Russian ‘spy whale’ may have provided therapy for children

Fake cyanide-filled teeth and cigarette packs concealing cameras are among the Soviet spy gadgets going under the hammer at a Beverly Hills auction this week. Many retro espionage devices in the sale by US-based Julien's Auctions -- known for Hollywood and pop culture memorabilia -- would not be out of place in a classic James Bond movie, including microphones hidden within pens, ashtrays and porcelain plates.

Workers from Israel's Nature and Parks Authority bury a 17-metre-long Fin whale, after it washed ashore, on Nitzanim beach near the city of Ashkelon. The rare appearance of the dead Fin whale was initially thought to have been connected to the tar pollution brought across the country's coastline last week by powerful winds and high waves. But Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said on February 19, that experts had determined that the decayed state of the whale, discovered on February 18, indicates that it had died some two weeks ago.

The 66-year-old has been accused of passing on information to the Egyptian secret service when he worked at the German federal government's press office.

Facebook has said it blocked a group of Chinese hackers that used the platform to target Uyghur activists living abroad and compromise their security by using surveillance software.

It was unclear why the whale traveled nearly so far upstream. One witness described it as like "seeing a camel at the North Pole."

A humpback whale is found dead on a beach along the Mediterranean in southern France, in what experts say was a rare incident.

Denmark's complicity in the NSA spying scandal against German politicians has been revealed in a joint European media investigation.

A security agency chief has warned that Moscow has a "very complex intelligence interest in Germany." However, far-right extremism is the country's current "greatest threat," he said.

Coming across a dead whale might not seem like finding treasure, but for a group of Yemeni fishermen that’s exactly what it was. In the whale’s belly they found a lump of ambergris, a hugely valuable waxy substance used in the making of perfume.

The head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency has warned that the Islamic State is just as strong as it ever was — even without its caliphate. Terrorism experts agree that it has morphed into a powerful network.

The shocking image of a violently ill Alexander Litvinenko as he lay dying from radioactive poisoning in a London hospital bed is how much of the world remembers the ex Russian spy. But a new opera in London based on a book by his wife Marina and composed by former London financier, Anthony Bolton seeks to tell more of his story. A British public inquiry in 2016 concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "probably approved" Litvinenko's killing, which it said was likely to have been FSB-directed, but no one has ever been brought to justice.

A stranded humpback whale is rescued alive off Argentina's Atlantic coast at the seaside resort of La Lucila del Mar, 360 kilometres south of Buenos Aires. The whale is one of two stranded whales saved by a team of 30 people including local residents, marine environmentalists, members of the Civil Defence, coastguard police, volunteer firefighters and beach lifeguards.