Arafat widow lodges legal suit

The widow and daughter of Yasser Arafat yesterday launched legal action in France over claims that the veteran Palestinian leader died of radioactive polonium poisoning, their lawyer said.
Suha and Zawra Arafat lodged a civil suit for murder against persons unknown with investigating magistrates in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, said lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sur.
Yasser Arafat died at a military hospital near Paris in 2004.
Allegations that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was poisoned were resurrected earlier this month after Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast an investigation in which experts said they found high levels of polonium on his personal effects.
Polonium is a highly toxic substance which is rarely found outside military and scientific circles, and was used to kill former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 shortly after drinking tea laced with the poison.