WORLD BRIEFS

FRANCE: Murder probe on Arafat

French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry Tuesday into the death of Yasser Arafat, his widow's lawyer said, after she and a TV investigation raised new questions about whether the Palestinian leader had been poisoned. Many in the Arab world have long suspected he was poisoned. A Swiss lab's recent finding of elevated levels of polonium-210, a highly lethal radioactive substance, on Arafat's clothing fed those claims. The Institute of Radiation Physics said its findings were inconclusive and only exhuming the remains could bring possible clarity. Arafat died in a French military hospital outside Paris in 2004 of what was called a massive stroke. The lab's findings were first broadcast by Al-Jazeera, which approached the lab on behalf of Arafat's widow, Suha.

RUSSIA: Harsh sentence for activist

An opposition activist was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison in a review of her case, twice as long as prosecutors had requested in a ruling that drew immediate opposition outrage. Taisiya Osipova and her supporters have maintained that police planted four grams of heroin in her home in 2010 in revenge for her refusal to testify against her husband, Sergei Fomchenkov, a senior figure in The Other Russia movement. Osipova had originally been sentenced to 10 years, but a higher court ordered a review. The unexpectedly harsh verdict comes two weeks after three members of a punk provocateur band were sentenced to two years in prison for an anti-Vladimir Putin performance in Moscow's main cathedral.

VENEZUELA: Refinery fire finally put out

Firefighters put out the last of three blazes at the country's largest refinery following an explosion four days ago that killed 48 people. Operations had yet to be resumed. A blaze at a third tank flared up twice Tuesday before being contained. The Amuay refinery has the capacity to process 645,000 barrels a day. The shutdown threatens supplies of refined petroleum products as Hurricane Isaac halted operations at U.S. Gulf Coast plants.