A phone conversation about the Bulgarian nurses in Libya ruined the health of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Colonel is in coma and is in hospital, Israeli newspapers broke the news yesterday, quoting the Palestinian Maan news agency. In Sofia the phones in the state institutions turned red. The news quickly spread to all agencies, radio stations and TV channels.
The icons' miracle power is working, Bulgarians commented queuing in front of St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia where thousands pray for the nurses' release to the three miracle-working icons of the Holy Virgin.
"Gaddafi is feels fine. I talked to him," said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi a couple of hours later in Prague.
Gaddafi talked with Prodi twice within the last 24 hours, Italian ANSA Agency later reported. The Colonel called Prodi at 22:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both talked for about half an hour about the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf. It happened a day after over 20,000 Bulgarians prayed for the nurses' freedom in St Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia. Meanwhile two Hollywood producers announced they would make a film about the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor.
Prodi and Gaddafi discussed the course of negotiations on the nurses' release. They also talked about Libyan-Italian relations and about the coming conference of the African countries to the south of the Sahara.
According to diplomatic sources, while talking on the phone Gaddafi felt bad. A few hours later Maan news agency informed that the Colonel had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in coma.
The mystery about the dictator's health lasted all day. At noon, his old friend Romano Prodi acted as his spokesman. Unexpectedly, during his visit to Prague the Italian PM denied the allegations that Gaddafi was between life and death.
"He called me again at 11:30 a.m. and told me that he felt well. He mentioned that from time to time the media released news about politicians alleging that their health condition was serious, and he wondered why they did so," Prodi said during his press-conference in Prague.
JANA, the official Libyan News Agency, also denied the news about Gaddafi's poor health.
The conversation gave the Italian PM an opportunity to make jokes of the lie about the Libyan leader's health problems, concocted by a traitorous media, JANA wrote.
Yesterday evening Gaddafi was expected to meet Ghana's President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Later in the evening the Maan news agency erased the news from its website. Before that some Russian sites had quoted the news while the big world agencies repeated only Prodi's words. In the evening the Libyan state agency aired photos of Gaddafi meeting a Sudanese emissary.
About one month ago, a rumor spread that Gaddafi had a third apoplectic stroke.