Yushchenko Poisoned…Or Not

It was biological warfare!

Doctors at Vienna's exclusive Rudolfinerhaus clinic are within days of identifying the substance that left Mr Yushchenko's face disfigured with cysts and lesions, Nikolai Korpan told The Times in a telephone interview.

Specialists in Britain, the United States and France had helped to establish that it was a biological agent, a chemical agent or, most likely, a rare poison that struck him down in the run-up to the presidential election, he said. Doctors needed to examine Mr Yushchenko again at the clinic in Vienna to confirm their diagnosis but were in no doubt that the substance was administered deliberately, he said.

"This is no longer a question for discussion," Dr Korpan said. "We are now sure that we can confirm which substance caused this illness. He received this substance from other people who had a specific aim."

No, it was sushi!

[Rudolfinerhaus director Dr. Michael] Zimpfer rejected as "entirely untrue" a story in Wednesday's edition of the London daily The Times, which quoted Dr. Nikolai Korpan—the Rudolfinerhaus physician who oversaw Yushchenko's treatment—as saying the Ukrainian candidate had been poisoned and the intention was to kill him.

Hours after the newspaper report was published, Korpan denied making the remarks.

"The suspicion of poisoning has until now neither been confirmed or excluded," Korpan was quoted as saying by the Austria Press Agency.