Arafat alive, but in coma

CLAMART, France -- Yasser Arafat was reportedly fighting for his life Thursday at a French military hospital after losing consciousness, as anxious Palestinian officials transferred some of their 75-year-old leader's powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.\nDoctors at Percy Military Training Hospital outside Paris, where Arafat was airlifted last Friday after more than two years of confinement in the West Bank, quashed a swirl of reports that he had died. But the French doctors would not say much else, and confusion ruled as Palestinians issued conflicting reports about Arafat's condition and how close to death he was.\nIn an emergency meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the PLO executive committee empowered Qureia to deal with urgent administrative and financial matters, said committee member Qais Abdel-Karim. Qureia also will meet with security chiefs in the Gaza Strip on Friday to ensure that no internal conflict erupts in the volatile area at a time of uncertainty, a Palestinian official said.\nA prolonged Arafat incapacitation -- or death -- could have profound impact on the Middle East. There are fears of unrest among Palestinian factions, which Arafat, viewed as a national symbol by even some who opposed him, was largely able to prevent. Furthermore, chaos in the West Bank and Gaza could make any cooperation with Israel even more difficult.\nOn the other hand, Israel and the United States have in recent years shunned Arafat as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace, and his replacement by a new leadership could open the door to renewed peace talks. Such a scenario could affect Israel's plans to pull soldiers and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in a move not coordinated with the Palestinians.\nArafat's chief of staff, Ramzi Khoury, called an Associated Press reporter to say the Palestinian leader was alive but that his condition was grave.\n"I am standing next to the president's bed; he is in grave condition," Khoury said.\nA senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Arafat was in a coma in the intensive care unit, where he was taken after his condition worsened overnight Wednesday.\nFrench television station LCI quoted an anonymous French medical official as saying Arafat was in an "irreversible coma" and "intubated" -- a process that usually involves threading a tube down the windpipe to the lungs. The tube is often connected to a life support machine to help the patient breathe.\nHowever, three Palestinian officials denied Arafat was in a coma.\n"He is not getting better, but not getting worse either. He is being examined. He is not in a coma," Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said. "There is no explanation for what has happened."\nA Palestinian official in Gaza who is close to Arafat's wife Suha said she told him her husband fell unconscious after receiving a strong anesthetic for a biopsy. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted Suha Arafat as saying her husband was recovering.\nIsrael TV Channel Two reported that Arafat was brain dead and remained on life support.\nHowever, Arafat's personal physician, Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television that "Arafat has no type of brain death." He also said a brain scan showed that Arafat had not suffered a hemorrhage or stroke.\nAt Arafat's compound in Ramallah, where leaders of the PLO and Arafat's Fatah movement were meeting, Shaath said top officials were in touch with the hospital in Clamart every 30 minutes.\n"The Palestinian leadership is in constant meeting to follow up on the president's health," Shaath said.\nMeanwhile, about 1,500 Palestinians demonstrated in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and 500 more in the Balata refugee camp in support of Arafat.\nIsraeli military leaders, including Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, met to discuss Arafat's declining health, Israeli security officials said. The military was placed on high alert, fearing riots if Arafat dies.\nThe Israeli military has not moved forces to anticipated problem areas, but commanders were told to be on standby. The army has a contingency plan, called "new leaf," to deal with the fallout from Arafat's death.\nOn Thursday, the military also discussed possible burial options for Arafat. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he would not permit Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as their capital. Army chiefs said they also ruled out a burial in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis in the West Bank.\nThe confusion over Arafat's condition escalated after Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters at a summit of European leaders in Belgium that Arafat had died. He later retracted the statement.\n"It was a misunderstanding," Luxembourg government spokesman Lucien Michels said.\nAfter Juncker's initial statement, a spokesman for the French military hospital said Arafat was alive.\n"Mr. Arafat is not dead," said Christian Estripeau, head of communications for French military health services. "The clinical situation of the first few days following admission has become more complex."\nJuncker's spokesman said the prime minister spoke after receiving a phone call, while driving to the summit, from a journalist, who relayed an Israeli television station report that Arafat had died.\nOnce inside the summit building, Juncker was corrected by French President Jacques Chirac, who had just visited Arafat in the hospital.\n"Chirac spoke to him and told him it was not so," Juncker spokesman Guy Schuller said.\nIn Washington, President George W. Bush was asked by a reporter for his reaction to the report that Arafat had died.\n"My first reaction is God bless his soul," Bush said at a nationally televised news conference. "My second reaction is that we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that's at peace with Israel"