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After reports arose that former PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s body will be exhumed for further testing, under the assumption that perhaps he was killed by Israel via radioactive poisoning, the New York Times has picked up right where their pro-Arafat slant left off seven and half years years ago. Writing the Times’ article explaining the poisoning theory, Rick Gladstone described Arafat as “the father figure of Palestinian nationalism.” A father figure? Really? Yet as Newsbusters has shown, this language is not far removed from the praise the Times was heaping on Arafat shortly after his death. In January 2005, the...

The unexpected death of conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart just got a whole lot more mysterious. Only two months after Breitbart’s passing, the coroner that investigated the cause of death may have succumbed to arsenic poisoning. Michael Cormier, 61, passed away on April 20, the Los Angeles Times reports this week. Although Cormier’s death is only being publicized now, the timing of actual passing actually came within hours of the release of the preliminary autopsy report of Breitbart. Commenting to the Times on the latest news, Lt. Alan Hamilton of the Los Angeles Police Department says that investigators have not ruled...

Hannah Overton was charged with capital murder, found guilty and handed down a life sentence. This week the 35-year-old was back in a Texas courthouse to try and get her capital murder conviction overturned and convince a judge she did not intentionally poison the four-year-old but that he did it to himself. The defense argued that Andrew had Pica an eating disorder characterized by an obsessive appetite. Overton and her husband told ABC's 20/20 that the boy would eat anything he could get his hands on. The day he collapsed in their home, Andrew was found in the pantry by...

An explosion on Monday rocked the suburban Atlanta home of a man known for his fight to keep chickens on his property, and emergency officials say a body was found inside. Marshals had been on the scene for about two hours trying to evict Andrew Wordes, who's known as the "Chicken Man," when the explosion happened around 12:45 p.m., said Antonio Johnson of the Fulton County marshal's office. Minutes before the explosion, Wordes told them to leave the property that was in foreclosure. Other than the body found inside the house, which officials did not immediately identify, no one was...

Food chain at risk of being poisoned by terrorist groups Food and drink sold in Britain is under a growing threat from terrorist groups which might try to poison supplies, the Government’s security advisers have warned. By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent 9:44PM BST 04 Jun 2011 Manufacturers and retailers have been told that their sector is vulnerable to attacks by ideologically and politically motivated groups that may seek to cause widespread casualties and disruption by poisoning food supplies. The warning from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure [CPNI], which operates as part of the Security Service, comes as...

I mentioned the system called the WSPEEDI simulation system in passing when I wrote about SPEEDI data for the early period of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident (March 11 onward). When Professor Kosako resigned from his post as PM special advisor in protest of the 20 millisievert/year radiation limit for school children, he called for the release of WSPEEDI, which can cover much wider area ("several thousand kilometers", according to Professor Kosako). Well well. The Ministry of Education very quietly put the WSPEEDI simulation data on their webpage for SPEEDI data list on May 10, without any fanfare, without...

Hospitals in Russia's far-eastern city of Vladivostok have seen an influx of patients with a rare form of fish poisoning. Several people have died. The culprit is the fugu fish – a traditional and popular Japanese delicacy. The catch is you have to cook it very carefully because just one fish contains a poison capable of killing over 30 people. In Japan, only very experienced, specially trained cooks are allowed to dress fugu. Fugu fish are not usually found off Vladivostok, but the warm summer saw their numbers grow. Hungry anglers took it upon themselves to make what they thought...

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We all take automotive refrigerant (R-12/R-134) as part of the car. But this stuff can KILL YOU. Found out the hard way. Wife was in the car, AC failed, dumped all the freon into the cabin of the car. She got a big shot of it. 30 minutes later, she is very dizzy, very sick. An hour, she's flat on the floor, throwing up blood. Got her to the ER, they started work. She's home now and recovering. But if we had not got her to the ER, she could have died. You do research, the medical articles say "if...

Was it a competitor or just a vandal who poisoned 7 million vegetable plants at a seedling nursery in Australia? The sabotage — estimated at a loss of 23.5 million Australian dollars ($20.3 million) — could more than double produce prices across the country due to decreased supply. About 4 million tomato seedlings were poisoned, as well as bell peppers, melons and eggplant. The region of Bowen, in northern Queensland state, grows the majority of Australia's winter vegetables. Police investigations found that a herbicide was introduced in late June into the irrigation system of the Supa Seedlings nursery, which sells...

