Iraqi president in coma after stroke

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has mediated among the country's Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties, was in hospital yesterday after suffering a stroke that left him in "critical but stable condition", government sources said.
However, well-placed Kurdish sources say he remains in a coma.
Should Talabani be incapacitated, Iraq would lose an influential negotiator who often stepped in to ease tensions in the fragile power-sharing government and between the central government and the country's autonomous Kurdistan region.
Talabani's office said he was admitted to a Baghdad hospital on Monday night and the 79-year-old president was in stable condition under intensive medical supervision after receiving treatment for blocked arteries.
Talabani had been suffering from ill health this year and received medical treatment overseas several times in the last two years.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the president at the Baghdad hospital yesterday.
According to Iraq's constitution, the parliament should elect a new president if the post becomes vacant. Under Iraq's power-sharing deal the presidency should go to a Kurd while two deputy president positions are shared by a Sunni Muslim and a Shia Muslim.