Jerusalem: A former Israeli official is denying allegations that Israel poisoned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as French prosecutors begin investigating his possible murder.
Dov Weisglass was chief of staff to the Israeli prime minister when Arafat died in 2004. He says Israel had no interest in harming the Palestinian leader at the end of his political career. Weisglass told Army Radio today that Israel permitted Arafat to seek medical treatment in France so Israel could not be accused of exacerbating his illness.
Arafat’s widow, Suha, filed a complaint in France after a Swiss institute detected traces of a rare, lethal substance on objects belonging to the Palestinian leader. He died in a French military hospital of a stroke. But longstanding rumors circulating in Arab world say Arafat was poisoned. (AP)
Journalist arrested for phone hacking
London: A journalist was on Wednesday arrested by Scotland Yard as part of an operation linked to the inquiry into phone-hacking at the now defunct News of the World, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch.
The police said the 28-year-old journalist was being questioned at a North London police station about alleged computer hacking relating to the identification of a previously anonymous blogger in 2009.
The police did not identify the arrested journalist as per normal procedure, but the BBC named him as Patrick Foster. He is the 11th person to be arrested under Operation Tuleta, which is investigating criminal breaches of privacy, including computer hacking.
The police said he had been arrested “for suspected offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and suspected conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977”. (PTI)
Reveller may have taped Harry at hotel
London: In a possible embarrassment to the British royal family, it has emerged that Prince Harry’s nude antics at his private party in Las Vegas may have been caught on video by a reveller.
Buckingham Palace warned the third in line to the British throne that a reveller at his party may have taped all his naked hotel romp. Meanwhile, 27-year-old Harry has been dumped by his new girlfriend after she was devastated by the pictures. (PTI)