Russia holds US pair linked to Britain

Russian news agencies say two Russians who also hold US citizenship and have connections to the British Council and a British joint-venture oil company have been arrested.

The reports cite the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, as saying that the men were detained on 12 March while attempting to receive confidential information.

One was the head of a project directed by the British Council, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency. The other was an employee of TNK-BP, a major Russian oil company half-owned by Britain's BP. That company's offices were searched by police on Wednesday.