Ambiguity surrounds Arafat's cause of death

Medical reports released in the wake of last year's death of Palestinian leader Yasar Arafat have failed to list any specific reason for cause of death. The New York Times has reported that the final blow to Arafat, according to the medical reports, was a stroke, but that there is no clear indication of what led to the general decline in the Palestinian leader's health. The report also apparently largely does away with any conclusions that Arafat could have died from either AIDS or poisening, though apparently Arafat's doctors persist in claims that he was poisened. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published a report saying that Arafat's private doctor, Eshref El Kurdi, knew that French doctors had found evidence of the AIDS virus in Arafat's blood. El Kurdi apparently claims that Israel put the AIDS virus into Arafat's blood to disguise evidence of poisening. Arafat fell ill in October 2004, and after being brought to Paris for treatment, died on November 11, 2004. Â