MOSCOW, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Russia is ready to act against ex-spy Andrei Lugovoi if Britain provides evidence to back its demand for his handover in connection with the Litvinenko affair, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

'If evidence of illegal activity on his part is presented, the Russian law enforcement system will without any doubt take appropriate steps to hold him accountable,' Putin was quoted by news agencies as saying.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Pro-Taliban militants killed two people after accusing them of working as US spies in the lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border, security officials said Wednesday.

The executions in North Waziristan were the latest in a series targeting people with alleged ties to US- and NATO-led foreign forces battling the Islamic extremist Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

BANGALORE, India, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - An Indian rocket may lift an Israeli spy satellite into orbit within days in the second deal to grab a share of the 2.5-billion-dollar global launch market, officials and reports said Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post said on Thursday that the launch of the 300-kilogramme (660-pound) Tecsar, Israel's most advanced satellite, could take place by the end of the week.

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is to take the device into space.

MOSCOW, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - The head of a Russian nationalist party on Tuesday launched an attack against Britain during a campaign appearance, accusing London of being responsible for the death of a Kremlin critic.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), made the comments during an appearance alongside Andrei Lugovoi.

London accuses Lugovoi of murdering Alexander Litvinenko, the Kremlin critic and former Russian secret services agent who had been given asylum in Britain.

MOSCOW, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - The ex-KGB agent Britain accuses of using radioactive polonium to murder an exiled Kremlin critic said Monday that he would like to become Russian president next year.

'Like any citizen I would like to be president,' Andrei Lugovoi, the main suspect in the killing last year in London of Alexander Litvinenko, said, Interfax news agency reported.

Russia holds elections on March 2, 2008, to replace President Vladimir Putin, who is to step down at the end of his second consecutive term.

MOSCOW, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - A parliamentary election bid by the main suspect in the London killing of an ex-KGB agent is intended to show that Russia will not bow to Britain, the suspect's main backer said Monday.

Andrei Lugovoi, who allegedly used a radioactive substance to kill Alexander Litvinenko last year, is to be a top candidate for the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) in December elections.

MOSCOW, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Andrei Lugovoi, who is wanted in Britain for the murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, confirmed on Sunday that he intends to run for parliament on the ultra-nationalist LDPR party's ticket.

'I confirm the words of LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who said that I have accepted the offer to be on the party's election list,' the former KGB officer was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

The list is due to be formally approved at the LDPR party conference in Moscow on Monday ahead of parliamentary elections in December.

MOSCOW, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - Andrei Lugovoi, the former Russian agent wanted by Britain over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, is running for election as an ultra-nationalist candidate, the party's leader said Saturday.

Lugovoi declined to comment ahead of the ultra-nationalist LDPR party's congress on Monday but told Moscow Echo radio he deeply respected the party and its firebrand leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - Ron Dennis has dismissed the possibility that the record 100-million-dollar fine imposed on his team by the International Motoring Federation (FIA) for spying on the Ferrari team will cripple them financially.

The fine, part of the punishment for McLaren's role in the 'Spygate' drama, will be partially offset by the prize money the team has won so far this season, thought to be around the 50 million dollar mark.

MOSCOW, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - The head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence agency accused Western spies of behaving 'more aggressively' than Russian agents in an interview published on Friday.

'Western agents are acting no less actively than SVR, and sometimes more so. I would even say more aggressively,' Sergei Lebedev told the Moskovskiye Novosti weekly.

'Russian intelligence has reduced its presence abroad.... The allegations of a great increase in the activity of the SVR are nothing other than a remnant of the Cold War,' said Lebedev, who rarely gives interviews.

LONDON, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5 kept tabs on George Orwell for more than two decades but did not believe he was a mainstream communist, according to records made public on Tuesday.

In a file released by Britain's National Archives, Orwell -- author of '1984' and 'Animal Farm' -- was described by Scotland Yard's Special Branch, as having 'advanced communist views.' Special Branch deals with subversive activities.

But these observations that were challenged by MI5.

SEOUL, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - South Korea's spy chief was under fire from opposition media Monday for the publicity surrounding his mission to save the hostages held by Afghanistan's Taliban.

National Intelligence Service head Kim Man-Bok returned home Sunday with 19 former hostages after staying in Kabul for 11 days to supervise South Korea's direct negotiations with the insurgents.

On the plane home, Kim told reporters he decided to travel to Afghanistan on August 22 to 'revive the deadlocked negotiations and speed up the decision-making process.'

