Middle East: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a "significant stroke" yesterday and was under sedation while undergoing hospital treatment, his doctor, Shlomo Mor-Yosef, told reporters.
Cabinet secretary Israel Maimon said Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would assume Mr Sharon's powers.
Mr Sharon was rushed to hospital yesterday, well ahead of a scheduled heart procedure, after complaining that he felt unwell.
Israel radio said Mr Sharon's symptoms were similar to those he showed on December 18th when he suffered a mild stroke.
One source said he had suffered a second mild stroke. Later reports said the stroke was "significant".
Meanwhile Palestinian militants used bulldozers yesterday to smash through a wall on the Gaza-Egypt border, enabling hundreds of people to cross unchecked and prompting threats from Israel to prevent the passage of people from Gaza through the border crossing.
There were reports that two Egyptian soldiers were killed and 100 Palestinians arrested.
Armed men of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stole the bulldozers from the Rafah municipality in southern Gaza, and smashed through the concrete blocks to the cheers of hundreds of onlookers.
They said the action was in protest at the arrest one of their leaders, Alaa al-Hams, who is being held by the Palestinian Authority for the kidnapping of three British citizens.
Al-Hams is suspected of abducting human rights worker Kate Burton and her parents, who were held for 48 hours last week, before being released.
The Burtons are among 20 foreigners - journalists and aid workers - who have been kidnapped in recent weeks by Palestinian militants demanding either jobs or the release of a relative. All have been freed unharmed.
Militants also tried yesterday to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, an American who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she protested at the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza in 2003.
The armed men retreated after being told who the Corries were.
After the bulldozers smashed through the border, hundreds of Palestinians rushed through the hole into the Egyptian side.
Some Egyptian police fired into the air. An Egyptian vehicle was torched, and at least three Palestinians were injured.
Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz demanded that the Egyptians re-establish control at the border, saying that if it failed then Israel would block the flow of people across it.
According to an arrangement negotiated in the wake of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last August, European monitors are suppose to oversee security arrangements at the Egyptian crossing.