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Two men named as suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in the UK have said they were merely tourists.

The men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, told the RT channel they travelled to Salisbury on two consecutive days because bad weather cut short their visit on the first day.

They are accused by the UK of trying to kill Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. The UK says they are agents of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.

« The town was covered by this slush. We got wet, took the nearest train and came back » to London, they told RT, Russia’s state-run international broadcaster. The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said there is enough evidence to charge the men, who are understood to have travelled to London from Moscow on 2 March on Russian passports.

Two days later, police say, they applied the military-grade Russian nerve agent Novichok to the front door of Mr Skripal’s home in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury. They returned to Russia later that day. Mr Skripal and his daughter fell critically ill but recovered after weeks of intensive care in hospital. Their current whereabouts are being kept secret.

After the RT interview was aired a UK government spokesperson reiterated that « these men are officers of the Russian military intelligence service – the GRU », and again accused Moscow of « obfuscation and lies ».

UK police are linking the attack to a separate Novichok poisoning on 30 June, when Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fell ill at a house in Amesbury, about 13km (eight miles) away.
On Wednesday President Vladimir Putin said « there is nothing criminal about them », calling the two men caught on security cameras in the UK « civilians ».

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A man has driven a car into a busy square in southern China, killing at least three people and injuring 43, local government officials say.

The car drove into the square in Hengyang city, Hunan province, at 19:40 local time (12:40 BST). Local media say that some victims appeared to have been stabbed.

The driver, who has a criminal record, has been detained, officials say.

Officials have not said whether the incident is terror related.

Video footage from the scene on Chinese media shows people running out of a packed square.

Others kneel down to help or carry the injured away, as bodies lie on the ground.

A Turkish intelligence agency has captured in Syria the chief suspect in the 2013 twin bomb attack in the border town of Reyhanli, Turkish media report.

State-run Anadolu news agency said the National Intelligence Organisation had apprehended Yusuf Nazik, a Turkish citizen, in the port city of Latakia. He had confessed to « acting on orders from Syrian intelligence », it added.

The Syrian government has denied that it played any role in the Reyhanli attack, which left 53 people dead.

The Turkish and Syrian governments are fighting on opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, with Ankara backing rebel forces trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Anadolu said National Intelligence Organisation agents had brought Mr Nazik to Turkey after capturing him in Latakia – a stronghold of the Syrian government – in a « carefully planned and executed operation » that involved « no intelligence or logistical support from a foreign state ».

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Russia has launched its biggest military exercise since the Cold War, involving about 300,000 service personnel, in eastern Siberia.

China is sending 3,200 troops to take part in « Vostok-2018 », with many Chinese armoured vehicles and aircraft. Mongolia is also sending some units.

The last Russian exercise of similar scale was in 1981, during the Cold War, but Vostok-2018 involves more troops.

The week-long manoeuvres come at a time of heightened Nato-Russia tensions. As the exercises began, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a forum in the eastern city of Vladivostok and told him « we have a trusting relationship in the sphere of politics, security and defence ».

Relations between Russia and Nato – a 29-member defence alliance dominated by the US – have worsened since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

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Ministers do not know the impact that funding cuts have had on police forces, the UK’s public spending watchdog says.

According to the National Audit Office, the Home Office does not know whether the police system in England and Wales is « financially sustainable ». It calls the approach to police funding « ineffective » and « detached » from the changing demands faced by officers.

A Home Office spokesman said the department had conducted a substantial review of police pressures last year.

However, the Home Office had not even forecast the effect of losing 44,000 police officers and staff since 2010, the NAO said.

Since September 2009 – the last set of Home Office figures before the Conservatives came into government – there has been a cut of 22,424 police officers.

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