Poisons And Poisonings

Authorities in Las Vegas confirmed that the deadly toxin ricin was found in a motel room most recently occupied by a man who has been in critical condition with breathing problems at a hospital for more than two weeks. Police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity, and no indication of any spread of the deadly substance beyond the several vials of powder found in a plastic bag in the man's room. But what the ricin was doing there remained a mystery, and authorities have been unable to talk with the man in the hospital.

If you're looking for Russia's most notorious international outlaw, try his new office in parliament. Andrei Lugovoy, the prime suspect in the 2006 radioactive poisoning death of a former Russian spy in London, is a celebrated figure these days in the Russian capital. Not only has Moscow brushed aside extradition requests from Britain, this onetime bodyguard has just been elected to the marble halls of the Duma, the lower house of parliament. Lugovoy says he was framed.

A judge Friday ordered a new trial for a 34-year-old mother of four who was convicted in January of fatally poisoning her Marine husband so she could use his life insurance to indulge in a libertine lifestyle. Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh ruled that the defense attorney for Cynthia Sommer made a serious error in presenting evidence that allowed prosecution witnesses to talk about Sommer's behavior after her husband's death.

In January a jury convicted Cynthia Sommer of poisoning her Marine sergeant husband by slipping him a fatal dose of arsenic. But her new attorney, hired after her conviction, believes that the jury convicted Sommer not because of evidence concerning arsenic but because of testimony about her unusual behavior in the weeks after her husband's death.

Tommy Haas' apparent garden-variety stomach virus that sidelined him on the decisive day of the Davis Cup semifinal in Moscow in September against Russia took on sinister implications when allegations surfaced Wednesday that he was poisoned. International Tennis Federation official Bill Babcock said in a telephone interview from Madrid that the organization will launch an investigation and plans to interview Haas' German Davis Cup teammate, Alexander Waske, among others.

PORTOLA, Calif. -- California officials have completed the grim task of collecting fish killed in last month's poisoning of Lake Davis to exterminate the northern pike. California Department of Fish and Game crews have gathered nearly 50,000 pounds of fish since Sept. 21, when 16,000 gallons of a toxic chemical were poured into the Sierra Nevada reservoir.

State health regulators are investigating the treatment of a poison victim who died at a Los Angeles County public hospital in Sylmar this month after a police supervisor refused to send officers to get an antidote, authorities said Friday. An emergency supply of medication at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center did not include enough vials of the antidote to treat Donald Taylor, 51, when he was rushed to the hospital in the early hours of Oct. 1 after eating highly toxic oleander leaves.

A family of four was taken to the hospital Thursday morning, suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning after the father lighted their furnace for the first time, authorities said. Firefighters responded about 3:05 a.m. to an apartment complex at 12255 W. Burbank Blvd. A man, 37; a woman, 36; and two girls, 11 and 1, were taken to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank in serious but stable condition, a fire official said.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko charged Tuesday that Russia has frustrated efforts to investigate a plot to kill him by dioxin poisoning during a presidential campaign in which Moscow backed his opponent. In published remarks, Yushchenko did not explicitly accuse Russian authorities of involvement in the 2004 assassination attempt.

VIENNA -- Did someone kill Beethoven? A Viennese pathologist claims the composer's physician did -- inadvertently overdosing him with lead in a case of a cure that went wrong. Other researchers are not convinced, but there is no controversy about one fact: The master had been a very sick man years before his death in 1827. Previous research determined that Beethoven had suffered from lead poisoning, first detecting toxic levels of the metal in his hair and then, two years ago, in bone fragments.