Poison | featured news

A dust mask and other items linked to a Mississippi martial arts instructor contained ricin, a deadly poison found in letters sent to President Obama, a U.S. senator and a state judge, according to an FBI document released Tuesday.

Of three ricin-laced letters mailed this month to public officials, only one made it into the hands of an intended target, 80-year-old Mississippi judge Sadie Holland. Investigators are working to piece together what motivated someone to send the letters to her, President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker. Holland is a common link between two men who have been investigated in the case. Holland presided over a 2004 assault case against Paul Kevin Curtis, an entertainer who had been the top suspect in the case until prosecutors dropped charges against him Tuesday.

A court filing says charges have been dropped against a Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others.

Investigators haven't found any ricin in the house of a man accused of mailing poisoned letters.

Federal agents arrested a Mississippi man suspected of sending letters that showed evidence of ricin in initial testing to President Obama and a Republican senator, according to two officials.

A letter addressed to President Obama, containing a suspicious substance, was intercepted at a screening facility outside the White House, officials said on Wednesday. The letter was intercepted at a screening facility outside the White House, the Secret Service said.

Medical examiners in Chicago have confirmed that cyanide poisoning killed a man just as he was about to collect on a $1 million instant lottery ticket. Additional tests on the blood of the man, Urooj Khan, confirmed the earlier finding, Cook County Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Cina told reporters Friday. He said that coronary artery disease was a contributing factor.

A New Jersey woman is accused of fatally poisoning her husband’s 88-year-old grandmother with antifreeze.

The one-day murder trial of Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, concluded with prosecutors telling the court that she slipped poison into a glass of water to kill British businessman Neil Heywood after he got drunk. Gu killed Heywood, they argued, because he threatened the security of her Harvard University son.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday that news of a Chinese investigation into the death of a British businessman in China followed repeated British requests for an inquiry. Forty-one-year-old Neil Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing, China's biggest metropolis, last November. His death was initially attributed to alcohol poisoning but foul play is now suspected.