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| Monday, 08 November 2004 |
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Arafat stable, not in coma PARIS, Sunday (Reuters, AFP) Yasser Arafat is in stable condition in a French military hospital and not in a coma, a senior aide to the ailing Palestinian leader said early on Sunday. "No, he's not in a coma," Nabil Abu Rdainah said in response to a reporter's question outside the Percy military hospital in the Paris suburb of Clamart where Arafat is being treated. "He's in a stable condition. He's sleeping right now. We hope that in the coming few days we will be able to know exactly what he is suffering from," he said. Doctors have so far been unable to determine why the health of the 75-year-old leader suddenly deteriorated last week, although they have ruled out the blood cancer leukaemia as the cause. Meanwhile with Yasser Arafat fighting for his life in hospital and Israel firmly opposed to a Jerusalem burial, many Palestinians see the Gaza Strip as a fitting alternative place of rest for their leader. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has repeatedly refused to allow his arch foe, who was admitted to a French military hospital with a life-threatening illness on October 29, to be buried in Jerusalem. Official Israeli sources have instead pointed to the Gaza Strip - where the Arafat clan has a family burial plot - as the best prospect. The fate of Arafat has been closely intertwined with the narrow strip of Palestinian land bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt ever since the leader arrived here in triumph in 1994 after a decade in exile in Tunisia. The park of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council, where Arafat addressed thousands of supporters upon his return, or his family plot in Khan Yunis are the most touted possible burial sites. Otherwise, his final resting place could be near the sea or his Gaza City offices, residents of Gaza City suggested late Friday. |
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