French prosecutors have opened a murder investigation into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Arafat died in a French military hospital in 2004 of what doctors called a stroke.

[attach id=208025 size="medium"][/attach]

Longstanding rumours in the Arab world have said he was poisoned.

His wife, Suha Arafat, filed a legal complaint in France after Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera broadcast the results of an investigation into her husband's death.

That included tests of objects that Mrs Arafat said belonged to him.

A Swiss institute detected elevated traces of polonium-210 - a rare and highly lethal substance - on the belongings, but said the findings were inconclusive.

A judge will be named to investigate.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.