Traces of radiation found at dozen sites in Britain

LONDON -- The FBI is joining the British probe into the poisoning death of a Kremlin critic, the agency announced Thursday as investigators found traces of radiation at a dozen sites in Britain and a former Russian prime minister reported symptoms consistent with poisoning.

British authorities requested the involvement of the FBI, agency spokesman Richard Kolko said.

There is no suspected link to the United States in an investigation that extends to five airliners and locations from London to Moscow.

Yegor Gaidar, who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s, vomited and then fainted during a conference in Ireland on Nov. 24, a day after ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning. Doctors treating Gaidar in Moscow believe he was also poisoned, said his spokesman, Valery Natarov.

The planes were searched because Litvinenko said before he died that a group of Russian contacts who met with him Nov. 1, the day he later fell ill, had traveled to London from Moscow.

A dozen sites -- including the planes -- in Britain have showed traces of radioactivity, officials said. Authorities have refused to say what type of radiation was found.