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The United Nations atomic watchdog is undertaking a review of its relatively safe classification of polonium 210 following the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence officer. Until now the radioactive isotope responsible for Litvinenko's death was deemed "unlikely to be dangerous" and placed in category 4 of a five-category classification of radioactive sources, where category 1 is the most dangerous. The definitions were not designed to deal with cases where people had ingested significant amounts of the substances. But a spokesman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it was "definitely something we need to look at...

Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the KGB and its more recent incarnation known as the FSB, is a perfect example of an intelligence officer who transferred his loyalties from his country, and the people he was entrusted to serve, to the “enemy” for reasons other than monetary gain...His areas of expertise included counter-terrorism and organized crime. For reasons unknown, Litvinenko became a supporter of the Islamic terrorists leading the rebellion in the separatist region of Chechnya, despite the fact that they had murdered hundreds of his fellow Russians. [SNIP] The fact that Litvinenko recently died as a result of...

Russia's G8 envoy says speculation surrounding the death of Alexander Litvinenko has caused 'untold damage' to the regime. The admission comes after the focus of the investigation switched to Germany, with police revealing yesterday that one of the key witnesses to Mr Litvinenko's death, Dimitry Kovtun, was contaminated with polonium-210 in Hamburg. That was several days before he met the former Russian spy in a London hotel bar. The German inquiry is focusing on whether Mr Kovtun was in illegal contact with radioactive materials. Igor Shuvalov told Channel 4 News the death was done by someone who wanted to harm...

'Walking Dirty Bomb' Tells of London Meetings By Anna Sadovnikova, Hans Hoyng, Thomas Hüetlin and Uwe Klussmann A few days before he was put in quarantine in a Moscow hospital, Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi, believed to be one of Scotland Yard's main suspects in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, spoke to DER SPIEGEL about his meetings with the former spy. Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi during an interview on Ekho Moskvy radio in Moscow, November 23. Andrei Lugovoi, 40, former KGB agent, currently a kind of mini magnate in the Russian soft drinks industry, is the man British investigators believe left...

MOSCOW, December 11 (RIA Novosti) - The ex-wife of a witness in the case of a murdered former Russian security officer, her two children and boyfriend have been hospitalized in Germany with suspected polonium-210 poisoning, the head of the investigation team in Hamburg said Monday. He said a medical examination will show if their organisms contain a dangerous concentration of the radioactive element. Authorities did not identify them by name. Businessman Dmitry Kovtun met with defector Alexander Litvinenko around the time of his poisoning at the beginning of November. Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin's administration and a...

POLICE forces have been told to buy anti-radiation masks for their 100,000 frontline officers to protect them in the event of a “dirty bomb” terrorist attack. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has told all forces they should look to purchase specially designed chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) hoods as soon as possible. Senior officers are concerned that, with only 1,000 thought to have been distributed, their ability to deal with any radiation threat will be severely hampered. The transparent “escape hoods” are able to protect the wearer from harm for about 20 minutes, allowing him or her to...

Andrei Lugovoy, a contact of poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, is suffering from radiation poisoning, Interfax news agency said on Friday, quoting medical sources. "Disruption in the functioning of some organs affected by radiation nuclides has been found," the agency quoted a source as saying. It said it had more than one source for the information, which came from Lugovoy's medical notes. Businessmen Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun were among the last who saw Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day he fell ill. Litvinenko died on November 23 poisoned by the highly radioactive substance polonium 210. Interfax earlier quoted...

LONDON, Dec. 7 — Seven bartenders at an upscale hotel in central London have tested positive for radioactive contamination, the British authorities said Thursday, raising new questions about the radiation poisoning death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former Russian agent. In Moscow, Russia said it had opened its own criminal investigation into the death of Mr. Litvinenko, who was buried Thursday, two weeks after he died, in a private ceremony in London. Russian authorities also said a Russian businessman, Dmitri V. Kovtun, who was interviewed by British investigators in Moscow, was found to have signs of radioactive poisoning. In London,...

The death of Alexander Litvinenko by radiological poisoning points to the possibility that the former Soviet spy may have been involved with Islamic terrorists in the preparation of tactical nuclear weapons for use in the jihad against the United States and its NATO allies. (snip) In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to suitcase nukes that were developed by U.S. and Soviet forces during the Cold War. Reliable sources, including Hans Blix of the United Nation, have confirmed that bin Laden purchased several of these devices from the Chechen rebels in 1996. According to Sharif al-Masri and other al...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dmitry Kovtun, a contact of dead Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, is in critical condition in hospital from radiation poisoning, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying on Thursday. "Doctors have classified Kovtun's condition as critical," Interfax quoted its source as saying. Kovtun met Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day the former spy fell ill. Interfax also reported that Kovtun fell into a coma after British and Russian investigators working on the Litvinenko case had finished questioning him in a Moscow hospital. However, it gave no source for the information on a coma. A...