MOSCOW, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - British accusations against an ex-KGB officer in the murder of a fugitive Kremlin critic in London are nothing but a 'noisy propaganda show,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

'It's a pity that in the absence of convincing proof of (the suspect's) guilt, London decided on a noisy propaganda show,' Lavrov said in a speech at Moscow's main university for the study of international relations.

TEHRAN, Sept 2, 2007 (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday lashed out at elements inside Iran who he said were disclosing nuclear secrets to foreigners and wanted to see the country punished with tough UN sanctions.

'There has been a person who passed information to the foreigners and encouraged them to issue tougher resolutions' against Iran, Ahmadinejad told a gathering of Islamist students, according to the ISNA news agency.

'He is a member of an official organisation that is now insulting the government in their newspapers.'

MOSCOW, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - The Russian man wanted in Britain for the murder of an exiled Kremlin critic in London on Wednesday accused fugitive Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky of involvement in the killing.

In an interview broadcast on Echo of Moscow radio, ex-KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi again denied accusations that he murdered Alexander Litvinenko last year, instead suggesting that Berezovsky, another Kremlin critic, committed the crime to embarrass President Vladimir Putin.

TEHRAN, Aug 26, 2007 (AFP) - Iran warned on Sunday that the authorities would clamp down on university students who it said were in contact with the US administration and seeking to topple the country's rulers.

'We will confront those who are currently studying in universities under the guise of being students and have contact with foreigners and White House statesmen,' Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said.

LONDON, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Two British Royal Air Force jets were launched to shadow a Russian bomber over the northern Atlantic, the British defence ministry said Tuesday.

The two Typhoon jets were launched on Friday 'to shadow a Russian Bear-H aircraft over the North Atlantic Ocean', the ministry said, without providing further details on the incident.

The defence ministry said on July 18 that the Royal Air Force had scrambled two jets after two Russian bombers were intercepted off the coast of Norway.

BEIJING, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - Two Chinese nationals who were arrested in Iran for allegedly taking pictures of military installations have been released, the Chinese foreign ministry said Monday.

'In early July, two Chinese company staff were helping property owners carry out surveying work. While taking pictures, they were misunderstood as photographing sensitive buildings,' the ministry said in a statement.

'They were detained by Iranian police but are now released.'

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - A US hacker's homemade program to pinpoint origins of Wikipedia edits indicates that alterations to the popular online encyclopedia have come from the CIA and the Vatican.

Virgil Griffith's 'Wikiscanner' points to Central Intelligence Agency computers as the sources of nearly 300 edits to subjects including Iran's president, the Argentine navy, and China's nuclear arsenal.

A CIA computer was the source of a whiny 'Wahhhhh' inserted in a paragraph about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plans for the office.

LONDON, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - The aftermath of Alexander Litvinenko's murder has cost British authorities three million pounds (six million dollars, 4.4 million euros) to cope with, according to an official report out Friday.

Westminster City Council in London said the British capital's Metropolitan Police spent nearly one million pounds investigating the radiation poisoning murder of the former Russian spy.

And the Health Protection Agency spent two million pounds checking more than 1,000 people and 47 sites for radiation contamination.

MOSCOW, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - Russia's secret service agency Wednesday said a British agent posing as a diplomat had tried to recruit a Russian spy through murdered Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko.

'During a judicial enquiry into signs of espionage by the Britain's MI6 against Russia, a witness Viatcheslav Jarko identified a MI6 agent,' a spokesman for the FSB intelligence agency said.

TEHRAN, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - Iran on Wednesday said it had arrested two Chinese nationals for taking pictures of military installations and had launched an investigation into their case.

'These two Chinese came to (mainland) Iran through Kish island,' off its southern coast, justice ministry spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told reporters.

'They were taking photos of military installations and the news that they have been arrested is correct. Their case is in the preliminary investigation phase,' he added.

LONDON, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - A renegade former British spy who was jailed after blowing the whistle on alleged wrongdoing in the intelligence services has claimed to have new-found powers as a mystic.

David Shayler told British cable channel More4 News that he had visited a psychic who he believes channelled the spirit of Mary Magdalene and anointed him as the Messiah.

'Suddenly my whole life made sense,' the 41-year-old former officer with Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 said in an interview broadcast Thursday evening.

MOSCOW, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Russia could prosecute businessman and former Soviet KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi in the Litvinenko affair if Britain provides 'proof' of his guilt, Russia's foreign minister said Friday.

If the British 'have proof that has 100 percent convinced them of Lugovoi's guilt, we are ready to receive it and study it,' Sergei Lavrov said, cited by Interfax news agency from Beijing.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - A Chinese immigrant working for a US computer firm has pleaded guilty to industrial spying on behalf of the Chinese navy, according to the US Justice Department.

Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 42, was charged in December 2006 with violating the Foreign Economic Espionage and Arms Export Control acts by exporting industrial secrets pilfered from Quantum3D, a San Jose, California, firm he worked for.

SOFIA, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Bulgaria's intelligence chief said Monday that security services from about 20 countries worked to help free six foreign medics from life imprisonment in Libya in a long-disputed AIDS case.

The fate of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian-born doctor was nothing more than 'a grain of sand in the eye of an enormous hurricane bringing together major interests' in Libya, including arms sales and oil concessions, General Kirtcho Kirov told the 24-Tchassa daily.

SOFIA, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - Bulgaria's intelligence chief said Monday that security services from about 20 countries worked to help free six foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with the AIDS virus.

The fate of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor was nothing more than 'a grain of sand in the eye of an enormous hurricane bringing together major interests' in Libya, including arms sales and oil concessions, General Kirtcho Kirov told the 24-Tchassa daily, he said.

MADRID, July 29, 2007 (AFP) - Spanish police investigating a former agent for selling intelligence secrets have found the letter in which he offered his services to the Russians for the first time, media reports said Sunday.

The El Pais newspaper said the letter, found during searches of Roberto Florez Garcia's home and office in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, asked initially for 200,000 dollars (150,000 euros) 'in exchange for information'.

LONDON, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - Four Russian diplomats expelled from Britain in a stand-off over Moscow's refusal to extradite the murder suspect in the Litvinenko affair have left the country, the Russian embassy said Friday.

A spokesman for the embassy confirmed to AFP that the four had left their posts in London, adding that they were middle-ranking diplomats.

Information on the date of their departure was confidential, he said.

MOSCOW, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - A top Russian minister said Friday it would be 'stupid' to let recent clashes between London and Moscow damage economic ties.

'It would be stupid to sacrifice our cooperation to any sort of minor crises and complications,' First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a meeting with foreign journalists.

ROME, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo said on Friday his team had not accepted defeat in the McLaren spying row.

In Paris on Thursday the FIA, Formula One's governing body, cleared McLaren of any wrongdoing, ruling there was not enough evidence to suggest the British team had benefited from confidential Ferrari documents which ended up in the hands of their chief designer, Mike Coughlan.

But Montezemolo insisted the fight would continue, promising fans of the Italian outfit they would not lie down.

ROME, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - The Italian press were united on Friday in their condemnation of the decision by Formula One's governing body to clear McLaren of any wrongdoing in the Ferrari spying row.

An extraordinary hearing of the FIA's World Motor Sports Council ruled there was no evidence that the British team had benefited from the confidential Ferrari documents found in the possession of their chief designer.

'Ferrari mocked,' headlined the Gazzetta dello Sport.

'Incredible decision by the FIA. McLaren found guilty but go punished.

PARIS, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Formula One giants Ferrari said Thursday they were outraged that rivals McLaren had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the spying row which has rocked the sport and vowed to keep fighting the case.

An extraordinary hearing of the FIA`s 25-strong World Motor Sports Council ruled that there was no evidence the British team had benefited from the confidential Ferrari documents that were found in the possession of their chief designer.

LONDON, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - McLaren boss Ron Dennis insists his team have been vindicated by the deicison to clear them of any wrongdoing in the espionage affair that has engulfed the sport this season.

An extraordinary hearing of the 25-strong World Motor Sports Council (WMSC), the sport`s highest body, ruled that there was no evidence the British team had benefited from the confidential Ferrari documents that were found in the possession of their chief designer.

MOSCOW, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Russia`s foreign ministry said it had summoned Britain`s ambassador on Thursday for an explanation of London`s deportation of a man who was reportedly trying to kill exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky.

Ambassador Tony Brenton 'was told that the Russian side expects official explanations of the recent British media reports about a person of Russian origin who was supposedly arrested... on suspicion of planning to assassinate Boris Berezovsky and who was deported a month later,' the ministry said.

Sussex 64-6 (J Bruce 4-33) v Hampshire

MOSCOW, July 25, 2007 (AFP) - Britain`s chief suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko may have been contaminated with radiation by his purported victim`s cough, a leading Russian investigator has said.

Traces of radiation found on suspect Andrei Lugovoi could have been caused by airborne particles from Litvinenko at a meeting in London, the investigator said in an interview released by newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta late Wednesday.

MOSCOW, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday hit out at Britain`s 'colonial mindset' in demanding that Moscow hand over a key suspect in the murder of a former Russian agent in London last year.

Putin`s broads