British group says it ID’D a suspect in poisoning
An investigative group in Britain says it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an exRussian spy in the U.K. as a highly decorated colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.
The group, Bellingcat, said Wednesday that the suspect, whose passport name was Ruslan Boshirov, is in fact Col. Anatoliy Chepiga, who in 2014 was awarded Russia’s highest medal, the Hero of Russia.
But beyond a photo from Chepiga’s 2003 passport file resembling Boshirov, the report didn’t contain further proof that Boshirov and Chepiga are the same person.
Britain has charged Boshirov and another suspect, Alexander Petrov, with trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4 with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury.
UNITED NATIONS — Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro showed up unexpectedly at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to “defend his country” as six nations accused him of crimes against humanity and President Donald Trump hinted at taking military action.
The surprise visit came after Maduro threatened to skip the global gathering, citing fears he could be assassinated as his once-wealthy OPEC nation spirals into a brutal economic crisis and international pressure mounts for the socialist leader to step down.
In a rambling, 50-minute General Assembly speech directed mostly at U.S. policy, Maduro spoke for well over the allotted time and said that the United States “wants to continue giving orders to the world as though the world were its own property.”
It appeared unlikely that Maduro would cross paths with Trump, despite the U.S. president’s comments earlier in the day that he was willing to meet with his Venezuelan counterpart if it would help ease suffering in the South American nation.
“I’m willing to meet with anybody anytime I can (to) save lives, help people,” Trump said.
Maduro responded to the meeting