ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot

January 26, 2007 -- LITVINENKO INVESTIGATION

ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot

British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a "hot" teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing. (ABC News)

UK Wants To Try Russian for Litvinenko Murder

The British government is preparing to demand the extradition of a Russian businessman to stand trial for the poisoning with polonium-210 of the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko. Senior Whitehall officials have told the Guardian that a Scotland Yard file on the murder which is about to be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service alleges that there is sufficient evidence against Andrei Lugovoi for the CPS to decide whether he should face prosecution. (The Guardian)

PAKISTAN

Bombing at Hotel in Pakistan Kills 2

A man set off a bomb outside the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital on Friday, killing himself and a guard and wounding at least seven other people in an apparent suicide attack, officials said. (AP)

Ex-Spy Dismisses Litvinenko Probe

Andrei Lugovoi, the focus of the UK probe into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, has laughed off reports London may soon seek his extradition. (BBC)

IRAQ NEWS

14 Killed in Central Baghdad Bomb Attack

A bomb hidden in a box holding pigeons tore through a crowded pet and livestock market Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, police said, in a blast that left the carcasses of dead birds, dogs and other animals scattered on the blood-soaked ground. (AP)

Suicide Bomber Kills 7 In Mosque In Mosul

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shi'ite mosque on the outskirts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing seven people and wounding 17 more after prayers on Friday, a police source said. (Reuters)

U.S. Soldier Gets 18 Years Prison in Iraq Slayings

A third U.S. soldier on Thursday was sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees, officials at Fort Campbell in Kentucky said. (Reuters)

Bush Authorizes Targeting Iranians in Iraq: Report

President Bush has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian agents active inside Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the plan. (Reuters)

SOMALIA

U.S. Won't Rule out a Last-Ditch Strike in Somalia

The United States will not rule out further strikes in Somalia, State Department sources told ABC News today, but the window of opportunity to hit suspected terrorists there is closing quickly. (ABC News)

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. Warns Of Bloody Taliban Spring Fightback

The United States, stepping up its commitment to Afghanistan and pushing European allies to follow suit, on Friday warned the country faced a bloody and dangerous spring offensive from an emboldened and strengthened Taliban. (Reuters)

NATO 'to Step Up Afghan Support'

NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed to step up their military and economic assistance to Afghanistan, officials have said. (BBC)

LEBANON

Hezbollah Buries Dead, Urges Lebanese Unity

Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah held funeral processions on Friday for three of its members shot dead during sectarian clashes in Beirut and called for unity among the Lebanese to stop their country sliding to civil war. (Reuters)

NORTH KOREA

Report: Koreas' Nuclear Talks to Resume

South Korea's foreign minister says the next round of international talks on North Korea's nuclear program should resume by early next month, a news report said Friday. (AP)

NSA SECRET SURVEILLANCE

Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program

The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency's highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges' clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies. (NY Times)

U.S./PAKISTAN

U.S. Government Seeking Change In Bill Linking Pakistan Aid To Antiterror Effort

The U.S. administration will press Congress to drop a provision in a new bill linking military assistance for Pakistan to its commitment to fighting terrorism, an American official said Friday. (AP)

LONDON BOMBING PLOT

July Bomb Suspect 'Strolled Away'

One of the men accused of trying to set off bombs in London on 21 July 2005 fled the scene as if he was taking "a stroll in a park", a court has heard. (BBC)

U.S.

Soldier Accused of Taking $50,000 Bribe

A soldier is accused of taking a $50,000 bribe to steer a food service contract to a Kuwaiti company, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. (AP)

YEMEN

Yemen Steps Up Security At Ports To Guard Against Possible Al Qaeda Infiltration From Somalia

Authorities have stepped up security at the nation's sea ports as a precaution against possible infilteration from Somalia by al-Qaida fighters, according to the Interior Minister. (AP)

ON THE WEB

ABC News Extremist Website Monitoring

This is a daily update of some of what can be found on militant Islamist websites that are often used by al Qaeda and its sympathizers, insurgent groups in Iraq and other groups for propaganda, recruiting and communication purposes. (ABC News)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Rice's Strategic Reset

By David Ignatius

What's America's strategy in the Middle East? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week sketched a new framework based on what she calls the "realignment" of states that want to contain Iran and its radical Muslim proxies. (Washington Post)

More Willful Indifference

Mark Foley fled his seat in the House of Representatives last September when his sexual approaches to teenage pages finally reached the news media after years of a shameful cover-up in the halls of Congress. Now it turns out that the F.B.I. was just as phlegmatic about the scandal as Mr. Foley's Republican colleagues. An inspector general's report excoriates F.B.I. agents for brushing aside "troubling" evidence of the lawmaker's flirtatious message-writing, and then falsely blaming their inaction on the watchdog group that tried to alert the government in the first place. (NY Times)

Softly, Softly in the Taliban's Den

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

In five years, US military might, from daisy-cutter bombs to high-tech weaponry, could not smoke out the Taliban, who retreated to the mountains of Afghanistan after being forced from power in 2001. (Asia Times)

Turkey Is Changing, Despite Dink's Murder

By Rayyan Al-Shawaf

Less than a week before Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated, his compatriot Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, was made editor-in-chief for a day at Radikal, a small but influential newspaper. In a front-page article, Pamuk drew attention to the throngs of security personnel needed to ensure that Greek Orthodox religious ceremonies, considered provocative by Turkish ultra-nationalists, passed without incident. The lead article, however, discussed the persecution of writers and intellectuals in Turkey. Pamuk focused on Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), Turkey's poet laureate, who was vilified in the press for his communist convictions and spent his last years in exile. (Daily Star)

The Return of Saddam Hussein

By Amir Taheri

What did Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani told Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran the other day? The Qatari Foreign Minister had traveled to Tehran to deliver a message from his Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifah Al Thani, to Ahmadinejad. (Asharq Alawsat)

The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.