Jordanian doctor to follow up Arafat death

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has assigned Dr Abdullah al-Bashir, the Director-General of Jordan Hospital, to help investigate the death of late Palestinian icon Yasser Arafat together with experts from the Institute of Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland, in order to take samples from the remains of the late President to be tested. Dr Bashir is expected to arrive in Ramallah by Wednesday latest. There are no details on when the Swiss experts are expected. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Dr Bashir will meet with experts and with the Swiss Investigation Commission to decipher the circumstances surrounding Arafat's death. Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi will head the investigation commission. Research by the Swiss experts will focus on determining the exposure of the late President personally to a radioactive element called polonium. The Institute of Radiation Physics in Lausanne had told the Qatari news channel Al Jazeera that unusually large samples of polonium were found in Arafat's clothes. The element is lethal even when ingested in small quantities. The experts asked to have samples from Arafat's body which would require exhumation. The leader's widow, Suha Arafat, has supported the idea, while the Palestinian leadership has backed it as well.