No radiation in Russian tycoon death

Former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin found dead at his home near London. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)

The Russian tycoon was reportedly found dead at his London home. Picture: AP/Sang Tan Source: AP

BRITISH police say Boris Berezovsky, a self-exiled former Russian oligarch who had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been found dead in southeast England.

Thames Valley police say his death is being treated as unexplained.

Police would not directly identify Berezovsky, but when asked on Saturday about him by name they read a statement saying they are investigating the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot, 40 kilometres west of London.

A mathematician-turned-Mercedes dealer, Berezovsky amassed his wealth during Russia's chaotic privatization of state assets in the early 1990s.

After falling out with Putin, he sought political asylum in Britain in the early 2000s.

"Yes. He is dead. It was confirmed to me by his private lawyer this afternoon," Berezovsky's spokesman Tim Bell said.

Hi son-in-law, Egor Schuppe, said Berezovsky was depressed and had failed to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances, broadcaster Russia Today reported.

The tycoon was involved in a bitter multi-million pound legal battle with fellow tycoon and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich last year.

He sought more than $A4.39 billion in damages from Abramovich after accusing his rival of blackmail, breach of trust and breach of contract.

He lost the case and subsequently agreed to pay Abramovich $51.23 million in legal costs.

Berezovsky also ran up $365,898) in costs in a legal battle with his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children.

Berezovsky's colourful past is likely to prompt intense speculation about his death - he was paranoid about plots against his life, and in 1995 he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that decapitated his driver.

His lawyer told Russian state television that he had been informed by contacts in London that Berezovsky had killed himself.

"Berezovsky has been in a terrible state as of late. He was in debt. He felt destroyed,'' said Dobrovinsky. "He was forced to sell his paintings and other things.''

However, the oligarch's friend Demyan Kudryavtsev firmly denied that Berezovsky had killed himself.

"No! This is not so!'' he was quoted as saying by the Prime news agency in Russia.

"Nobody knows this. There are no external signs of a suicide. There are no signs that he injected himself or swallowed any pills. No one knows why his heart stopped.''

Born January 23, 1946, in Moscow, Berezovsky trained in forestry and worked as an academic for nearly two decades before becoming one of the super-rich oligarchs who dominated Russia in the 1990s.

Berezovsky's power peaked after he helped Boris Yeltsin become president in 1996, but his subsequent help for Putin to take over after Yeltsin proved his undoing.

The fast-talking Muscovite with a taste for the high life became a key target of Putin's crackdown on the oligarchs' political independence and he fled to Britain, where he won political asylum in 2003 and from where he became a vocal Kremlin critic.
 

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Russian adoptee's US death accidental

THE death of a three-year-old Russian boy adopted by a US couple has been ruled an accident.

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said Max Shatto died due to an internal laceration of an artery due to self-inflicted blunt trauma.

Bland says bruises on the boy's body were from self-inflicted hitting and that no drugs were found in Max's system.

Alan and Laura Shatto adopted Max and his half brother last year.

Laura Shatto told authorities she found Max unresponsive outside the family's Gardendale, Texas, home on January 21. He was later pronounced dead.

Ector County Sheriff Mark Donaldson said investigations were continuing.

Russian authorities have blamed the Shattos for Max's death and used the case as justification for a recently ban on American adoptions of Russian children.

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Russian ghost ship discovered off Ireland

This undated handout picture shows theRussian cruise ship "MV Lyubov Orlova". Source: AFP

A RUSSIAN cruise ship abandoned and adrift in the North Atlantic has been located about 2400 kilometers off the west coast of Ireland.

With no crew or warning lights, the ship Lyubov Orlova has been adrift for two months and maritime authorities had been uncertain of its precise location.

According to a document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Lyubov Orlova has been spotted at the coordinates 49-22.70N and 044-51.34W, or roughly 1300 nautical miles from the Irish coast.

The details were listed in a Daily Memorandum Atlantic Edition, a maritime update put out by the intelligence agency, which analyses satellite imagery and creates detailed maps for the US government.

With only rats as its passengers, the Lyubov Orlova had left Canada's shores on January 23 to be towed to a scrapyard in the Dominican Republic. But a day later, the cable snapped, leaving it stranded in international waters.

It was then secured by the Atlantic Hawk, a supply vessel in the offshore oil industry, which managed to take the ship under tow before it drifted off yet again.

Canada's transport authority has said the ship - abandoned for two years - was no longer its concern, as the vessel had left the country's waters. But officials said the owner was responsible for its movements.

Earlier this week, Canadian officials acknowledged they did not know the location of the ship, as the vessel's global positioning system was no longer working.

But the information locating the ship shows the derelict vessel is slowly heading towards Europe, having drifted at least 800 kilometres toward the European coastline.

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