Spies

Spies of the Balkans A Novel Alan Furst Random House: 288 pp., $26

WASHINGTON - The FBI obtained a sealed search warrant to read a Fox News reporter's personal emails from two days in 2010 after arguing there was probable cause he had violated espionage laws by soliciting classified information from a government official, court papers show. In an affidavit, an FBI agent told a federal magistrate that the reporter had committed a crime when he asked a State Department security contractor, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, to share secret material about North Korea in June 2009.

It's a big week on BBC America for fans of "Doctor Who. " Saturday brought the return of the series itself and Wednesday sees David Tennant, its no-longer-employed-there 10th Doctor, starring in the prewar romantic thriller "Spies of Warsaw. " Burn Gorman of the "Who" spinoff "Torchwood" is in it, too, for incidental frisson. Adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais from Alan Furst's 2008 novel of nearly the same name, it features Tennant as Jean-Francois Mercier - you can tell he's French by the English accent - a World War I hero and aristocrat diplomatically posted to Poland but engaged in a variety of undercover activities.

When the government obstructs the ability of a news organization to do its job, the most important victims are not journalists but readers. That's why long-standing guidelines set clear limits on how Justice Department prosecutors are expected to behave when interacting with the news media. "In recognition of the importance of freedom of the press to a free and democratic society," the government's own rules say, subpoenas for reporter's records or notes must be personally authorized by the attorney general, may be issued only after other sources are exhausted and are expected to be limited in scope to avoid gratuitous invasion into news gathering.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he had met with Russian spies swapped in an exchange with the United States earlier this month, and promised them a bright future in Russia. "I have no doubts they will have interesting, bright lives," Putin, a former KGB agent, told reporters during a working visit to Ukraine. Ten people pleaded guilty this month to being agents for Russia while living undercover in the United States in one of the biggest spy scandals since the Cold War. They were deported to Russia, which in turn agreed to release four people imprisoned for suspected contact with Western intelligence agencies.

If your knowledge of spies and terrorists is limited to the names of Benedict Arnold, Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden, visit Philadelphia this spring and learn about anarchists and traitors that have haunted America since its birth. On March 4, “ Spies, Traitors & Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America ” opens in the National Constitution Center ’s new exhibition space in the Center’s lower level. Created by the International Spy Museum in Washington, the exhibition combines artifacts, multimedia elements and interactive exhibits to reveal tales of espionage, treason and deception in the U.S. from 1776 to today.

Walking into Mark Swope's exhibition of photographs at Craig Krull Gallery is to be greeted by a surprisingly expressive juniper. Like an onion left too long in the produce bin, it is rounded and full at the base, erupting into a burst of tempestuous, flame-like tendrils up top. This exuberant flourish seems wholly out of proportion with the modest stucco home behind it, creating an appealing tension between the wild and the mundane. In progress for about a decade, Swope's series “Foliage” provides a humorous, sometimes startling glimpse into the hidden life of domestic shrubbery.

Alan Furst discusses 'Spies of the Balkans' with film and TV writer Dick Clement When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday Where: The Writer's Guild Theatre, 135 South Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills. Tickets: The event is hosted by Los Angeles literary group Writers Bloc and tickets are available for $20 from http://www.writersblocpresents.com.

Russia's Security Ministry, the successor to the KGB, admitted Wednesday that the country's spies are defecting to the West in growing numbers.

Two weeks ago, she turned up at the launch of a rocket carrying two cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the International Space Station. On Monday, she appeared at the Kremlin, along with her nine fellow spies deported from the U.S., to receive Russia's highest honor from President Dmitry Medvedev. And on Thursday, her image graced the glossy cover of the Russian edition of Maxim magazine. She was clad in lacy black underwear, with a big gun in her hand. Talk about exposure.

MOSCOW - Russian authorities detained an American diplomat accused of attempting to recruit a Russian intelligence officer into the CIA, the Federal Security Service said Tuesday. Ryan Christopher Fogle, the third secretary of the American Embassy in Moscow, was held overnight before being handed over to U.S. authorities Tuesday, according to the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor agency to the KGB. Fogle, who was ordered to leave the country, was carrying a large amount of money and written instructions for the Russian recruit, the FSB said.

