Arafat Belongings Contaminated By Radioactive Element

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Items belonging to late president Yasser Arafat were found to have been contaminated by a rare and radioactive element, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday.

Arafat, who fell ill while besieged in his compound in Ramallah, eventually passed away in 2004 in a Paris hospital. Mystery surrounded his cause of death.

Now, Al Jazeera says the Swiss Institut de Radiophysique has proof that Arafat’s personal belongings contained abnormal levels of a rare and radioactive element called polonium.

Dr Francois Bochud of the institute was quoted as saying “an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210” was found on belongings like Arafat’s toothbrush and iconic kuffiya.

The substance is believed to be the same which killed Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who died after falling ill in 2006 in London, Al Jazeera reported.

Maan

Launched in 2005, Ma'an News Agency (MNA) publishes news around the clock in Arabic and English, and is among the most browsed websites in the Palestinian territories, with over 3 million visits per month.

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