25th November

The radioactive spy

Proclaims the Guardian,

“Even Alexander Litvinenko, a KGB agent for 18 years, would have been surprised at the low chicanery, high drama and cold-blooded cunning of his own passing. “

Says the Independent,

The Times tells us that

“Britain's intelligence agencies last night claimed that the poisoning of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko bore the hallmarks of a "state-sponsored" assassination.”

The news that he had been deliberately poisoned by radioactive material has upped the stakes in the story that has been running all week.

Further traces of the substance were found at a sushi restaurant and at a central London hotel where Alexander Litvinenko met a number of people before falling ill, and at his home in the city.
He was killed by polonium 210, a rare radioactive isotope which is so toxic that there may never be a postmortem examination of Mr Litvinenko's body, for fear of causing further deaths.

Reports the Guardian

According to the Telegraph

“If evidence of Russian involvement emerges, it threatens to plunge relations between London and Moscow to the kind of low last seen during the Cold War.
Security chiefs are alarmed at the possibility that Russia may be prepared to strike at critics abroad with little care for its public image.”

The Sun says that

“Police and security services believe the assassin secretly sprayed a mist of radioactive polonium-210 on Mr Litvinenko’s meal at a sushi bar. A large quantity of the element was found in his urine hours before he died at UCH.”

The Mirror believes that

“RUSSIAN ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was murdered with a radioactive poison that may have been slipped into his tea as he chatted, it was revealed last night.
Police are investigating a theory that Litvinenko's drink was spiked during a meeting with two Russians at a hotel.”

The poisoning may have taken Iraq off the front pages but the reverburations from Thursday attacks continues.

The Indie reports that

“The savage sectarian war in Iraq reached new depths of barbaric violence yesterday with worshippers being dragged out of mosques and burnt alive as a wave of killings swept across the country.
The ones set alight as they pleaded for mercy were Sunnis, victims of a pitiless revenge for the suicide bombings at Sadr City 24 hours earlier which had left 215 people dead and 253 injured in the single deadliest attack since the US-led invasion.”

The Guardian claims

Iraqi coalition on brink of collapse as country descends towards civil war

“The prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, was forced to choose between his US protectors and an essential pillar of his coalition, when Moqtada al-Sadr declared his intention to walk out, potentially bringing down the government, if Mr Maliki went ahead with a meeting with President George Bush in Jordan next week.”

The Bizarre attack of Michael Stone on the Stormont building is reported in the Times

Loyalist charges Stormont with a gun, knife and bag of bombs

Michael Stone, who gained notoriety when he was caught by TV cameras attacking a 1988 IRA funeral in a solo gun-and-grenade attack, seemed to be attempting to repeat the carnage yesterday when he arrived at the main entrance of Stormont.
Spray-painting a slogan on the outside of Stormont, he then attempted to enter, throwing a bag and shouting a bomb warning, but was swiftly wrestled to the ground by security guards.

The Mail reports that BA has backed down over the cross controversy

“The airline had faced four days of angry condemnation from an overwhelming alliance of Cabinet ministers, 100 MPs, 20 Church of England bishops and, finally, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Rowan Williams called its stance 'deeply offensive' and threatened to sell the Church of England's £6.6million holding of BA shares.
Just five hours later, the airline capitulated. Chief executive Mr Walsh, the driving force behind BA's determination to stop Miss Eweida wearing the cross, said it will look at ways its rules could be adapted 'to allow symbols of faith to be worn openly’.

The Sun takes the credit for the victory

“SUN readers brought British Airways down to earth with a bang yesterday in their barmy Battle of the Cross.
Thousands responded to our petition demanding that Nadia Eweida — banned from wearing a religious cross over her uniform — be given her job back.”

The Times reports on more spending problems for the Scottish Parliament

Thief runs up £46,000 bill on parliamentary mobile phone

“ The phone went missing in 2004 when the Parliament moved from its temporary headquarters in Edinburgh to its £431 million home at Holyrood. But no one bothered to report the disappearance, and as a result the thief managed to run up £46,200 worth of calls before a stop was eventually put on the phone. Add VAT, and the bill is far higher.



Taxpayers will be left to foot what is left of the bill, £27,200, after Vodaphone said that it was prepared to waive about half of the cost. “

The Mirror claims an exclusive revealing that

THE head of Tony Blair's local Labour Party has revealed that the Prime Minister will also stand down as an MP when he quits No 10.
Paul Trippett made the slip-up during a meeting at the Trimdon Labour Club in Mr Blair's constituency of Sedgefield.
He suggested that the party start searching for a new candidate to stand at the next election - suggesting the PM will not be fighting the contest - expected in 2008 or 2009.

Finally with a month to go before Christmas,The Guardian tells

Put your feet up, Santa, the Christmas machine has arrived


The "self-replicating rapid prototyper", or RepRap for short, is a machine that literally prints 3D objects from a digital design. Its creators hope that in the future it will be a must-have mod con for every home. Instead of queueing for this year's equivalent of Buzz Lightyear, Robosapiens or TMX Elmo, parents will simply download the sought-after design off the internet and print it out.

"If people can make anything for themselves what's the point in going to the shops?" said Adrian Bowyer at Bath University who started the project.