Ariel Sharon Dead at 77?

World Tribune is reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died at 1 p.m. Israeli time [6 a.m. EST. (25 January 2009)
Note: They (World Tribune) seem to be alone in reporting this. Scroll down for updates. As of 1243 EST, the best guess is that Sharon is alive but in a coma.

Ariel Sharon dies.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the most powerful Israeli leader in 50 years, has died. He was 77.
Sharon was declared dead by physicians at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital before 1 p.m. Israeli time [6 a.m. EST], Middle East Newsline reported. Authorities have already been notified of the death, and a government announcement was expected to be issued over the next hour.
GoogleNews and YahooNews still have him in surgery.

While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and televangelist Pat Robertson are rejoicing, Charles Krauthammer rightly calls this "A Calamity for Israel!!"

The stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could prove to be one of the great disasters in the country's nearly 60-year history. As I write this, Sharon's condition remains uncertain, but the severity of his stroke makes it unlikely that he will survive, let alone return to power. That could be disastrous because Sharon represented, indeed embodied, the emergence of a rational, farsighted national idea that seemed poised in the coming elections to create a stable governing political center for the first time in decades.
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