Arafat is 'still alive'
2004-11-10 12:27
Paris - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is still alive but in a critical condition in hospital, the Palestinian representative in France Leila Shahid said on Wednesday.
"Like yesterday he is in a deep coma with complications in the condition of all his vital organs, so he is in a very critical state. The reality is that he is in the hands of God," she told France Info radio.
Shahid denied that a senior Islamic cleric who arrived at Arafat's bedside on Wednesday was there to authorise the switch-off of life-support equipment.
Meanwhile in Cairo, it has been announced that Egypt will host the funeral ceremony for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the event of an official announcement of his death, Egyptian presidential spokesperson Maged Abdul Fattah announced.
He said the decision was made after telephone conversations between President Hosni Mubarak, top Palestinian officials and Yemeni leader Ali Abdallah Saleh.
The senior Islamic cleric who arrived in France, Tayssir el-Tamimi, head of religious courts in the Palestinian territories, flew in to Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday night and was expected at the Percy military hospital in Clamart on Wednesday. - AFP
