World News Roundup: Salisbury poisoning, China's involvement in US election

Salisbury poisoning suspect named as a Russian colonel by UK media

The real identity of one of the men wanted by Britain for the Salisbury nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter is Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga, according to media reports on Wednesday which said he was a decorated Russian colonel. Earlier this month, British prosecutors charged two Russians - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - with attempted murder for the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals in the southern English city in March but said they believed the suspects had been using aliases to enter Britain.

Trump accuses China of 2018 election meddling; Beijing rejects the charge

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China of seeking to meddle in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, saying Beijing did not want his Republican Party to do well because of his pugnacious stance on trade. "China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November. Against my administration," Trump told a U.N. Security Council meeting whose ostensible subject was nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Venezuela's Maduro heads to New York, Trump says open to meeting

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro headed for New York on Wednesday to attend the United Nations General Assembly and U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be open to meeting the socialist leader of the crisis-stricken South American nation. Venezuela's government had not previously said whether Maduro would attend the U.N. meeting. Maduro said last week he might not attend, adding "they have me in their sights to kill me" without specifying who might target him.

The U.S. flies bombers over the South China Sea amid heightened tensions with Beijing

The U.S. military flew B-52 bombers in the vicinity of the South China Sea this week, U.S. officials told Reuters, a move that is likely to cause anger in Beijing amid heightened tensions between the two countries. Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said that B-52 bombers transited over the South China Sea as part of "regularly scheduled operations designed to enhance our interoperability with our partners and allies in the region."

Turkey's Erdogan calls on Germany to list Gulen group as a terrorist

President Tayyip Erdogan, on the eve of a visit to Germany, urged it to designate as a terrorist organization the Fethullah Gulen movement, which Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt. Germany has previously rejected this request, saying it needs more proof linking the network of supporters of the U.S.-based cleric, which Turkey labels the Gulenist Terrorist Organisation (FETO), to the failed attempt to overthrow the Turkish government.

Trump sees no time frame for North Korea deal, the second summit coming

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he did not have a time frame for North Korea to denuclearize just as his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, plans to visit Pyongyang again next month to set up a second summit for Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "I think we're really going to do something that's going to be very important, but we're not playing the time game," Trump told reporters in New York, responding to a question at a news conference. "If it takes two years, three years or five months - doesn't matter."

Lawmakers urge the U.S. to call Myanmar's Rohingya campaign genocide

Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee called on the Trump administration on Wednesday to declare the Myanmar military's campaign against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority a genocide, days after a State Department report stopped short of that description. "Making a formal determination of genocide must be the next step for the U.S.," Representative Ed Royce, the committee's chairman, told a hearing on the issue. "Defining these atrocities for what they are is critical to building international public awareness – and support – to stop them."

U.S. pressure could work only if Iran deal survives: France

France's president said on Wednesday that the United States' sanctions policy on Iran could force Tehran to negotiate, but only if European powers are able to ensure it sticks to a 2015 nuclear deal that is preventing hard-liners from taking control. U.S. President Donald Trump used a session on nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction at the U.N. Security Council to defend his May 8 decision to abandon the nuclear pact under which Tehran limited its nuclear program in return for the easing of U.S., European and international economic sanctions.

Trump says he wants a two-state solution for the Mideast conflict

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he wanted a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the clearest expression yet of his administration's support for such an outcome. The Trump administration has in the past said it would support a two-state solution if both sides agreed to it.

Rouhani says Iran does not wish to go to war with U.S. forces in the region

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday Tehran had no intension to go to war with U.S. forces in the Middle East, where Iran has been involved in proxy wars with U.S. ally Saudi Arabia for decades. "We do not wish to go to war with American forces in the region," Rouhani told a news conference.

(With inputs from Reuters)