Doctors have determined (Times Online UK) that Ukraine opposition candidate Victor Yushchenko was poisoned in an obvious assassination attempt. There has been widespread speculation that Yushchenko was either very ill or suffering the effects of a rare poison prior to the latter being confirmed. Medical experts in Vienna are determining the specific poison which was used.
Mr Yushchenko fell ill on September 6 and was rushed to Rudolfinerhaus four days later with severe abdominal pain and lesions on his face and trunk. His liver, pancreas and intestines were swollen and his digestive tract covered in ulcers, but doctors could not explain the symptoms.
He says he will prove that his opponent, Ukraine's prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, tried to assassinate him. Yushchenko supports joining NATO and lost the fraudulent Ukraine presidential election despite leading in the polls (sound familiar?).
What makes the situation extra tense is the possibility that a faction of the Russian government was behind the attempt. Pooty-Poot, who supports Yanukovych, has voiced his disgust with the re-vote process in the the former Soviet state.
And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (World Peace Herald) has accused Colin Powell and the United States of being hypocrites for backing the "Orange Revolution" and declaring the elections to be fraudulent. Never-the-less, there's some looming tensions between the U.S. and Russia.
Does anyone trust the Bush administration to handle utensils without corks on the forks, much less handling a fight with a hostile Moscow?