agent.”

In the case of [Dawn] Sturgess who died, metabolism processes have stopped, it is then possible to find the enzyme which was affected by the nerve agent. There is a chance.”

Utkin reiterated that it's the limited nature of the OPWC’s remit that will hinder the investigation. “I believe that if we were able to know about other chemicals that would be found in the bodies of the victims, it would shine light on what really happened to them.”

If the Novichok was Planted by Russia, Where’s the Evidence?

This is a good sign in our continual search for what's true - The Guardian is questioning the government's near-hysterical ranting against Russia and Putin. It's about time!

Simon Jenkins, The Guardian

No one has a clue about the Wiltshire poisonings – though the most obvious motive is someone out to embarrass Vladimir Putin

Emergency services on the scene of the latest novichok scare in Amesbury. In this still from a video, a man found unconscious is taken out on a stretcher. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

I seem to be the only person alive with no clue as to who has poisoned four people in Wiltshire. 

I am told that only Russians have access to the poison, known as novichok – though the British research station of Porton Down, located ominously nearby, clearly knows a lot about it. Otherwise, I repeat, I have no clue. 

It is very curious to me that both Novichok events occurred within a few kilometers of Porton Down, UK's very large chemical research community. Check out this map. Porton Down is even closer to Amesbury than it is to Salisbury. If I were investigating these poisonings, I would start right there.

I suppose I can see why the Kremlin might want to kill an ex-spy such as Sergei Skripal and his daughter, so as to deter others from defecting. But why wait so long after he has fled, and why during the build-up to so highly politicised an event as a World Cup in Russia?

Four months on from the crime, the Skripals have been incommunicado in a “secure location”. Barely a word has been heard from them. Theresa May has persistently blamed Russia. She has called the incident “brazen and despicable”, and MI5 condemned “flagrant breaches of international rules”. But I cannot see the diplomatic or other purchase in prejudging the case, when no one can offer a clue.

As to why the same person or persons should want to kill a couple, unconnected to the Skripals, on an Amesbury housing development, the questions are even more baffling. It seems a funny sort of carelessness. Did the couple pick up the infecting agent nearer the original site, eight miles away? Might the new poisoning be an attempt to divert attention from the earlier one? Could it be a devious plot, to make it seem that novichok is available on every street corner, from your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer? Or perhaps one of the victims, Charlie Rowley, has mates in Porton Down? Perhaps someone is showing off, or panicking, or behaving like a complete idiot. Who knows?

 The most obvious motive would surely be from someone out to

embarrass Vladimir Putin - one of his enemies

Now, I wonder who that might include? Gosh, hmmmm, UK? NATO? Deep State? USA? Ukraine? Oligarchs? Political Opposition in Russia? George Soros? No! It was clearly Putin determined to embarrass himself and ensure more sanctions on his country. That's the only thing that makes any sense, at least, to Theresa.

Since I have not a smidgen of an answer to any of these questions, I feel no need to capitulate to the politics of terror and fear. I can open my front door without cleaning my hand. I can visit Wiltshire in peace and safety and marvel at the spire of Salisbury Cathedral. I can revel in the remains of the bronze age Amesbury archer – whose death from bone disease has finally been resolved by the scientists. Where knowledge is nonexistent, ignorance is bliss.

That clearly does not apply to government ministers, for whom ignorance is not a sufficient condition for silence. The home secretary, Sajid Javid, said it was time “the Russian state comes forward and explains exactly what has gone on”. His security minister, Ben Wallace, had earlier reached the same conclusion, given that the Russians “had developed novichok, they had explored assassination programmes in the past, they had motive, form and stated policy”.

Like Javid, he asserted “to a very high assurance” that Russia was to blame, and spoke of “the anger I feel at the Russian state. They chose to use a very, very toxic, highly dangerous weapon,” and should “come and tell us what happened”. Since Moscow vigorously denies any involvement, it is hard to see how the Russians would now “explain”.

