Shorts: Mideast

Arafat wasn't poisoned, relative says

jerusalem (jta) | Yasser Arafat's medical file showed his body contained no traces of poison, but it still can't be ruled out, a senior Palestinian official said.

"There is no clear diagnosis of the reason for the death and the toxicological tests were made and no known poison was found," Arafat's relative, Nasser Al-Kidwa, told reporters in Paris on Monday, Nov. 22. He added, however, that he had not read the whole file, which is over 500 pages long, and could not say definitively that the Palestinian Authority president wasn't poisoned.

Al-Kidwa, who is the P.A.'s ambassador to the United Nations, received Arafat's medical file earlier despite last-minute attempts by Arafat's wife, Suha, to prevent disclosure of the document.

A number of Jewish organizations in France had demanded that the document be made public following accusations from Palestinian sources that Arafat was poisoned by Israelis. Other Palestinian and French officials have ruled out the possibility of poisoning.




Technion to broadcast Nobel ceremony

haifa | Two Technion-Israel Institute of Technology scientists who won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be honored at the Nobel Foundation's official ceremony on December 10th in Stockholm, Sweden.

Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover became the first Israelis ever to win the Nobel Prize in science. The ceremony will be broadcast live from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST on December 10th on the American Technion Society's Web site (http://www.ats.org.) A video of the ceremony will also be available for viewing at the organization's site after December 10th.




Kibbutz chickens fried by lightning

jerusalem (jta) | A lightning storm killed thousands of Israeli chickens. Kibbutz Yifat reported that 10,000 hens in one of its coops were fried alive Monday, Nov. 21, by a lighting bolt.




Pollard criticizes 3-way release rumor

jerusalem (jta) | Jonathan Pollard opposed a rumored deal that would free him in exchange for Israel's release of Palestinian militia leader Marwan Barghouti.

"I wish to make clear that I always opposed my release being conditioned on the release of murderers and terrorists. This has not changed," Ma'ariv quoted Pollard as saying in a letter from the U.S. jail where the former U.S. Navy analyst is serving a life sentence for sharing classified information with Israel.

The open letter was issued in response to rumors that Israel could release Barghouti, who was jailed for murder, in exchange for Pollard and Azzam Azzam, an accused Israeli spy in an Egyptian prison, in a three-way deal meant to boost the Palestinian leadership after Yasser Arafat's death.




Former Israeli army chief dies

jerusalem (jta) | Rafael Eitan, a former Israeli army chief and right-wing politician, drowned Nov. 23, at age 75.

Eitan, known to most Israelis by his nickname, "Raful," was swept into the sea while inspecting a new pier whose construction he had overseen in Ashdod, authorities said.

Born in Moshav Tel Adashim in 1929, Eitan ended his military career as chief of staff under a cloud following the 1982 massacre by an Israeli-allied Christian militia of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps outside Beirut.




More locusts en route

jerusalem (jta) | Israel fears a new wave of locusts.

The Israeli air force spotted a 6-mile-wide swarm of the agricultural pests approaching from the Sinai desert.

But officials said the swarm could be turned back by winter squalls that have hit Israel this week.

Millions of locusts already have alighted on farmland in the Negev, prompting the Agriculture Ministry to order a widespread crop-dusting campaign.