BBC News:法医鉴定阿拉法特可能是被毒死的
Forensic scientists in Switzerland say the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have beenpoisoned. In a report published on the Al Jazeera and Guardian newspaper websites, theexperts said Mr.Arafat's bones showed polonium levels at least 18 times the normal level. Hiswidow said the results proved that he was assassinated. Imogen Foulkes reports.
The reports from the Lausanne Institute of Radiation Physics is a 100 pages long, itsconclusion that the Yasser Arafat's body contained unexpectedly high-levels of radioactivepolonium which could support the theory that the Palestinian leader was poisoned. There havebeen rumors that he may have been poisoned ever since his death in 2004. The Swiss institutewas unavailable for comment, but its report does contain some words of caution, the lengthof time passed between Mr. Arafat's death and the examination and the possibility that some ofthe material like examined may have been contaminated.
The militant group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb says it killed two French journalists last weekin the northern Malian town of Kidal. The group said in a statement the killings were inretaliation for French and African military action in Mali. Thomas Fessy reports.
The statement says the French and new peacekeepers are committing daily crimes against thepeople of Mali and Muslims in the northern region. This killing, the statement reads, remain justmore price to pay for the French crusades. Fighters loyal to Abdelkrim Tarki, a seniorcommander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are believed have sent this statement. Itremains unclear whether those who shot the two journalists died have set out to kill them orinstead want to kidnap them for a ransom.
A court in Ivory Coast has sentenced 15 former executives from the country's coffee and cocoaregulators to prison sentences of 20 years each. The defendants known as the Cocoa Baronswere ordered to pay million of dollars in fines for embezzling tax revenues, 50 others wereacquitted.
A member of the militant African American Black Panthers who hijacked the plane 30 years agoand forced it to fly to Cuba has returned the United States where he still faces a prosecution.William Potts says he wants to face the US justice system. Here's Vanessa Buschschluter.
In 1984, William Potts, a militant with a Black Panther party boarded the plane from New Jerseyto Florida. He pulled a gun - hidden in a plaster cast - and forced the pilot to fly to Cuba wherehe expected to be welcome with open arms and beginning guerrilla training. But instead, theCuban authorities convicted him of air piracy and sentenced to jail for 13 years. After he servedthe sentence, Potts settled in Havana.
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The Columbian government negotiators and Farc rebel leaders say they reached an agreementon the left-wing group’s future political role at peace talks in Cuba. Both sides agreed andguaranteed for the creation of new political parties, once a final accord is reached to end the50-year conflict.
Polls have closed in Tajikistan in presidential elections which in certain to confirm theincumbent President Emomali Rakhmon in office for another seven years. He's been a leader inthe central Asian country of eight million people since 1992 and is very likely to defeat the fivelittle known candidates who run against him.
Scientists say the threat of another asteroid strike like the one that hit Russia earlier this yearis much higher than was previously thought. A study published in a scientific journal Naturefound that space rocks as big as a house are hurtling into the earth’s atmosphere withsurprising frequency, most were undetected because they explode over remote areas overthe ocean. The lead scientists in the study, Professor Peter Brown from Western University inOntario, Canada, says early warning systems need to put in place.
Having some sort of system that scans the sky almost continuously looks for these objectsjust before they hit the earth, that probably is something worth doing. And in the case ofChelyabinsk, you know, a few day's to week's warning would have been valuable. If there areason to be able to tell people, not look out the windows, to get close the windows when iteven happened.
Police in Brazil are investigating reports that the Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber has beenphotographed painting graffiti in a wall in Rio de Janeiro. Local media said members of theteenage idol's entourage told the police that Justin Bieber had been authorized by the citycouncil to paint in the wall although not the one that appears in the photographs.Correspondents say that if found guilty of defacing a building, the singer could be sentenced toup to a year in prison.
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