British detectives have questioned a Russian businessman who entertained Alexander Litvinenko in a London hotel on the day the former spy fell ill. At the same time Scotland Yard confirmed that the investigation into Litvinenko’s death by radiation poisoning had become a murder inquiry. Police have been following the trail across London left by Dimitri Kovtun and his close friend, Andrei Lugovoy. It includes a number of locations where polonium-210 has been found. Mr Kovtun was interviewed by Russian prosecutors yesterday in the presence of the British detectives, who arrived in Moscow on Monday. He and and Mr Lugovoy were...

British investigators are now treating the poisoning death of former Federal Security Service agent Alexander Litvinenko as murder. "It is important to stress that we have reached no conclusions as to the means employed, the motive or the identity of those who might be responsible for Mr. Litvinenko's death," Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Radioactive traces at Arsenal stadium December 6, 2006 - 12:11PM British investigators have found minute traces of polonium 210, the radioactive isotope that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, at a London soccer stadium. The traces were found at the stadium of English Premier League club Arsenal. "Minute quantities [of polonium] were found at barely detectable levels at localised areas," said Health Protection Agency spokeswoman Katherine Lewis. "There is no risk to public health." British police are in Moscow investigating Litvinenko's death in a case that has strained ties between Britain and Russia since the exiled former spy on his...

All Aglow THE trail of clues in the mysterious death of Alexander V. Litvinenko may lead to Moscow, as the former spy claimed on his deathbed. But solving the nuclear whodunit may prove harder than Scotland Yard and many scientists at first anticipated. The complicating factor is the relative ubiquity of polonium 210, the highly radioactive substance found in Mr. Litvinenko’s body and now in high levels in the body of an Italian associate, who has been hospitalized in London. Experts initially called it quite rare, with some claiming that only the Kremlin had the wherewithal to administer a lethal...

LONDON - Britain's senior law enforcement official said Sunday an inquiry into the death of a former KGB agent had expanded overseas, and a U.S.-based friend of the former agent said he told police the name of the person he believes orchestrated the poisoning. Yuri Shvets said had known the poisoned ex-spy, Alexander Litvinenko, since 2002 and spoke with him on Nov. 23, the day Litvinenko died following his exposure to a rare radioactive element, polonium-210. "The truth is, we have an act of international terrorism on our hands. I happen to believe I know who is behind the death...

THE Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has expressed his anger at Britain’s failure to gag Alexander Litvinenko in the final hours of his life, the cabinet has been told.Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, told ministers that the Russian government had “taken exception” to the poisoned former spy’s deathbed letter accusing the Putin regime of murdering him. This weekend a potential suspect — Andrei Lugovoi — admitted he had been contaminated with the radioactive poison polonium-210 but insisted: “I’ve been framed.” Beckett, who spoke to her Russian counterpart before Thursday’s cabinet meeting, said the Russians had “seemingly failed to understand” that Litvinenko...

Breaking News Mario Scaramella Radiation Hits Second Man Updated: 14:53, Friday December 01, 2006 A contact of an ex-Russian spy who died after ingesting a radioactive toxin has the same substance in his body, Sky News has learnt. Italian academic Mario Scaramella tested positive for isotope Polonium-210. He had met Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko at a sushi restaurant in London, shortly before he fell ill. Sky's Martin Brunt said Mr Scaramella had not shown the same symptoms as Mr Litvinenko, who suffered vomiting and loss of hair before he died.

Police fear that the murder of a former Kremlin spy may have been part of a double killing plot after a second man was taken to hospital last night with radiation poisoning. The Anti-Terror Group is examining whether the killers of Alexander Litvinenko also tried to poison Mario Scaramella, an Italian security expert who met the Russian exile on the day that he fell ill. Toxicologists confirmed yesterday that Mr Scaramella had also been contaminated by a “significant” amount of deadly polonium-210. The level leads them to suspect that it was more than he could have ingested from simple physical...

British Airways is trying to contact all 33,000 passengers who may have been exposed to radioactive traces that were found on two of its planes. Thousands of BA passengers were caught in the radiation scare last night after traces of a substance, thought to be the same that killed the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, were found on the planes. A spokesman for the airline said that, so far, 2,500 of the 33,000 passengers who are believed to have flown on 221 flights across Europe since the traces were found have called in to BA's dedicated helpline. The Government grounded...

The radioactive poison used to kill the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is being offered for sale over the internet for less than £40. A company in the US claims to supply polonium-210 to anyone for just $69 plus postage and packing. A three-pack set of “alpha, beta, gamma” radioactive isotopes also includes polonium-210. United Nuclear, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tells purchasers: “If you’re looking for clean, accurate, certified radiation sources, here they are. . . All isotopes are produced fresh in a nuclear reactor and shipped directly to you.” The company says that it has supplied radioactive materials...