The woman credited with being the driving force behind the Irish National Youth Ballet for the last 13 years has died unexpectedly, while on holidays in Lanzarote.

A new lease of life was today injected in to Irish ballet.

Russia has opened a criminal case in the poisoning death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko and for the attempted killing of associate Dmitry Kovtun, the Prosecutor General’s office said today.

Ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died last month after being poisoned, was scheduled to be buried in London today, his friends said.

Russian investigators said they have begun questioning in the radiation poisoning death of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, a case that has left radiation traces from a London soccer stadium to the British Embassy in Moscow.