FRENCH HOSPITAL Official: Arafat's condition worsens

Arafat's wife said Palestinian leaders are trying to usurp her husband.
CLAMART, France (AP) -- Yasser Arafat is in a coma and his condition worsened overnight, a hospital spokesman said today, as Palestinian officials sought to visit their critically ill leader over his wife's angry objections.
The announcement by Gen. Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the Percy Military Training Hospital outside Paris, was the first time the French medical team treating Arafat publicly acknowledged that the 75-year-old is in a coma.
"President Yasser Arafat's health worsened in the night," said Estripeau. "His coma, which led to his admission to the intensive-care unit, became deeper this morning."
Estripeau said doctors were withholding a prognosis but that his deterioration marked "a significant stage."
The announcement came amid a dramatic dispute between Arafat's wife, Suha, and Palestinian officials whom she accused of trying to usurp the veteran leader. The Palestinians, including top Arafat lieutenants Ahmed Qureia and Mahmoud Abbas, flew to Paris late Monday.
Escorted by police motorbikes, a convoy thought to be carrying the Palestinian delegation rushed to the hospital shortly after midday today.
The delegation asked to see Arafat and to meet with doctors treating him, said a Palestinian official in Paris who refused to be further identified.
He said the officials want a complete detailed report about Arafat's condition and to know exactly what is wrong with him. The official said that with the exception of Suha, the only person who has been able to see Arafat is his nephew Nasser Al-Kidwa -- and that he was reported to have seen his uncle only once.
The Palestinians planned meetings throughout the day today with French officials, including President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
But how close they would get to Arafat's bedside remained unclear.
Their trip was abruptly canceled but then rescheduled Monday after Arafat's wife accused them of wanting to usurp Arafat's four-decade-long role as Palestinian leader.
"I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive," she shouted, using Arafat's nom de guerre, in a furious telephone call early Monday to Al-Jazeera television.
As next of kin, Suha Arafat has been controlling who has access to her ailing husband. "He is all right, and he is going home," she insisted.
Medical standpoint
A coma is a profound state of unconsciousness. Patients are alive but unable to move or respond to their environment. There are several levels of coma and patients may, or may not, progress through them. The responsiveness of the brain lessens as the coma deepens and when it becomes more profound, normal body reflexes are lost and the patient no longer responds even to pain.
The chances of recovery depend on the severity of the underlying cause. It is unclear whether a deeper coma alone necessarily means a slimmer chance of recovery because some people in deep coma recover well while others in a so-called milder coma sometimes fail to improve.
Suha Arafat's accusation outraged the Palestinian leadership and set the stage for a dramatic showdown that could inflame a tense power struggle between Arafat's longtime lieutenants and his wife.
Hospital officials said Monday that visiting rights were restricted. But French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier suggested today that the Palestinian delegation would be permitted to see Arafat, saying it was only "natural."
"All that will be decided at the hospital, with the doctors and the wife," Barnier told France-2 television.
Some Palestinians have complained Suha Arafat has gained too much power, as she controls the flow of information about her husband's condition and has taken charge of access to the ailing leader.