Nuclear whistleblower arrested

The nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been arrested for violating a ban on contact with foreigners, Israeli police said. His lawyer said he was detained over a romance with a Norwegian woman rather than for revealing nuclear secrets.

"She is not interested in nuclear business," his attorney, Avigdor Feldman, told reporters. "She's interested in [him... and he] is probably interested in her."

A Jerusalem court ordered that Mr Vanunu, who was taken into police custody on Monday, be put under house arrest for three days pending an indictment.

Mr Vanunu was jailed as a traitor in 1986 and served an 18-year sentence after discussing his work as a technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor with a British newspaper, an interview that led experts to conclude the facility had produced fissile material for as many as 200 atomic warheads.

After his release from jail in 2004, Israeli defence authorities barred Mr Vanunu from travelling abroad or speaking with foreigners, alleging he has more details on the Dimona atomic reactor to divulge.