EU agrees hair-trigger sanctions on chemical weapons

People who abuse chemical weapons are to face EU travel bans and asset freezes in a new hair-trigger mechanism - bypassing the old delays of national sanctions regimes.

Those guilty of human rights abuses could be next in line, in an EU version of what the US calls a "Global Magnitsky Act".

The chemicals move could strike men like Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - two Russian spies deemed guilty by the UK of having used novichok, a nerve toxin, to try to kill Sergei Skripal...