Mercury poisoning or random illness?

Yesterday, the world press reported that the lawyer for Anna Politkovskaya's family had been "poisoned."   This article in the Herald Tribune says that balls of mercury were discovered in her car in Strassbourg, where the lawyer, Karinna Moskalenko, represents Russian citizens in cases against the Russian government at the European Court of Human Rights.  Ms. Moskalenko's family became ill recently, with one daughter registering a fever of 104 degrees, although French police have said that the quantity of mercury found in the car was not sufficient to cause illness (but more mercury could have been present when the illnesses occurred).  

It's unclear as to whether the mercury in the car is a coincidence or if it was deliberately planted as a warning.  We shall see what further investigation reveals...

More evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons

Thousands of centrifuges not enough?  Go here for apparent evidence of the assistance of a (lone?) Russian scientist in the design of Iranian nuclear weapons.  The article mentions that the document in question "is described by officials familiar with it as a detailed narrative of experiments aimed at creating a perfectly timed implosion of nuclear material."

Implosion? Sounds like a plutonium device.

As you (my students) remember, the Arak reactor is ideal for the production of plutonium.  This article, for instance, delves into the potential of this reactor.