Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is pictured in September 2004. Litvinenko was fighting for his life in a London hospital after an apparent bid to kill him by poisoning. (AFP, File Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- British police Sunday confirmed they are investigating a suspected plot to kill a former Russian spy by poisoning him with the toxic metal thallium.

    British press reported exiled agent Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been hospitalized in University College Hospital in London since the begining of the month with symptoms of near-fatal poisoning. 

    Litvinenko allegedly felt ill after meeting a contact, who offered him information about the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist critical of Kremlin's Chenchen policy who was assassinated in October, at a sushi bar in Piccadilly, west London, at the beginning of the month.

    "I do feel very bad. I've never felt like this before -- like my life is hanging on the ropes," Litvinenko told reporters from his hospital bed.

    His close friend Alex Goldfarb told the media on Sunday: "The doctors say that the next four weeks are critical. His chances for survival are 50-50. He looks like an old man and he has lost all his hair."

    Scotland Yard police headquarters refused to go into details but a spokeswoman said: "He is in a serious but stable condition."

    "Officers from the specialist crime directorate are investigating a suspicious poisoning. No arrests have been made. Inquiries are continuing."

    "They probably thought I would be dead from heart failure by the third day," Litvinenko was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times.

    Litvinenko joined the KGB, the spy agency of the former Soviet Union, and rose to the rank of colonel in its successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB).

    He fled Russia and claimed asylum in Britain in November 2000, two years after publicly accusing his FSB superiors of ordering him to kill "a powerful Kremlin insider."

    He also has accused FSB agents of coordinating the 1999 apartment-house bombings that killed over 300 people in Russia and sparked the second war in Chechnya.

    In 1999 and 2000, Litvinenko spent nine months in jail awaiting trial on charges of abusing his office, but he was acquitted, and then fled.

    (Agencies)

    Related:

    Thousands attend funeral of Russian journalist

A woman puts flowers on the coffin of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya during the leave-taking ceremony before her burial in Moscow.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Oct.11 (Xinhuanet) -- Several thousand mourners on Tuesday attended the funeral of Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow to pay their last respects to the famous investigative reporter who was assisinated Saturday.

    The line of mourners spilled from the ceremonial hall at the Troyekurovskoye cemetery, where Politkovskaya lay in an open, flower-strewn coffin, media reports said.

    A traditional Orthodox white ribbon was wrapped around her head, where the gunman had aimed his final bullet.

    Police said about 3000 people attended.

    Politkovskaya, the 48-year-old journalist who was critical of the Chechnya war, was shot dead in Moscow Saturday by an unidentified gunman in an apparent contract killing.

    On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the killer "must not go unpunished" and the Russian authorities would do everything to find him out. Enditem

    (Agencies)

[1] [2] [3] [4]