Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was in serious condition yesterday after collapsing and briefly losing consciousness, as his two-week illness took a sudden turn for the worse. Aides urgently summoned doctors from abroad and the 75-year-old Palestinian leader's wife was flying in from Paris to be by his side.
Fearing for Arafat's health, scores of top Palestinian officials descended late Wednesday on the sandbagged, partially demolished compound where he has been confined for two-and-a-half years.
PHOTO: AP
Communications Minister Azzam Ahmed said that Palestinian leaders had asked all the members of Arafat's Fatah party living abroad to come to Ramallah.
"We are preparing ourselves for everything possible," he told the al-Jazeera satellite television station.
A bodyguard in the compound said Arafat was eating soup on Wednesday evening when he vomited. Arafat was taken to the clinic inside the building, where he collapsed and fell unconscious for about 10 minutes, the guard said. His doctors were urgently summoned, and a sense of fear fell over the Palestinian leadership.
A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arafat was in serious condition. One Palestinian official said Arafat has created a special committee consisting of Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas and head of the Palestinian National Council Salim Zaanoun to run the PLO and the Palestinian Authority while he is ill. But when asked if Arafat had set up such a committee, Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said: "Nothing like that."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling in Michigan with US President George W. Bush, said US officials were monitoring the situation.
In Israel, defense officials were meeting yesterday to discuss the fallout from Arafat's possible death. Israel has prepared contingency plans, including how to deal with possible riots and prevent Palestinian attempts to bury Arafat in Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet later in the day with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Speaking in radio and TV interviews, Israeli officials, who have ostracized Arafat as a leader tainted by terror, speculated about the repercussions of Arafat's possible death. A Palestinian Authority without Arafat could become a partner for peace, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said.
"We always said we would be willing to talk to a Palestinian leadership that would be willing once and for all to bring an end to the bloodshed," Shalom told Israel Radio.
A senior official in Sharon's office said the Palestinians had asked Israel to allow foreign doctors to come treat Arafat.
"The prime minister immediately instructed the security officials and others involved to facilitate the transfer and any medical equipment and facilities Arafat might need," the official said, adding that Israel would also allow Arafat to be transferred to any medical facility in the world.
Israeli security officials said Arafat's wife, Suha, who lives in France with their young daughter, was expected to arrive yesterday.
Arafat has been ill for two weeks, but reports about his ailment have varied widely.
Palestinian officials said he had the flu. Israeli officials speculated he might have stomach cancer, but two of his doctors said on Wednesday that a blood test and a biopsy of tissue from his digestive tract showed no evidence of that.
On Tuesday, a hospital official said Arafat was suffering from a large gallstone. The gallstone, while extremely painful, is not life-threatening and can be easily treated, the official said.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS