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UK Counterterrorism Police to Probe Russian Ex-Spy's Mystery Illness

by Reuters

   LONDON --

   Britain's counterterrorism police will lead the investigation into a
   mysterious illness that struck down a Russian former double agent and
   his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury, police said on
   Tuesday.
   Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were critically
   ill in a hospital after being found unconscious on Sunday on a bench
   outside a shopping center in the city.
   "Due to the unusual circumstances, it has been decided that the
   Counterterrorism Policing network will lead the investigation as it has
   the specialist expertise to do so," London's Metropolitan Police said
   in a statement.
   "It has not been declared a terrorist incident and at this stage we are
   keeping an open mind as to what happened."