P2P-Zone - Ruler of Dubai Dies and Sharon suffers serious stroke

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a "significant stroke" Wednesday evening and is currently being ventilated and anesthetized, Jerusalem Ein Kerem hospital director announced.

Shortly thereafter, the hospital director added Sharon was suffering from a brain hemorrhage and has been rushed to surgery.
The prime minister was rushed to the hospital earlier on his personal doctor's orders after feeling unwell.

Sharon's convoy arrived at the hospital around 11 p.m. The prime minister was taken into the trauma unit where he will undergo initial tests by a team of experts called in to the hospital. Later, the PM is expected to undergo an MRI scan. Sharon is also accompanied by his personal doctor.

Earlier, the prime minister's doctor was urgently called to the PM's private residence in the South, the Sycamore Ranch, and ordered the prime minister be rushed to Hadassah, where the angioplasty is scheduled to take place Thursday.

Sharon first complained of feeling unwell around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday. His personal doctor, Professor Shlomo Segev was called in from his central Israel residence. At that point, the prime minister was conscious. Segev told Sharon's aides he decided to rush the PM to hospital for fear he suffered another stroke.

Sharon was taken to hospital in an intensive care ambulance stationed at his ranch on a permanent basis following his stroke. The prime minister was reportedly sitting down during most of the ride to Jerusalem.

Prof. Segev and Sharon's son, Gilad, rode in the ambulance with him, while the prime minister's other son, Omri, rushed to the hospital on his own.

At this time, it has not yet been decided whether to designate Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a temporary Sharon replacement.

The PM is expected to undergo a series of tests once he arrives at the hospital to determine his current state. At present it is not clear whether he will undergo the scheduled angioplasty. Sharon was scheduled to undergo a cardiac catheterization Thursday at the Jerusalem hospital under full anesthesia.

Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon and Attorney General Menahem Mazuz decided that Finance Minister and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will stand in for Sharon while he is under anesthetization.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...195215,00.html

-oOo-

Ruler of Dubai Dies While in Australia
He owned hundreds of racehorses and won some of the biggest races in the world. Sheik Maktoum was the ruler of Dubai, but his greatest love may have been thoroughbreds - buying them, racing them and breeding them.

Visiting Australia before the start of the prestigious Magic Millions yearling sales, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum died Wednesday at the exclusive Palazzo Versace hotel on the Gold Coast, a resort in eastern Queensland state, police said. He was 62.

"The Maktoums have such a passion for the sport it's unbelievable," Kiaran McLaughin, who spent nine years training horses in Dubai for the family, said from his winter base in Florida. "It's a great loss for our industry and for the whole world. He was a great man, a kind and bright man. It's a very sad day."

Authorities in Dubai would not give the cause of death. Australian police would say only that the emir did not die of suspicious causes. Australian media speculated Sheik Maktoum died of a heart attack, while Al-Jazeera TV said he was believed to have "previously suffered from heart problems."

Sheik Maktoum also was vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. He was succeeded by his younger brother, crown prince Sheik Mohammed, the defense minister of the UAE who also owns and breeds thoroughbreds. The succession was automatic under the constitution.

With another brother, Sheik Hamdan, they worked to put Dubai on the world racing map. The brothers founded Dubai- and British-based Godolphin Racing Inc., one of the world's most successful stables, and also created the Dubai World Cup, the world's richest race that carries a $6 million purse.

http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/...ap2427788.html