Polonium

The Russian businessman accused by Britain in the radiation-poisoning of a former KGB agent staged a high-profile counterattack Thursday, alternately blaming Britain's intelligence agency, organized crime and a billionaire Russian exile for Alexander Litvinenko's death. In a wide-ranging news conference, Andrei Lugovoy, also a former KGB agent, suggested three theories in the slaying of Litvinenko, who died in November after ingesting radioactive polonium-210.

While European authorities track down how former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko acquired a lethal dose of the radioactive substance polonium-210, the rest of us go about our normal routines, not realizing we are taking in tiny amounts of the substance all the time. The people who take in the most are smokers and aficionados of reindeer meat and liver.

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent," NBC, Feb. 27, 9 p.m., "30." The premise: After journalist Josh Lemle (Lee Tergesen) develops weakness and coughs up blood, he goes to the hospital where doctors discover he has been poisoned by polonium-210, a radioactive material. They predict he will die within a week. Josh contacts the crime-solving Major Case Squad and his old friend, Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth).

London's Metropolitan Police said they had arrested a man suspected of plotting to kill Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon and vehement Kremlin critic. Police said the man was arrested June 21 and turned over to immigration authorities two days later. He was not further identified. The police statement came hours after Berezovsky said he had fled the country for about a week in mid-June after police warned him that his life was in danger.

The British government began tracking radioactive hotspots in London in an attempt to trace the poison that killed a former KGB agent. Three people who reported possible symptoms of contamination were tested, but results will take several days. Britain announced a formal inquest after the death of Alexander Litvinenko, but Home Secretary John Reid warned against rushing to conclusions about who might be responsible.

The chief suspect in the radiation poisoning death of a former KGB agent said he would run for parliament on the ticket of an ultranationalist party. Andrei Lugovoy, another former KGB officer, met with Alexander Litvinenko at a London hotel bar on Nov. 1 hours before Litvinenko fell ill. Lugovoy told state-run television that he would run on the Liberal Democratic Party ticket in December's parliamentary elections. Litvinenko died Nov.

The 3M Corp. says it is voluntarily recalling more of its static eliminators because a small number of the ionizing air guns have been found to be leaking radioactive particles. Tiny pellets containing the radioactive element polonium have been found at 28 manufacturing plants where the static eliminator guns are used, and have been traced to failures in the devices. Regulators say they have found no evidence of product contamination at any of the plants.

Investigators here questioned a key witness Monday in the radiation poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, as four more possible victims of contamination were hospitalized for tests -- this time in Germany. The latest potential victims of radioactive polonium-210 were the former wife of Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, her boyfriend and her two children, 1 and 3. Kovtun and a second Russian, Andrei Lugovoy, met with Litvinenko in London hours before he fell ill Nov.