UK POLICE OFFICER GETS ‘ALL CLEAR’ AFTER TESTS

LONDON: A police officer was tested for possible exposure to the nerve agent Novichok in connection with the poisoning of a couple in southwest England on Saturday but was given the all clear, the local force said. “Pleased to confirm that the police officer who sought precautionary medical advice at Salisbury District Hospital in connection with the incident in Amesbury has been assessed and given the all- clear,” Wiltshire Police said on Twitter. A couple named locally as Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45, fell ill last weekend in the town of Amesbury, following what tests later confirmed was exposure to Novichok. Amesbury is not far from the city of Salisbury where a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by the same type of nerve agent in March. Novichok is a military- grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The British government accused Russia of trying to kill the Skripals, a charge Moscow angrily denied, sparking an international crisis.