Swiss scientists have concluded Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat is likely to have died from polonium poisoning. According to a text of their findings published by Al-Jazeera Telrevision. The trsts on Arafat's remains moderately support the proposition that the death was he consequence of poisoning with polonium -210"said the 108-page analysis posted on the Al-Jazeera website. New toxicological and radio-toxicological investigations wee prformed, demonstrating high levels of polonium -210 and lead-210 activity in many of the analyzed samples." said the report written by 10 experts at Vaudois University Hospital Center (CHUV). It said that polonium levels "in bones and soft tissues were up to 20 times higher" than hypothecised, firmly rules out the possibility previously reported in some of the media that passive smoking had caused greater than normal polonium levels on Arafat's personal effects. Arafat's widow Suha dsaid in an inteview aired by Al-Jazeera that poisoning, if proved is "an assissination of a great leader" and is a "political crime'. "I do not know, who did it" but it is terrible, she said. The Palestinian official incharge of the investigation into aeafat's death Tawfiq Tirawai said on Tuesday that he had received the findings of Swiss laboratory, but he denied to disclose it. official Palestinian News Agency WAFA said that a separate Russian team appointed by Palestinian authority also hannded in its report on November 2. Some 60 samples from the remains of late Palestinian leadr were taken in November last year, to probe into whether he was poisoned by polonium. The samples were divided between the Swiss and Russian investigators and a French team carrying out probe into arafat's death at the rquest of deceased widow. Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004, at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with the request of the widow. His remains were exhumed in November 2012 and samples taken partly to investigate whether he was poisoned-- a suspicion that grew after the assasination of Russian ex-spy and Crimlin critic Alexender Litvinenko in 2006. In an October report published by The Lancet, eight scientists working at the Institute of Radiation Physics and University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne confired they found traces of polonium in separeate tests on the clothins used by Arafat which they said "support the possibility", he was poisoned. Polonium is a radioactive material rarely found outside the military and cietific circles. Small doses exist in the soil and atmosphere, and even in the human body, but in high doses it is highly toxic, if digested or inhaled can damage body's tissues and organs. It is one of the rarest natural element, - in 10 grams of uranium ore there is maximum of a billionth of a gram of polonium. Polonium -210 is the least rare of its 33 known isotopes. The substance has been used industrially for its alpha radiation in research and medicine, and as a heating source for space components, but in those forms it is not conducive for easy poisoning. Courtsy ( News Tribe)
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