Theresa May says Russia responsible for poisoning former British spy

LONDON – In a move that threatens to worsen already tense relations between the Kremlin and the West, Prime Minister Theresa May blamed Russia for poisoning a former spy and his daughter eight days ago on British soil.

May told Parliament on Monday that Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia had been targeted with a “military grade” nerve agent known as “Novichok” that was developed by Russia.

She said she gave the Russian government until Wednesday to respond before deciding on retaliatory measures that could range from expulsion of diplomats to further sanctions.

“Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in the House of Commons on Monday in London.

action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the U.K.,” she said. “And I will come back to this House and set out the full range of measures that we will take in response.”

Russia wasted little time in responding. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

called May’s statement a “circus act.”

May’s announcement comes less than a week before Russians go to vote in an election that will be almost certainly grant Vladimir Putin a fourth term as president. When asked if his country was to blame for the poisoning, Putin told the BBC: “Get to the bottom of things there, then we’ll discuss this.”

At stake for the U.K. is how much it is willing to alienate Russia, whose rich own property in London. The country is detaching from the European Union and the world could be on the brink of a trade war should U.S. President Donald Trump push ahead with steel tariffs.

Hitting back at Putin, whose struck an air of increase defiance with the annexation of Crimea and incursions in Syria, will require careful geopolitical consideration. Tom Tugendhat, chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, urged May to seek the support of allies, including the EU and NATO: “This, if not an act of war, was certainly a warlike act.”

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) – A plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames as it landed Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, killing at least 50 people, officials and witnesses said.

A top airport official said the pilot of Us-bangla Airlines flight BS211 did not follow landing instructions from the control tower and approached the airport’s one runway from the wrong direction.

“The airplane was not properly aligned with the runway. The tower repeatedly asked if the pilot was OK and the reply was ‘yes,’” said Raj Kumar Chetri, the airport’s general manager.

But a recording of the conversations between the pilot and air traffic controllers indicated confusion over which direction the plane should land.

In the recording, posted by the air traffic monitoring website liveatc.net, conversation veers repeatedly about whether the pilot should land on the airport’s single runway from the south or the north.

Just before landing the pilot asks “Are we cleared to land?”

Moments later, the controller comes back on, using a tone rarely heard in such conversations and tells the pilot: “I say again, turn!”

Seconds later, the controller orders firetrucks onto the runway.

The exact number of dead and injured remained unclear amid the chaos of the crash and the rush of badly injured people to nearby hospitals, but Brig. Gen. Gokul Bhandari, the Nepal army spokesman, said it was clear that at least 50 people had died. Kathmandu Medical College, the closest hospital to the airport, were treating 16 survivors.