Polonium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie, when it was extracted from uranium ore and identified solely by its strong radioactivity.
The report handed to Suhrafatwill not be published, but the French public prosecutor's office said it concluded: "In sum, death was not due to poisoning with
Polonium 210…
The Swiss scientists said Thursday that they found elevated traces of polonium-210 and lead in Arafat's remains, and that the timeframe of Arafat's illness and death was consistent with poisoning from ingesting
polonium.
Polonium is a rare radioactive element that is hard to come by -- unless you have a nuclear programme capable of producing it -- and Israel has ready access to it.
The Swiss report said tests on the body showed "unexpected high activity" of
polonium, which "moderately" supported the poisoning theory.
AFP -- Palestinian officials demanded a global probe into the "killing" of Yasser Arafat on Thursday, a day after it emerged that Swiss forensic tests showed he probably died from
polonium poisoning.
Published on Thursday, 07 November 2013 09:55 Reuters PARIS - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive
polonium, his widow Suha said on Wednesday after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband's corpse.
"I can't accuse anyone, but how many countries have an atomic reactor that can produce
polonium?" she said.
Summary: Swiss scientists have concluded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is likely to have died from
polonium poisoning, according to a text of their findings published by Al-Jazeera television Wednesday.