UK: key witnesses in Litvinenko case suddenly missing

    BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The sudden disappearance of a number of key witnesses in the Alexander Litvinenko investigation will make it even harder for British detectives, whose inquiry has now spread across five countries, The Times reported Wednesday.

    Scotland Yard was struggling to gain access to vital witnesses with former associates of Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, claiming that they were too scared to come forward.

People close to Litvinenko contact in no danger

    BERLIN, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Four people close to a Russian contact of former agent Alexander Litvinenko were in no danger of radiation contamination as first feared, said German authorities on Tuesday.

    Marina W, the ex-wife of Dmitry Kovtun, her two children and her new boyfriend were given the all-clear after precautionary tests at a hospital on Monday, Gerald Kirchner of the Federal Bureau for Radiation Protection told a Bavarian television channel.

Interpol joins probe into former Russian agent's poisoning

    MOSCOW, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Interpol has joined the investigation into the poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, the head of the organization's Russian office said on Tuesday.

4 tested in Hamburg for polonium that kills Russian spy

    BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Four people were hospitalized in Hamburg Monday, on suspicion they had been contaminated by polonium, the same radioactive substance that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, The New York Times reported.

    The four had contact in Germany with Russian businessman Dmitri Kovtun, who spent four days in Hamburg in late October before flying to London, where he and two other Russian men met at a hotel with Litvinenko on Nov. 1. Litvinenko fell ill later that day from radiation poisoning and died several weeks later.

Policemen secure the entrance of an apartment building used by Dmitry Kovtun, a contact of the poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, in Hamburg, northern Germany, Dec. 11, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

Key witness questioned in Litvinenko death probe

    BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Andrei Lugovoi, a key witness in the probe into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, was questioned on Monday by Russian and British detectives, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

    Scotland Yard detectives and Russian prosecutors visited a Moscow hospital that specializes in treating radiation cases on Monday and interrogated Andrei Lugovoi on the afternoon, the Russian news agency said.

Germany doubts Russian involvement in polonium

    BERLIN, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- A German radiation expert doubted Monday that Russia involved in the polonium-210 poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvenenko.

    Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the German Society for Radiation Protection, told ARD national television that he would not rule out the possibility that the poisoners had deliberately strewn traces of the isotope in London and Hamburg to mislead people.

German police say Kovtun radioactivity harms family

    BERLIN, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- German police said on Monday that Dmitry Kovtun's family appeared to be contaminated with toxic polonium due to his visit to them.

    Thomas Menzel, who leads a major police inquiry in Hamburg, told reporters that Kovtun's Russian-born ex-wife, their two children aged 3 and 1, and her new partner all showed signs of contamination.

Three Belgians tested for possible polonium contamination

    BRUSSELS, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Three Belgians have been tested for possible contamination by polonium-210, the radioactive substance that killed the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

    The three Belgians all stayed in the Millennium Hotel in London between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, the local media said on Monday.


German police find "indications" of radiation in Litvinenko's death probe

    BERLIN, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- German police said on Saturday they had found "indications" of radiation at two sites in and near Hamburg related to a contact of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

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