Arafat dead

i say good riddance...

 

heard on the news, looking for link...

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6402008/

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Al-Jazeera: Arafat is dead
Palestinian leader succumbs, Arab television says
BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 11:01 p.m. ET Nov. 10, 2004

PARIS - BULLETIN: Al-Jazeera television and The Associated Press are reporting that Yasser Arafat is dead.

Earlier, as a top Islamic cleric read passages from the Quran at Yasser Arafat's hospital bedside Wednesday, a Palestinian official gave the bleakest assessment yet of the leader’s condition, saying he is suffering from kidney and liver failure and that his brain is only partially functioning.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the 75-year-old Arafat was in a deep coma and that all his organs except for heart and lungs “are not functioning well.”

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said Wednesday night that Arafat was in his “final hours,” telling France-2 television: “I hope that we can respect the final hours of a man who is approaching death.”

As Arafat’s condition deteriorated, aides made plans to fly his body to Cairo for a funeral, then to his Ramallah headquarters. Palestinians also selected his immediate successor, saying parliament speaker Rauhi Fattouh will become temporary president of the Palestinian Authority at Arafat’s death.

Succession questions
Arafat controlled three top jobs — head of the PLO, of Fatah and president of the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said immediately after Arafat’s burial the 18-member PLO Executive Committee would decide on a new PLO chief.

It is believed the PLO’s No. 2, Mahmoud Abbas, would win the vote, giving him the legitimacy to take the reins of power. Abbas has been acting as caretaker leader, along with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.

Cleric prays at Arafat’s bedside
Earlier, Wednesday, Islamic cleric Taisser Bayoud Tamimi told reporters after spending an hour at Arafat’s bedside at the Percy Military Training Hospital outside Paris that he had not given up hope for a full recovery.

"I prayed to God for his recovery," he said, adding that his visit was spent praying and reciting from the Muslim holy book. Tamimi said his close friend was very sick, "but he is still alive."

Earlier, as he arrived at the hospital, Tamimi denied that he had been dispatched by Palestinian leaders to preside over Arafat’s removal from life support equipment.

“It’s absolutely rejected,” he told reporters gathered outside the hospital. “It is prohibited in Islam. As long as there are signs of life in the body of the president, he will remain under treatment.”

While Arafat’s illness remains publicly undisclosed, his condition has steadily worsened during his 13 days at the Percy Military Training Hospital southwest of Paris.

French doctors seeking to explain Arafat’s low count of platelets, blood cells that aid in clotting, sent samples of his blood to several countries for testing, PLO hard-liner Farouk Kaddoumi told The Associated Press in an interview in Tunisia, where he lives. Test results did not pinpoint a cause for Arafat’s illness.

Arafat’s daughter, Zahwa, was not brought to the hospital to see her dying father, said the Palestinian envoy to France, Leila Shahid.

“His daughter is a 9-year-old girl who has to be spared the very difficult situation — first, in relation to his status and the crowd that surrounds him, and second, the medical situation,” she said.

Sharon OKs burial plan
The burial plan had remained in doubt until Wednesday, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave his approval for burial at Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Within hours of Sharon's assent, bulldozers and earthmovers pushed aside rubble at Arafat’s shell-shattered compound to prepare for a burial ceremony. As the work began, several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the compound, chanting and singing Arafat's praises.

Israel had been pushing for a burial in the Gaza Strip, and its acquiescence to the burial at Arafat’s compound defused a potential conflict. U.S. government sources told NBC News that the Bush administration had urged Sharon to approve the plan.

The Palestinians see Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters — his virtual prison for the last three years — as a symbol of his resistance.

Israeli Interior Minister Avraham Poraz said Israel would permit a “respectful” funeral and be careful not to “upset” Palestinian feelings.

He told Army Radio that the Palestinian Authority would be in charge of security for the burial and Israeli forces would remain on the sidelines unless there was unrest, such as an attempted march on Jerusalem.

A burial would be preceded by a funeral in Cairo, a move that would allow many Arab leaders who would not be allowed to travel to Ramallah to attend.

France, which first sent a plane to bring Arafat to the Paris-area military hospital on Oct. 29, would organize his repatriation, said Shahid.

French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope confirmed France was “preparing all the measures necessary, in contact with the family and the Palestinian Authority.”

Top-tier U.S. officials would not attend funeral
Sources told NBC News that the United States would be represented at an Arafat funeral by either Assistant Secretary of State Bill Burns or Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman but that Secretary of State Colin Powell or his top deputy, Richard Armitage, would not attend. Former President Jimmy Carter also could be part of a U.S. delegation, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We will hold the funeral in Egypt, and after that we will take President Arafat, after his long life, to Ramallah,” Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdel-Fatah told reporters.

He said detailed arrangements had not been completed, adding he hoped for “a miracle” so the plans would not be needed.

The funeral would be held at Cairo airport when the body arrived from Paris, a security official said. He said prayers and military ceremonies would take place before the body was taken to Ramallah, via Jordan, for burial.

Egypt, which hosts the Arab League headquarters, has been a key mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after it signed its own peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to take such a step.