WASHINGTON - Almost 30 years ago, two young women allegedly obtained fake passports in Europe for a clandestine trip to Cuba. Today, one is in prison serving a 25-year sentence for espionage; the other has taken shelter in Sweden. On Thursday, the U.S. government stepped up its efforts to get that second woman, Marta Rita Velazquez, from Sweden to an American courtroom. Velazquez, 55, a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, was charged in 2004 with conspiracy to commit espionage for her role in recruiting Ana Belen Montes to give American secrets to Cuba, according to a previously sealed indictment that the Justice Department released Thursday.

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that North Korea has the capability to develop nuclear warheads small enough to fit on a ballistic missile, a congressman disclosed Thursday. Although U.S. experts believe that North Korea cannot hit the U.S. mainland with its missiles, a significant improvement in Pyongyang's weapons technology would be deeply disconcerting for U.S. policymakers. It would also help explain American measures -- including an emphasis on the U.S. ability to respond with nuclear weapons -- after weeks of warlike rhetoric from Pyongyang.

It's a big week on BBC America for fans of "Doctor Who. " Saturday brought the return of the series itself and Wednesday sees David Tennant, its no-longer-employed-there 10th Doctor, starring in the prewar romantic thriller "Spies of Warsaw. " Burn Gorman of the "Who" spinoff "Torchwood" is in it, too, for incidental frisson. Adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais from Alan Furst's 2008 novel of nearly the same name, it features Tennant as Jean-Francois Mercier - you can tell he's French by the English accent - a World War I hero and aristocrat diplomatically posted to Poland but engaged in a variety of undercover activities.

    Has an instrument aboard the International Space Station detected a sign of dark matter? Scientists have been on pins and needles since Samuel Ting, an MIT physicist and Nobel laureate who leads the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment, coyly demurred from discussing his cosmic ray experiments' findings at a meeting in February, saying they'd be ready to discuss the results in a matter of weeks. With the results now being released by Physical Review Letters, he's set to discuss the findings at a 10:30 a.m. NASA briefing this morning, which you can watch in the video above.

BAKERSFIELD - Fernando Jara is something of a star in Kern County - and a mystery. From humble beginnings, Jara founded a program to rehabilitate drug addicts and felons on a five-acre farm. He is completing a master's degree at Claremont School of Theology and will soon begin work on a doctorate and a law degree. The energetic 37-year-old and his wife, a Kern County supervisor and rising political star, attended President Obama's inauguration in January at the invitation of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

A high-ranking intelligence officer betrayed Russia by exposing a secret spy ring operating in the United States until June and defecting, a newspaper reported Thursday. The officer, identified only as Col. Shcherbakov, was instrumental in the high-profile arrests of Russian spies in New York, Boston, Virginia, New Jersey and Cyprus, according to a cover story in the Moscow-based Kommersant daily. Shcherbakov, who the paper said handled the spy ring in the United States, reportedly left Russia shortly before U.S. officials announced the arrests in June.

Re "The Loud Fight Over Reporters' Silence," Commentary, Dec. 7: New York Times reporter Judith Miller claims: "This is all about the public -- the public's right to know." To know what? The names of our spies? Absurd! This is not about the public's right to know; it is about the Bush administration's power to destroy anyone who gets in its way -- in this case, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife was a CIA undercover operative. Justice should protect those who serve the public interest, not those who serve as conduits for the cynical abuse of power.

MALACHI THRONE Character actor was in 'It Takes a Thief' Malachi Throne, 84, a character actor who had a featured role as Robert Wagner's boss Noah Bain on the television spy series "It Takes a Thief" in the late 1960s, died Wednesday of lung cancer at his Brentwood home, said his wife, Marjorie. He also appeared in several incarnations of the "Star Trek" television series, including providing the voice for a character called the Keeper in a pilot episode of the original "Star Trek.

This is not the kind of news Harvard University would like: First, an allegation of widespread cheating, then an internal hunt for an email leak at the university, and now, a partial apology by the administration for searching the correspondence of resident deans. The story begins in 2012, a dark time for Harvard University. More than 100 students had been accused of cheating on a take-home exam for an introductory-level class on Congress -- a humiliating scandal for the institution, whose graduates so often become the elected officials their undergraduates study.