Cadmium. Sounds like a super cool name for a new car, doesn't it? Wow, here the voiceover on the commercial: "Be the first on your block to drive the new Cadmium." Actually, you likely would not want to because of what that name means. According to HealthLine.com, Cadmium can be very toxic, and is dangerous if it is swallowed or inhaled. It is used in a large number of industrial applications. In the United States, over 10 million pounds of cadmium are used industrially every year. While spontaneous recovery from mild cadmium exposure is common, doses as low as 10...

SNIPPET: "Kabul, 21 April (AKI) - At least 12 female students were hospitalised in Afghanistan on Wednesday after inhaling a poisonous substance sprayed at a school in northern Afghanistan. The 12 students of the Fatima Zahra Girl School, and a teacher and an assistant were mysteriously poisoned, Hamayon Khamush, director of the hospital in Kunduz city, was quoted as saying by Xinhua." SNIPPET: "To defend their ideology, Taliban militants have attacked girl students with gas and acid." SNIPPET: "In May last year 90 girls were hospitalised in Kapisa province, north-east of the capital, after someone sprayed toxic chemicals in the...

BOSTON — Six Harvard University medical researchers were poisoned in August after drinking coffee that was laced with a chemical preservative, according to university officials. In an internal memo first reported in the Boston Herald's Sunday editions, the school said the coffee came from a machine near their lab that later tested positive for sodium azide, a common preservative used in labs. The six reported symptoms after drinking the coffee Aug. 26, ranging from dizziness to ringing in the ears, and one passed out. They were treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and later released.

The gruesome death of Jim Robinson nearly 40 years ago to the day was replayed Tuesday in a Mesa County courtroom in a wrongful death suit being pursued by Robinson’s son. Matt Robinson of Grand Junction is suing Meeker sheep rancher Nick Theos for damages related to his father’s death, which was attributed decades later to exposure to thallium, a poisonous element used in the 1950s and 1960s for a variety of purposes, from killing insects to coyotes. Nick Theos frequently used thallium to kill coyotes and other predators, Matt Robinson’s attorney, Keith Killian, told a jury of five women...

Experts blame psychosomatic reaction for sickness of thousands near chemical plants, residents disagree Experts on Thursday ruled out the possibility of chemical pollution as the cause for amass illness that hospitalized 161 people in northeast China's Jilin Province. Several thousands of people have developed symptoms of headache,nausea, muscle fatigue and seizures since April 23 after inhaling an irritant gas since April 23 in an industrial park in Jilin City,Jilin province. All of them were workers of Jilin Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. (JCF) and residents around the company. A total of 161 people were hospitalized, 11 of whom had been released...

WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of “green” lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories. Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment. Doctors,...

TAMARAC, Fla. (WSVN) -- A Broward County judge denied bond to a woman spotted by a Publix shopper pouring an unspecified black liquid into jars of baby food inside the grocery store on the evening of Feb. 12. According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the witness viewed 50-year-old Shirley W. Ybarra using a plastic syringe to transfer the unknown dye from a Victoria's Secret body splash container to an Earth's Best banana food jar inside the grocery chain's 4121 West Commercial Blvd. location. When store employees confronted her, the suspect told them she had been mixing food for her son...

TOKYO — Blowfish testicles prepared by an unauthorized chef sickened seven diners in northern Japan and three remained hospitalized Tuesday after eating the poisonous delicacy. The owner of the restaurant in Tsuruoka city, who is also the chef, had no license to serve blowfish and was being questioned on suspicion of professional negligence, police official Yoshihito Iwase said.

Two fall sick after eating Chinese bean paste in Japan Sat Sep 20, 1:26 AM ET Two employees of a Japanese confectionery company fell sick after eating China-made bean paste in the latest apparent food scare here, police and the firm said Saturday. The workers at Marusei Honten confectionery in central Nagano prefecture noticed a strange smell like petroleum oil when they opened the five-kilogram (11-pound) package of red-bean paste on Friday, police said. They tasted it to check on the quality and felt sick soon afterwards, police said.

China traces dumpling poisoning to factory Sat Aug 30, 2:22 AM ET A row over pesticide-laced Chinese dumplings has moved a step closer to a settlement after China told Japan that a factory worker was probably to blame, NHK public television said on Saturday. Ten Japanese became sick after eating pesticide-contaminated dumplings which had been imported from China, stirring intense media coverage earlier this year. Japan and China have long been at odds over where the dumplings were contaminated, with both denying sabotage in their home countries. Earlier this month, the Japanese government said China had told Japan in July...