Arafat on life support
2004-11-04 15:09
Paris - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in a coma and in an "extremely bad state", French medical sources told AFP on Thursday.
Arafat was on life support at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, southwest of Paris, the medical sources said, adding: "He is still in a coma."
Arafat was not responding to treatment, said the source, who added that he had not received proper medical care while kept under virtual house order by Israel at his Ramallah headquarters.
Earlier, Palestinian sources said the 75-year-old Arafat had lost consciousness three time in the past 24 hours, but his top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina denied reports that the Palestinian authority president was in a coma.
Arafat - for 40 years the symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood - was admitted to the French hospital last Friday after being dramatically evacuated from his battered Ramallah headquarters.
On Wednesday, he was transferred to an intensive care unit.
- AFP