Flags at half-mast at UN for Arafat
GENEVA - Flags were flown at half mast at the United Nations on Thursday, as the world body paid tribute to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by granting him the same honours as a head of state, a UN spokeswoman said.

UN Secretary General “Kofi Annan asked us to apply the same protocol as for heads of state,” said Marie Heuze, spokeswoman for the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva.

The president of the Palestinian Authority, which only has observer status at the UN partly because it is not an internationally-recognised state, died at a hospital in Paris early on Thursday.

The UN said early Thursday that Annan early Thursday was “deeply moved” by Arafat’s death.

“For nearly four decades, he expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people,” a statement released by the Secretary-General’s office in New York said.