Special report: Concern mounts over Yasser Arafat's health

The last time people see Yasser Arafat in public, who is said to be in deep coma now.A video grab shows he was leaving a helicopter after arriving in Amman October 29, 2004. Arafat, 75, was taken by wheelchair to the French presidential jet after he arrived in Amman in a helicopter from the West Bank town of Ramallah where Israeli forces had kept him penned in his compound for more than 2-1/2 years. (Xinhua/Reuters file photo)

    PARIS, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian representative in Paris Leila Shahid said Wednesday morning that Yasser Arafat was still alive, but in a "very critical" condition, French TF1 television reported.

    "Like yesterday he is in a deep coma with complications in the condition of all his vital organs, so he is in a very critical state," she said. "The reality is that he is in the hands of God."

    Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic cleric Tayssir el-Tamimi has arrived at Arafat's bedside at the Percy military hospital where the 75-year-old Palestinian leader has been hospitalized since Oct.29.

    Shahid denied that the senior Islamic cleric was there to do euthanasia for Arafat, but admitted that it was Arafat's final phase.

    "Clearly a man of religion should be near a patient in the final phase of his life. That is why he is there, not to disconnect him -- because euthanasia is banned in Islam," she said.

    Earlier in the day Tamimi said that he is a personal friend of Arafat. "It is my duty to be at his side at this difficult time and to pray for him," French RFI television quoted him as saying.

    At a news conference in Paris on Tuesday evening, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath ruled out euthanasia for Arafat.

    "People talk as if his life can be plugged in or plugged out. This is ridiculous. We Muslims do not allow euthanasia ... He willlive or die depending on his body's ability to resist and the willof God," Shaath said.

    But he added that Arafat needed "a spiritual and comforting presence at his sickbed in these difficult circumstances." Enditem