Spy-killing polonium-210 cost $25 million
BERLIN, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- German investigators say the radioactive polonium-210 used to kill a former Russian spy in London last month would have cost $25 million on the black market.
The Berliner Zeitung quoted a police source Wednesday as saying police were investigating the possibility some of Alexander Litvinenko's business activities involved the illegal smuggling of nuclear materials.
"We know that there has been a demand for nuclear materials in terrorist circles for several years," the source said.
Litvinenko was a former Russian spy who defected to Britain and became an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He died of radiation poisoning in London on Nov. 23, and one of his business acquaintances, Dmitri Kovtun is in a Moscow hospital with radiation sickness, the Novosti news agency said.
German police became involved along with British and Russian investigators after it was learned Kovtun had traveled to Hamburg before meeting Litvinenko in London, and traces of radioactivity were found in the car he drove and where he stayed.
U.K. uproar over troops' extended pay
LONDON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Britain's Labor government has come under fire for trying to change the way it pays soldiers on extended tours that could cost some of them $2,650 each.
At issue in Parliament is the government's plan to phase out long service separation, or "accumulated turbulence," bonuses for soldiers who spend long periods of time away from home.
Defense Minister Des Browne told Parliament the new plan would "not take one penny away from anybody," but a leaked Ministry of Defense document seen by The Daily Telegraph showed he had been warned a week before there would be "losers" under the reforms.
Another memo from September written by Lt. Col. David Russell-Parsons of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards that emerged on Tuesday said 505 of his men will have spent around 20 months away from home on a series of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia between August 2004 and November 2007, and each stood to lose $2,650.
Opposition defense critic Liam Fox lashed out at Browne over his "no loser claim."
"It is very clear that Parliament, the public and the Armed Forces were all misled and are due an apology," Fox said.
Democrats take Texas seat in runoff
SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Democrats secured their 233rd seat in the U.S. Congress as former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez defeated incumbent Republican Henry Bonilla in a Texas runoff.
Rodriguez, 60, a four-term veteran legislator from San Antonio was sidelined two years ago when the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature redrew the state's congressional districts but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Texas Republican leaders breached the Voting Rights Act and the district was redrawn, the San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday.
Bonilla, 52, who has been in Congress for 14 years, conceded the election and called Rodriguez around 9 p.m. Tuesday, the report said.
The runoff was necessary as in the Nov. 7 open primary, Bonilla captured less than 49 percent of the vote, while Rodriguez had less than 20 percent of the Democratic vote.
The decision, the final 2006 congressional race to be determined, leaves the Democrats with a 233-202 majority over the Republicans come January.
Poland marks communist martial law day
WARSAW, Poland, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Poland Wednesday marked the 25th anniversary of the former communist regime's martial law edict that tried to crush the opposition Solidarity movement.
Performances commemorating the imposition of martial law Dec. 13, 1981 were staged in Warsaw and across the country, Radio Polonia said.
Old military vehicles along with original police water cannon vans that were used 25 years ago to disperse demonstrators were parked in downtown Warsaw's square.
At the start of martial law, which lasted more than a year, tanks and soldiers took to the streets, telephone lines were cut and arrests of opposition leaders and Solidarity supporters began overnight.
About 100 people were killed in clashes with troops and police, more than 3,000 were interned, and more than 10,000 were arrested.
However, martial law failed to subdue opposition. Solidarity's membership rose to about 10 million and the movement was instrumental in overthrowing the Polish communist regime.
Gen. Wojciech Jaruselski, the communist party leader, claimed he declared martial law to avoid intervention by Soviet troops to crush the anti-communist movement, but many Poles condemned his move as a criminal act.
