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2 hospitalized for poisoning

MOSCOW— Two American women were hospitalized for treatment of thallium poisoning, the Interfax news agency said today.

The women became ill Feb. 24 and were being treated at Moscow's Sklifosovsky clinic, the city's top emergency medicine hospital, the report said.

Russian media reports said the women — Maria Kovalensky and her daughter, Yana — had come to Moscow for a relative's wedding and were staying in a Moscow hotel when they became ill.

Interfax said the women were in "moderately serious" condition.

Thallium is colorless, odorless and deadly in doses as small as 0.04 ounces. It was initially suspected to be the toxin used in last year's fatal poisoning in London of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, but it was later determined he had ingested the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210.

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