The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: flowers on December 26, 2013, 07:01:53 pm
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_ARAFATS_DEATH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-26-13-32-30
MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian probe into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has found that his death wasn't caused by radiation - a finding that comes after a French probe found traces of the radioactive isotope polonium and a Swiss investigation said the timeframe of his illness and death was consistent with that of polonium poisoning.
Vladimir Uiba, the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, said Thursday that Arafat died of natural causes and the agency had no plans to conduct further tests.
Teams of scientists from France, Switzerland and Russia were asked to determine whether polonium, a rare and extremely lethal substance, played a role in Arafat's death in a French military hospital in 2004.
French experts found traces of polonium but said it was "of natural environmental origin," according to Arafat's widow, Suha Arafat. Swiss scientists, meanwhile, said they found elevated traces of polonium-210 and lead, and that the timeframe of Arafat's illness and death was consistent with poisoning from ingesting polonium.