Yasser Arafat?

[DoubleX]

PARIS — Yasser Arafat (search) is in a coma and is "between life and death," though he is not brain dead, his spokeswoman said Friday. Doctors still gave no diagnosis but said the 75-year-old Palestinian leader was in stable condition and "has not gotten worse."

Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, denied French and Israeli media reports that Arafat was being kept alive on life support amid conflicting reports over his condition after a sharp decline a day earlier.

"I can assure you that there is no brain death," Shahid told French RTL radio. "He is in a coma. We don't know the type, but it's a reversible coma. ... Today we can say that, given his condition and age, he is at a critical point between life and death."

Later, a hospital spokesman said Arafat remained in stable condition. The Palestinian leader "has not gotten worse," said Christian Estripeau, head of communications for French military health services. He did not elaborate.

Shahid suggested the coma (search) occurred after he was put under anesthesia to have additional medical tests, including an endoscopy, colonoscopy and a biopsy of the spinal cord.

"He may or may not wake up," Shahid said, adding that "all vital organs are functioning."

More at: www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137681,00.html

There also has been reports that they are keeping Yasser Arafat under life support, only until they can find a new leader.

[DoubleX]

PARIS (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat was in a critical but stable condition on Friday as a row brewed over where he would be buried and questions loomed about who might succeed him.

A spokesman for the French hospital treating the Palestinian leader said Arafat's condition had not changed since he was taken into intensive care on Wednesday night, declaring: "The state of health of President Yasser Arafat has not got worse."

Palestinian envoy to Paris Leila Shahid denied Arafat, 75, was brain dead. She said he was in a reversible coma and "at a critical juncture between life and death." Other Arafat aides said he was on a respirator and in a critical condition.

But senior aide Nabil Abu Rdainah portrayed Arafat's condition as slightly better than 24 hours earlier. He told al-Jazeera television: "I can reiterate that he is not in a coma and not in danger of death."

Palestine Liberation Organization Foreign Minister Farouq Kaddoumi told reporters Arafat was in "good health" and that to avoid further confusion only the medical team supervising his treatment would be authorized to comment on his condition from now on.

Some of Arafat's aides have been at pains to say he is still in charge and will recover, apparently hoping to calm fears of chaos at home, while others describe him as gravely ill.

In the Gaza Strip, 14 Palestinian factions met in a show of unity meant to avoid strife in a possible power vacuum. In Brussels, worried European Union leaders said peace efforts must go on whether or not Arafat survives.

NO SUCCESSOR NAMED

Some aides said Arafat, who symbolizes the struggle for a Palestinian state, slipped into a coma early on Thursday. He has spent a week in the hospital near Paris.

He has not named a successor and his illness has raised fears of chaos among Palestinians waging a four-year-old uprising against Israel. Doctors have still not said what illness they think Arafat is suffering from.

www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6732764

This may get quite interesting...

[groucho]

I also heard that the powers that be are in a struggle because Arafat wants to be buried in Jerusalem, as opposed to his native Egypt.
(yes, records DO exist to authenticate his place of birth as Cairo Egypt - although MOST of the documents reside under the tight PLO security.)

[RC364]

This is what the Israeli government officials had to say about that-

"Jerusalem is a city where Jews bury their kings. It's not a city where we want to bury an Arab terrorist, a mass murderer," Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Channel 10 television. "

Amen!!

[DoubleX]

Another reason they might be 'trying' to keep Arafat alive is because he could be (and probably is) the only one who knows where his billions of dollars are.