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Israeli PM Sharon Suffers Second Masive Stroke

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lay heavily medicated in an intensive care unit Thursday after emergency brain surgery following a massive stroke as the national vigil over his life continued. Doctors said his vital signs appeared normal, but that the prime minister`s condition remained grave. Sharon, who is 77 years old and severely overweight, complained of chest pain early Wednesday evening at his ranch in the Negev Desert region of southern Israel.

Israeli officials said political powers were transferred to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, Sharon`s close ally. He gathered the cabinet Thursday morning for an emergency meeting. Olmert, 60, is a staunch supporter of Sharon and former mayor of Jerusalem who joined the prime minister in leaving the Likud Party for Kadima, the new party Sharon founded.

"I don`t think he`s a political player anymore," said Michael Oren, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, an academic research institute in Jerusalem. "This is the passing of the generation of the founding fathers, and, for Sharon in particular, of a man personally involved in every major military event and many of the biggest political ones in the history of Israel."