Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh, where he graduated from a Soviet secondary school in 1980. He was then drafted into the Soviet Army and rapidly rose through the ranks from private to lieutenant-colonel. In 1988, he began serving in the counter-intelligence agencies of the Soviet KGB, and in 1991, was promoted to the Central Staff of the MB-FSK-FSB of Russia, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organized crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with MUR (Moscow criminal investigation department). Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia, and in 1997, he was again promoted to the most secret department of the Russian FSB, the Department for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.

The KGB exile Alexander Litvinenko has been questioned by police in his hospital bed after being poisoned in a sushi restaurant, his friend said today.

Mr Litvinenki has been moved to intensive care because doctors feared he was at risk of sudden and catastrophic organ failure, said Alex Goldfarb.

The assassination was personally ordered by Vladimir Putin.

In perhaps the most effective act of nonviolent protest in the six-year Palestinian uprising, hundreds of Gazans forced Israel over the weekend to call off airstrikes on the residence of a militant leader by swarming the house as human shields.

In recent months, Israeli security forces have used telephone calls to warn Palestinian militants and others near alleged militant safe houses and weapons caches, giving them up to a half hour to evacuate. When militia leader Mohammed Baroud got the call Saturday, he enlisted neighbors to protect his house from the Israeli military. They've now set up a system of shifts to protect the house around the clock.

Palestinian leaders are hailing this as a moral victory that will be replicated. If so, it may herald a significant tactical shift from attacks by tiny secretive militant groups to nonviolent civilian protest, a change that will force Israel to adjust its strategy. It also underscores the difficulty of fighting militant groups embedded in a civilian population - whether it be in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Gaza.