Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon joked with aides and discussed affairs of state yesterday after suffering a mild stroke, but his illness raised questions about his ability to lead the country if elected to a third term in March elections.
It also left his brand-new centrist Kadima Party scrambling. Without the 77-year-old Sharon, Kadima wouldn't likely amount to much, as the prime minister's popularity is the overriding factor behind the party's commanding lead in polls. With balloting three months away, concerns about his health could become a focus of the campaign, and improve the prospects of the hardline Likud Party that he quit to form Kadima.
However, his doctors said yesterday that Sharon does not have any major health problems and will be released from the hospital today.
Sharon never lost consciousness and the stroke caused no damage to the prime minister, Dr Tamir Ben-Hur said.
Likud voters went to the polls yesterday to choose a replacement for Sharon as party leader. Polls gave former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a slight edge over Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, and results were expected around midnight yesterday.
Sharon underwent additional tests yesterday after being rushed to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on Sunday night, showing signs of confused speech. Israeli media reported that he was unable to tell time or count fingers when he underwent preliminary neurological tests at the hospital, but doctors later said he improved quickly.
Sharon was treated with blood thinners and suffered no damage from the stroke, said his personal doctor, Boleslaw Goldman.
Hospital spokeswoman Yael Bossem-Levy said doctors ran more tests yesterday and decided Sharon should also undergo brain and full body scans, procedures she described as routine.
Sharon held his daily staff meeting in the hospital, said aide Asaf Shariv.
"He asked questions, he received an update from the military secretary and from the Cabinet secretary. He's in good spirits," Shariv told Army Radio.
Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon told Army Radio that Sharon walked around his room and showered by himself.
The Web site of the Haaretz daily reported that one of its reporters spoke to Sharon late on Sunday night.
"I'm fine," Haaretz quoted Sharon as saying. "Apparently I should have taken a few days off for vacation. But we're continuing to move forward," he said, making a play on the name of his party, Kadima, which means "forward."
In other news, the Israeli air force resumed air strikes against rocket- and mortar-launching sites in Gaza yesterday, carrying out two attacks after striking 11 times overnight, the military said. The attacks came after Palestinians fired a rocket that exploded near a power plant outside the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Two Palestinian paramedics were slightly hurt by flying glass, but no Israeli injuries were reported.
Palestinian security officials said the Israeli missile attacks cut all roads between part of northern Gaza and the rest of the seaside territory. The Israeli military said the goal was to cut access roads used by militants to reach the border fence and fire their rockets.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying