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The British government sought on Tuesday to limit the information it would disclose at a planned inquest into the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former officer in the K.G.B. who succumbed to radiation poisoning in London more than six years ago. The coroner hearing the case said that it may now be postponed. “Due to the complexity of the investigation which necessarily precedes the hearings,” the coroner, Sir Robert Owen, said, “it may not be possible to adhere” to the planned May 1 start date for the hearings. The inquest would be the first — and probably the only...

The murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was carried out with the backing of the Russian state, Whitehall sources have told the BBC. A senior security official told Newsnight there were "very strong indications it was a state action". Mr Litvinenko, who was a fierce critic of former Russian President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned in London in 2006. UK investigators suspect former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi of the murder, but he has always denied any involvement. The BBC has been told that Russia's internal security organisation, the FSB, operated under Mr Putin with far more autonomy than the organisations...

Russian agents came close to carrying out the perfect assassination on British soil when they killed Alexander Litvinenko... Security sources have disclosed that the former Russian spy would have died within hours had the poisoned tea he was given been served hot. Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who had become a critic of the government of Russia's then president, Vladimir Putin... Security sources say that during the meeting Litvinenko took just a few sips of the tea but left the remainder of the cup because it was cold. "If Litvinenko had drunk all the tea he would have been dead...

AN ALLEGED attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. Oleg Gordievsky was admitted to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November last year. And yesterday he claimed he had been poisoned with the highly toxic metal thallium in a botched assassination attempt. Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the 1980s, claims he was targeted by a Russian assassin who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. The 69-year-old was unconscious for 34 hours after falling ill last year and...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

An international manhunt was launched last night for a Russian-born British media magnate whose mysterious disappearance has possible links to the murder of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.

The sudden death of an exiled Georgian billionaire may have been another "Alexander Litvinenko-style" murder, it is feared. A major crime squad is investigating the death of 52-year-old Badri Patarkatsishvili, whose body was found at his country mansion in Surrey at about 11pm last night. His family said he suffered a heart attack - but Surrey Police have launched an investigation to confirm the exact cause of death after reports of a plot to kill him. Sky News' home affairs correspondent Mark White said: "The police want to leave no stone uncovered. "In the light of Litvinenko's death in 2006...

...Litvinenko "was giving Scaramella lots of information about Russian and criminal infiltrations in Italy, but most of it was very difficult to verify and crosscheck. It was a little bit out on a limb." In the old days, Litvinenko had been familiar with criminal clans in Russia, now he was making risky approaches to the Italian mafia. Scaramella believed if they could get inside this network, they would be able to leverage much more damaging intelligence about Italian politicians. They spread their net wider. The Litvinenko dossier lists a dizzying roll call of names investigated by the pair, among them...

The former KGB officer named as a suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London said Wednesday the British government's case against him had collapsed and called the slain man a "traitor." In an interview with The Associated Press, Andrei Lugovoi, who is running for parliament in the Dec. 2 elections, said he expects his accusers to use the Nov. 23 anniversary of Litvinenko's agonizing death from radiation poisoning to renew calls for his extradition. But the 43-year-old multimillionaire said the Russian constitution prevents him being handed over, so he is not concerned about what British officials and Litvinenko's...

THE Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died after being poisoned, was an MI6 agent, it has been claimed. His death in November led to relations between London and Moscow plunging to their lowest since the Cold War. If the allegations are true, it will heighten pressure on Whitehall to have the main murder suspect extradited from Russia to stand trial in England. Litvinenko made a deathbed claim that he had been killed on the orders of Russian president Vladimir Putin, with whom he had several run-ins. The dissident's supporters allege the murder was ordered to send a 'deliberate message' to...

Al Qaeda 'Re-Emerging' in Pakistan Sanctuaries The U.S. military said Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a U.S. military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those...

If elected, Andrei Lugovoi would be granted immunity from prosecution A Russian businessman wanted in Britain on suspicion of murdering Alexander Litvinenko says he will stand for election to the Russian parliament. Andrei Lugovoi denies any involvement in former Russian agent Mr Litvinenko's death from poisoning in London in November 2006. He has said he will run for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) of the Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. If elected in December, Mr Lugovoi would get immunity from prosecution. "I confirm LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky's announcement that I have agreed to join the party's electoral list," Mr Lugovoi told...

