Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon joked with aides and discussed affairs of state yesterday after suffering a mild stroke, but his illness raised questions about his ability to lead the country if elected to a third term in March elections.
It also left his brand-new centrist Kadima Party scrambling. Without the 77-year-old Sharon, Kadima wouldn't likely amount to much, as the prime minister's popularity is the overriding factor behind the party's commanding lead in polls. With balloting three months away, concerns about his health could become a focus of the campaign, and improve the prospects of the hardline Likud Party that he quit to form Kadima.
However, his doctors said yesterday that Sharon does not have any major health problems and will be released from the hospital today.
Sharon never lost consciousness and the stroke caused no damage to the prime minister, Dr Tamir Ben-Hur said.
Likud voters went to the polls yesterday to choose a replacement for Sharon as party leader. Polls gave former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a slight edge over Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, and results were expected around midnight yesterday.
Sharon underwent additional tests yesterday after being rushed to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on Sunday night, showing signs of confused speech. Israeli media reported that he was unable to tell time or count fingers when he underwent preliminary neurological tests at the hospital, but doctors later said he improved quickly.
Sharon was treated with blood thinners and suffered no damage from the stroke, said his personal doctor, Boleslaw Goldman.
Hospital spokeswoman Yael Bossem-Levy said doctors ran more tests yesterday and decided Sharon should also undergo brain and full body scans, procedures she described as routine.
Sharon held his daily staff meeting in the hospital, said aide Asaf Shariv.
"He asked questions, he received an update from the military secretary and from the Cabinet secretary. He's in good spirits," Shariv told Army Radio.
Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon told Army Radio that Sharon walked around his room and showered by himself.
The Web site of the Haaretz daily reported that one of its reporters spoke to Sharon late on Sunday night.
"I'm fine," Haaretz quoted Sharon as saying. "Apparently I should have taken a few days off for vacation. But we're continuing to move forward," he said, making a play on the name of his party, Kadima, which means "forward."
In other news, the Israeli air force resumed air strikes against rocket- and mortar-launching sites in Gaza yesterday, carrying out two attacks after striking 11 times overnight, the military said. The attacks came after Palestinians fired a rocket that exploded near a power plant outside the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Two Palestinian paramedics were slightly hurt by flying glass, but no Israeli injuries were reported.
Palestinian security officials said the Israeli missile attacks cut all roads between part of northern Gaza and the rest of the seaside territory. The Israeli military said the goal was to cut access roads used by militants to reach the border fence and fire their rockets.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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