Detectives investigating the attempted murders of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal have said they believe the pair were poisoned with a nerve agent at the front door of his Salisbury home. Specialists investigating the poisoning of the the Skripals have found the highest concentration of the nerve agent on the front door at the address, police said. Counter-terrorism detectives will continue to focus their inquiries on the home address for the coming weeks, and possibly months, after the father and daughter were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury earlier this month.

Local police have retaken control of The Maltings shopping centre, where the Skripals were first discovered, and London Road cemetery from counter-terrorism detectives, where officers focused their investigation into the nerve agent attack in previous weeks. More than 130 people could have been exposed to the chemical weapon in the aftermath of the poisoning in Salisbury, which the UK government believes was committed by the Russian state. In response to the poisoning, more than 150 Russian officials have been expelled from more than 25 countries, and the UK government is considering further measures to punish Russia, including a ban on the City of London from selling Russian sovereign debt. Public health experts are still working to establish whether the nerve agent attack presents a long term risks to Salisbury’s residents, which will receive a £1m support package from central government to help recover.(theguardian)…[+]

The leaders of North and South Korea have agreed to hold a summit at a village on the border between the two countries on 27 April, only the third-ever such meeting and another sign of a thaw in relations. Senior officials of the two Koreas met on Thursday to prepare for a rare inter-Korean summit, days after the nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong-un made his international debut with a surprise trip to China. Kim is due to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in late April at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone, followed by landmark talks with US President Donald Trump which could come as early as May.

At the Unification Pavilion on Panmunjom’s northern side, the leader of Pyongyang’s delegation Ri Son Gwon said Thursday’s talks were aimed at paving the way for a meeting between the leaders of North and South – the first direct public reference to a summit by any Northern official or media outlet. “Over the past 80 days or so, many events that were unprecedented in inter-Korean relations took place,” said Ri, who is chairman of the North’s reunification committee. The rapid rapprochement on the peninsula was kicked off by the Winter Olympics in the South and comes after a year of heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes, which saw Kim and Trump engage in a fiery war of words.(theguardian)…[+]

The Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai has made a tearful return to Pakistan in her first visit to her native country since she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 for advocating education for girls.

Yousafzai, travelling with her father and younger brother, met the prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, in the capital, Islamabad, before giving a brief speech on national television. “It’s the happiest day of my life. I still can’t believe it’s happening,” she said, wiping away tears. I don’t normally cry … I’m still 20 years old but I’ve seen so many things in life,” she added. Yousafzai spoke of the importance of education and about the efforts of her charitable foundation to help girls, often switching between English and the Pashto and Urdu languages. “Welcome home,” Abbasi told Yousafzai. “When she went away, she was a child of 12. She has returned as the most prominent citizen of Pakistan.”(Theguardian)…[+]