[Updated at 6:09 p.m. ET] Conflicting reports emerged late Tuesday over whether the 84-year-old former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, had died.
The state-run Middle East News Agency, citing medical sources, said he was declared clinically dead shortly after arriving at a military hospital in Cairo, where he was taken after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest earlier in the day.
But Gen. Mamdouh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, told CNN, "He is not clinically dead as reported, but his health is deteriorating and he is in critical condition."
Fast facts about Hosni Mubarak
Adel Saeed, the official spokesman of the Egyptian prosecutor, had said earlier, "We were informed by prison authority that Mubarak's heart has stopped and they used electric shocks and CPR to resurrect him. He is now on an artificial respirator and doctors from the armed forces and International Medical Center will inspect him."
Nile TV reported that Mubarak had suffered a stroke.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN's senior medical correspondent, said that "clinically dead" usually refers to someone who is brain-dead. In such a case, an electroencephalogram would indicate no real brain activity, she said.
Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison June 2 for the killing of pro-democracy demonstrators last year. He already was suffering from health problems and attended court on a gurney.
His health has been reported to be in decline since he was ousted as president of Egypt in February 2011. On June 11, a prosecutor's spokesman said Mubrak's health deteriorated after the verdict, and that defibrillators had been used several times to revive him "due to heart complications."
Mubarak's latest health crisis came on a day when both candidates who participated in a presidential runoff claimed victory.
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Is that a photo of the deceased Mubarak?
Bye, Hosenose.
What a shock! I mean, one second, a thug is bashing in your skull with the butt of a rifle and the next, you're having a stroke. What a coincidence!
Not only is he merely dead... he's really most sincerely dead.
then reappears in London
I wonder how many times they had to hold the pillow over his face before he finally was "clinically dead."
I think he's still alive. He has risen. Buuuuuuuuuuuuut that picture is of him dead!!
What if he's the anti-christ?
That pic is of him dead!
Good!!
See he was taken out of power and now look at him? where was he supposed to get the blood of virgins to drink if we took out of power?
Is there any other kind of dead?
Doggie death!
the shot of Mubarak and Clinton shaking hands, looks a bit like a weak, poofy, little clammy type of girly-man hand shake.
hmmm... Mubarak plays possum, he's now supposedly on life support. This guy has more lives than Morris!
Our congress has been clinically dead for a while what's the big deal?
Chances are Mubarak is alive and well, the military he once commanded and was long loyal to him probably spirited him away ending the quest for a pound of his flesh for good.
He's probably got a nice new set of digs next to Ken Leigh of Enron down in Paraquay or some such friendly out of the way place.
Did they re-employ the Shroud of Turin ? Was the round rock blocking the cave rolled away ? Discuss.
Watch for the swarming locusts.....