Specialist officers in protective suits investigate the first novichok incident – the poisoning of the Skripals, in Salisbury. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Surely, three months after the poison attack on the Skripals, ministers could have produced some evidence for all these accusations? I am at a loss to see what motive the Kremlin might have to commit murders on foreign soil during the buildup, let alone the enactment, of a sporting event that is of mammoth chauvinist significance to Russia.

Clearly it is possible that freelancers, wildcats or private contract killers could have operated at many removes from the Kremlin. But who knows? The most obvious motive for these attacks would surely be from someone out to embarrass the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – someone from his enemies, rather than from his friends or employees. But once again we have no clue.

That the Skripal attack was not long before Russian elections might lend credence to this theory.

As it is, all we can see are the devious tools of the new international politics. We see the rush to judgment at the bidding of the news agenda. We see murders and terrorist incidents hijacked for political gain or military advantage. Ministers plunge into Cobra bunkers. Social media and false news are weaponised. So too are sporting events.

Sport is the most flagrant. The plea that “politics should be kept out of sport” is as hopeless as demanding the exclusion of corruption and fraud. The very phrase, “international” sport, drips with politics. Why else do politicians shower sports festivals with taxpayers’ cash? As the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz would say, such events are the continuation of war by other means. Witness the obscene glee with which the British tabloids greeted Germany’s ejection from the World Cup last week.

Any politicians or heads of state who grace an international sporting fixture – not least one as self-congratulatory as an event hosted by Russia – cannot pretend their presence is apolitical. Hence the pressure on Theresa May to boycott the World Cup because of the Wiltshire poisoning – assuming that she ever intended to go, that is.

To all this there is an easy way out. As we flounder through the novichok morass without a jot of evidence, these crimes should be treated as they remain, local cases of attempted murder. They should be detached from global power plays, political grandstanding and penalty shootouts. They belong to the Wiltshire police and their advisers.

If nothing eventually emerges to implicate Moscow in the poisonings, more fool the politicians. If they were indeed a Russian plot, then the time to get justifiably angry is when this has been proved. Until then, I recommend the tennis.

• Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Another Wiltshire Couple Poisoned with Novichok

UK police say couple in Wiltshire contaminated

with same substance as Skripals

Police officers stand next to a section of a cordoned off playing field near Amesbury Baptist Church.

© Henry Nicholls / Reuters

British authorities are saying that the couple that is currently in critical condition in Salisbury hospital was exposed to the same substance as Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March.

UK counter-terrorism chief Neil Basu said that the substance was 'Novichok,' the same one that the UK claims the Skripals were poisoned with. He said that police did not know how it was transmitted. 

The affected people are both British and in their mid-40s, and Basu said there was nothing in the pair's background to suggest they would be a target, yet their connection to the Skripal case is being investigated.

Earlier, Wiltshire Police declared a “major incident” in the town of Amesbury, around 12 kilometers from Salisbury, over a man and woman, both British in their 40s, being hospitalized after “suspected exposure to an unknown substance.”

The pair was discovered unconscious in a property in Muggleton Road on Saturday, but Wiltshire Police did not report the incident until Wednesday. The UK's chief medical officer said during the press conference on Wednesday that the risk to the general public from the Wiltshire case was low.

"This evening I’ve received test result from Porton Down [laboratory] that show that the two people have been exposed to the nerve agent ‘Novichok,'” Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said, adding that it has been identified as “the same nerve agent that contaminated Yulia and Sergey Skripal.”

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced he will preside over a meeting of the government's emergency committee on Thursday. He praised the "tireless professionalism" of Salisbury Hospital staff and said the new incident "follows the reckless and barbaric attack which took place in Salisbury." Javid asked that the police be "given space" to establish the circumstances of the new incident.

No doubt, police are furiously looking for an excuse to blame Putin. They didn't find one in the Skripal case but that didn't stop Theresa from blaming him. My suspicions are that the Skripals were poisoned by Russian oligarchs who were trying to protect their money-laundering schemes around the world. That, apparently, was what Sergei Skripal was talking to MI6 about before he was so rudely interrupted.

Of course, Putin is an oligarch so he could have been involved, however, I am convinced that if he was involved, the job would have been done right.