It's medically official: Arafat is dead.

No more fooling around, no more useless speculation: Yasser Arafat is now dead. That's the word from the surgeon-general of the French army. Shed no tears for that man, need I remind you--here is an excellent (and lighting-fast) retrospective on him, that tells his story much better than I could.

And now the power scramble, and the recriminations, begin--or, perhaps I should say, continue.