One more person has shown signs of low-level exposure to polonium-210, the radioactive isotope that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, bringing the total to 16, British health authorities said Thursday. The Health Protection Agency said the person was a visitor to The Pine Bar, at London's Millennium Hotel, on Nov. 1. Litvinenko fell ill on Nov. 1 after meeting Moscow-based businessmen Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun at the hotel. The former security agent, a critic of the Russian leadership who lived in exile in London, died Nov. 23 from a lethal dose of polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, he accused Russia's President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder, an allegation the Kremlin has denied. Of the 15 people who previously tested positive for contamination with polonium-210 since Litvinenko was poisoned, nine worked at the Millennium Hotel. The hotel's Pine Bar has remained off limits to the public since being closed Dec. 8.
