Presidential state funerals: Difference between revisions

==Levy Mwanawasa 2008==

President Levy Mwanawasa [[died in office]] in 2008 while on national duty.  In April 2006, Mwanawasa experienced a mild stroke.<ref name=Liu>Liu Jinhai, [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/19/content_9521392.htm "News Analysis: Zambia faces vital political reshuffle as president dies"], Xinhua, 19 August 2008.</ref><ref name=Liu /><ref name=Ailing>[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080702090150403C225629 "Ailing Mwanawasa heading to France"], Reuters (''IOL''), 2 July 2008.</ref> On 29 June 2008, while in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for an African Union summit, Mwanawasa was hospitalised due to a second stroke. On 1 July, International SOS evacuated him by air ambulance to France for further treatment.<ref name=Ailing /><ref name=Semi>[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080702111230784C896816 "'Mwanawasa in semi-coma'"], Sapa-Associated Press (''IOL''), 2 July 2008.</ref> The head of the Egyptian hospital to which Mwanawasa was taken said that the doctors there had stopped the brain haemorrhage and that he was in a semi-comatose state.<ref name=Semi /> Vice-President Banda said that his condition was stable, and Minister of Information [[Mike Mulongoti]] noted that Mwanawasa had previously suffered from hypertension; Mulongoti also said that Mwanawasa was a "very hard working man" and said that this may have been a factor.<ref name=VOA>James Butty, [http://voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-07-01-voa8.cfm "Zambian President Has Had a History of Hypertension, Says Information Minister"], VOA News, 2 July 2008.</ref>