Vigil for Arafat goes on
Several dozen pro-Palestinian sympathisers had gathered outside the military clinic in the south Paris suburbs Friday, hanging a Palestinian flag on a wall, lighting candles around portraits of Arafat and placing bouquets of flowers by a picture of the Jerusalem Mosque, the third most holy shrine of Islam.
Just a few remained in the wee small hours, after a group of French pro-Palestinian associations issued a call of sympathy and solidarity for a rally outside the hospital on Saturday.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Arafat's state of health "has not deteriorated," said General Christian Estripeau, spokesman for France's military medical service.
Estripeau told journalists Arafat's condition "is considered stable since the last health update" given 24 hours earlier on Thursday.
Faruq Qaddumi, political chief of the Palestine Liberaton Organ-isation (PLO), issued a statement saying only the medical team would be authorised to issue medical bulletins.
He told journalists at the hospital it had been agreed that the supervising medical team "would be the only entity authorized to issue such statements.
"No other entity whatsoever has been authorized to give any information regarding President Arafat's health condition," he stressed, noting "contradictory declarations issued by various individuals and bodies whether close or far in regard to President Yasser Arafat's health condition."
The guideline followed more than 24 hours of contradiction and confusion.
French medical sources told AFP Thursday Arafat was brain dead but being kept alive on life support machines.
Palestinian officials on Friday acknowledged -- after initially denying -- that Arafat was in a coma, but denied that he was being kept in a vegetative state.
His spokeswoman here, Leila Shahid, told French radio he was in a coma from which "he could wake up" or "not wake up".
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