Short Diary with mixed news coming out of Egypt:
This just up on Haaretz:
Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until overthrown by a revolution in the "Arab Spring" last year, was declared clinically dead by his doctors on Tuesday, the state news agency MENA said in a report confirmed by a hospital source.
"Former president Hosni Mubarak has clinically died following his arrival at Maadi military hospital on Tuesday evening," MENA said, quoting medical sources.
"Mubarak's heart stopped beating and was subjected to a defibrillator several times but did not respond."
In conflicting reports, two security sources said Mubarak is unconscious and on a respirator but is not clinically dead. "He is completely unconscious. He is using artificial respiration," one military source told Reuters, after the state news agency reported he was clinically dead after being taken from a prison medical facility to a military hospital.
Another separate security source gave the same account and dismissed the report issued by the state news agency saying: "It is still early to say that he is clinically dead."
Mubarak's Lawyer doesn't believe the Doctors:
His lawyer said he didn't trust the doctors and appealed for his transfer to a better equipped hospital.
According to CNN:
Military official disputes report of Mubarak's clinical death
The state-run Middle East News Agency, citing medical sources, said he was declared clinically dead shortly after arriving at a military hospital in Cairo, where he was taken after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest earlier in the day.
But Gen. Mamdouh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, told CNN, "He is not clinically dead as reported, but his health is deteriorating and he is in critical condition."
Adel Saeed, the official spokesman of the Egyptian prosecutor, had said earlier, "We were informed by prison authority that Mubarak's heart has stopped and they used electric shocks and CPR to resurrect him. He is now on an artificial respirator and doctors from the armed forces and International Medical Center will inspect him."
Nile TV reported that Mubarak had suffered a stroke.
This is somewhat reminiscent of a SNL skit.
More info. to follow as it becomes available...
3:56 PM PT: And we have this update: