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Former senior advisor to the late Palestinian leader says Yasser Arafat had been poisoned by a lethal dose of thallium in his food or drinking water. Bassam Abu Sharif, once advisor to Yasser Arafat, accused Israel of poisoning Arafat through the food or drinking water that he received when he was under siege in his headquarters in Ramallah. Arafat died of a mysterious disease in a French hospital on November 11, 2004.

A convicted murderer who killed at least six people, including his wife and daughter, by poisoning their food has been found dead in a Yaroslavl prison, and officials believe that he may have died from the side effects of the poisons he used on his victims. A Yaroslavl court in June convicted Vyacheslav Solovyov of six counts of murder and sentenced him to life in prison. According to reports earlier this year on state-run Rossia television, he added poison to the food and drinks of his victims and observed the fatal effects on their health, sometimes over the course of...

Iowahawk Guest Opinionby Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)From the earliest days of the campaign, the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination has been a hard fought, neck-and-neck struggle. But now, as the race enters its final stretch, it has become increasingly obvious that the eventual outcome is no longer in doubt. With a difficult general election looming, Democrats need to put our family squabbles aside and unite behind the eventual nominee. And so, in the interest of Party unity, and his own health, I am calling on Senator Obama to gracefully accept defeat.First, let me congratulate Senator Obama and his...

Police probe 'new KGB poison attack' as defector Gordievsky is found unconscious in Surrey home 6th April 2008 Special Branch is investigating an alleged attempt to murder Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB double-agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence at the height of the Cold War. The former Soviet colonel, who escaped to Britain in 1985, says he was poisoned by a Russian assassin who visited him at his secret safe-house in Surrey. He fears he is the latest victim of revenge attacks by Russian intelligence on high-profile defectors. Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian spy, was murdered in London in...

AN ALLEGED attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. Oleg Gordievsky was admitted to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November last year. And yesterday he claimed he had been poisoned with the highly toxic metal thallium in a botched assassination attempt. Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the 1980s, claims he was targeted by a Russian assassin who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. The 69-year-old was unconscious for 34 hours after falling ill last year and...

Thallium has been described as an ideal assassin's tool The UK government has flown antidote medicine to the Middle East after some Iraqis became seriously ill from eating cakes laced with the poison thallium. Two of the victims, both children, died after eating cake delivered to a military club in Baghdad. Others are being treated in hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman. It is the first time the deadly toxin has been used since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, whose regime used it to kill its opponents. At least two of the poison victims, the secretary of the Iraqi...

American women poisoned in Moscow 03/07/2007 11:49 Two American women are being treated in a Moscow hospital for thallium poisoning, BBC reported. Their condition is described as “fairly serious”. They were staying at a Moscow hotel and fell ill on 24 February, but the circumstances are not yet clear. Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio said doctors had confirmed that the women, a mother and daughter aged 42 and 26, had been poisoned with highly toxic thallium. According to Kommersant, FSB thinks the poisoning is an attempt to cover up theft traces, the victims’ jewellery was stolen. 49-year-old Marina Kovalevskaya and her...

It appears that the Kremlin has attempted to assassinate Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, whose warnings to the West have been repeatedly cited in this column. A former lieutenant colonel of the KGB/FSB, Litvinenko wrote a book titled Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within. During an interview with Rzeczpospolita in July 2005 he explained that al Qaeda’s number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB (KGB) in Russia along with other al Qaeda leaders. According to Litvinenko, “[there is] only one organization which has made terrorism the main tool of solving political problems.” And that organization, he said, “is...

However personally I think it was politically arranged and/or motivated by reasons related to espionage and national security. I have studied the case involving the assassinated Russian journalist. She was assassinated not because of her criticism of Putin, in my opinion, but because of her recent gathering of information about how close to collapse Russian efforts are in Chechnya. If Chechnya collapses then the entire South Western frontier could follow suit from the example and Chechnya is the Russian Iraq in many respects, but unlike our Iraq Chechnya sits on the border. Making it far more directly dangerous to Moscow...

On New Year’s Day in 1988, Abdullah Ali, an Iraqi businessman who had been living in London for eight years, joined three compatriots for dinner at a restaurant called Cleopatra in Notting Hill.The next morning, he was taken ill with flu-like symptoms and was admitted to hospital. There his condition rapidly deteriorated — his hair fell out, he developed excruciating skin and joint pain, and paralysis and respiratory failure began to set in. Fifteen days later he was dead — but not before he had begun to wonder whether something had been added to his vodka. He was right: the...

Excerpt - Scotland Yard is investigating the attempted murder of a top Russian defector poisoned by political enemies in London. Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB colonel who fled the current Russian regime to claim asylum in Britain, is under armed police guard in hospital. Sources have confirmed that the Russian was taken suddenly and dangerously ill on November 1 while investigating the recent murder of dissident Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Mr Litvinenko was poisoned following a clandestine meeting with an associate at a sushi bar in London's Piccadilly. ~ snip ~

Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into an audacious attempt to murder – using a deadly poison – a leading Russian defector at a restaurant in London. Alexander Litvinenko, a former colonel in the Russian secret service and a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was seriously ill under armed guard at a London hospital last night. Alexander Litvinenko defected to Britain six years ago A close friend of Mr Litvinenko said last night: "Alexander has no doubt that he was poisoned at the instigation of the Russian government." He has been living at a secret address in London with...