The first fatality from a suspected Russian-ordered nerve agent attack on the UK received a high dose of deadly Novichok after handling a container believed to have been discarded by the attempted assassins of a former spy months earlier, it emerged on Monday.
British police said they had launched a murder inquiry after Dawn Sturgess, 44, a mother-of-three, died in hospital on Sunday from the effects of the Russian-made agent, while her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, remained critically ill in hospital.
Police were searching for the contaminated container at the homes of the couple and a park less than half-a-mile from the site where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found stricken in March.
Senior officers said they had not confirmed the agent was from the same batch used to smear the door handle of Mr Skripal’s home in the historic military town of Salisbury, but analysts said it was unlikely to have been from a different batch of the very rare agent.
“Our focus and priority at this time is to identify and locate any container that we believe may be the source of the contamination,” said Neil Basu, Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer. He said it “remains our main line of inquiry” that it was linked to the attack on the Skripals. He warned people to be careful of picking up needles, syringes or containers.
Experts said the attackers could have dropped an item when they retreated to the park to remove gloves and protective equipment and bag up syringes used in the assassination attempt before fleeing the country.
The discovery of any packaging could provide forensic clues that could help identify those responsible for the attack. The town centre is also covered by a modern security camera system that could provide fresh evidence for areas not previously considered.
Mr Skripal and his daughter survived the attack that sparked a global crisis with tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and pledges by the UK government to tackle the illicit wealth of Russians that flowed through its financial capital.
Britain also led efforts month to strengthen the powers of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global watchdog, in response to the Russian attack on the UK and the use of banned substances on attacks in Syria. The government held a crisis meeting on Monday following the escalation of the crisis.
Experts said that the death of Mrs Sturgess showed how Novichok could remain in the environment for months without breaking down and how hard it was to track down the substance. The agent was developed by Russia during the Cold War.
“One of the things that Novichok was designed to do was to be a very persistent agent,” said Philip Ingram, a former senior military intelligence officer and chemical warfare expert.
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Police have been traced the couple’s movements around the time they were infected and believe that they were together at Ms Sturgess’s hostel on June 29 before they walked to the park on a route that would likely have taken them close to where the Skripals were found slumped suffering from the effects of Novichok in March.
They spent time in the Queen Elizabeth Park before heading back to Ms Sturgess’s home and then by bus to Mr Rowley’s home in the nearby town of Mamesbury. Ms Sturgess fell ill at the house and was taken to hospital, before Mr Rowley himself fell ill later in the day.
Police revealed on Monday that Mr Rowley had travelled in a van with three other passengers on Saturday before he fell ill. All three men have been seen by medics and show no signs of being affected. The van was being examined by specialists at the government’s chemical weapons testing centre at nearby Porton Down.
Officials had initially believed that the pair, who both had long-standing addiction problems, were suffering from the effects of taking tainted drugs, before tests revealed that they had also suffered from exposure to Novichok.
The possibility that the would-be assassins dumped or accidentally dropped a container containing Novichok was the first sign of a flaw in what had previously appeared to be a professional operation, said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert.
“Everything until that moment seems very professional and what we would expect from the [Russian security agency] FSB,” he said. “Why would they discard it?”
If it was done deliberately, then the continued impact of an attack four months earlier would be seen as a successful outcome for Russian attempts to sow problems for one of its most outspoken critics of its foreign policy, he said.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Paris%20Agreement
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3EName%3A%20Tabby%3Cbr%3EFounded%3A%20August%202019%3B%20platform%20went%20live%20in%20February%202020%3Cbr%3EFounder%2FCEO%3A%20Hosam%20Arab%2C%20co-founder%3A%20Daniil%20Barkalov%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Payments%3Cbr%3ESize%3A%2040-50%20employees%3Cbr%3EStage%3A%20Series%20A%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Arbor%20Ventures%2C%20Mubadala%20Capital%2C%20Wamda%20Capital%2C%20STV%2C%20Raed%20Ventures%2C%20Global%20Founders%20Capital%2C%20JIMCO%2C%20Global%20Ventures%2C%20Venture%20Souq%2C%20Outliers%20VC%2C%20MSA%20Capital%2C%20HOF%20and%20AB%20Accelerator.%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Tim Paine (captain), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