Prime suspect in Litvinenko case to run for Russian parliament Posted on : 2007-09-16 | Author : DPA News Category : Europe Moscow - Andrei Lugovi, the prime suspect in the murder case of Kremlin opponent Alexander Litvinenko, is to run for Russian parliament (Duma) as number 2 on the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) list, Duma Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky announced Sunday. According to the Interfax news agency, Lugovoi agreed to run in the election with the LDPR, led by the nationalist Zhirinovsky. Former Russian secret service agent Lugovoi is accused by Britain's Scotland Yard of administering a lethal dose...

MOSCOW (AP) — The sole suspect in the radiation poisoning death of a former KGB agent announced plans to run for parliament Sunday on the ticket of a pro-Kremlin ultranationalist party. Andrei Lugovoi, another former KGB officer who met with Alexander Litvinenko at a London hotel bar on Nov. 1 hours before Litvinenko fell ill, told state-run Russia Today television that he had no desire to go into politics but changed his mind because of British accusations. Now a Moscow businessman who runs a private security agency, Lugovoi said Sunday that he would be No. 2 on the list of...

“Al-Qaeda Stronger than Ever.” “U.S. Concern at Al-Qaeda Strength.” These and similar titles accompanied news stories that began breaking during the second week of July, announcing leaks of a disturbing new classified intelligence report. Prepared for President Bush by the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), the five-page report entitled Al-Qaeda Better Prepared to Strike the West paints a picture of a revived, more dangerous terror network led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Associated Press reported on July 11 that an unnamed counterterrorism official familiar with the still-unreleased report paraphrased the briefing paper as finding that al-Qaeda is...

Traces of the lethal radioactive poison which killed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko have been found at four previously undisclosed sites - including a Mayfair lap dancing bar. The revelations come nine months after the former spy's murder and shed new light on the scale of the investigation into his death. The polonium-210 poison was found at the Hey Jo nightclub on Jermyn Street, on a shisha pipe in the West End restaurant Dar Marakesh, in a taxi and in Mr Litvinenko's Mercedes. Westminster council has disclosed that a total of 47 venues were checked, among them five buses, eight aircraft,...

Traces of the lethal radioactive poison which killed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko have been found at four previously undisclosed sites - including a Mayfair lap dancing bar. The revelations come nine months after the former spy's murder and shed new light on the scale of the investigation into his death. The polonium-210 poison was found at the Hey Jo nightclub on Jermyn Street, on a shisha pipe in the West End restaurant Dar Marakesh, in a taxi and in Mr Litvinenko's Mercedes. Dancers from Hey Jo lap dancing club where traces of radiation have been detected Westminster council has disclosed...

A key adviser to President Vladimir Putin accused Foreign Secretary David Miliband of 'anti-Russian racism' over his handling of the Alexander Litvinenko affair. It was claimed Mr Miliband let his personal views cloud his judgment in the recent tit-for-tat diplomat expulsion row over the murder of ex-KGB operative Litvinenko. Last month the Foreign Secretary expelled Russian diplomats from Britain after the Kremlin refused to sanction the extradition of the prime suspect in the murder case. President Putin responded by throwing out several British Embassy officials and banning visas for other UK diplomats. Now Russian political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky, who is...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia could prosecute businessman and former Soviet KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi in the Litvinenko affair if Britain provides "proof" of his guilt, Russia's foreign minister said Friday. If the British "have proof that has 100 percent convinced them of Lugovoi's guilt, we are ready to receive it and study it," Sergei Lavrov said, cited by Interfax news agency from Beijing. At the same time, he said Russia did not intend to exchange Lugovoi for Russian businessman and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, who currently lives in London and is wanted in Russia on various charges of fraud. "For...

THE senior British official was unequivocal. The murder of the former KGB man Alexander Litvinenko was “undeniably state-sponsored terrorism on Moscow’s part. That is the view at the highest levels of the British government”. This official had access to the latest police and intelligence findings, and he was reflecting the views of senior Home Office counter-terrorism officials, Scotland Yard detectives and others with close knowledge of the murder investigation. All confirmed last week that they believe the plot to poison Litvinenko in London last year was ordered by the Russian secret service, the FSB. In Moscow, strong words were also...