"the reason for conflicting news accounts of him being dead
then no wait he is still alive?"
Yes it could be a red light-green light 1-2-3 snafu if Arafat was poisoned as a go signal and he is being kept on life support to buy time somehow. There also was an obscure mysterious posting months ago about Musharref being dead within a month of Arafat and that too might have go signal implications. Also there is probably some sort of legal ramification to getting access to the swiss bank accounts...keeping his body warm might make it easier for international legal maneuvers through his spouse or might give power to some who want to milk Arafat's cash cow before their access is terminated.
Ok thanks for the info, puts this in a lot clearer perspective for me.