He's alive?

Update on the Zambian-presidency situation: According to the Zambian media, he's not dead... just "receiving treatment for hypertension in France." The state department is claiming that the whole thing was made up, and that "his condition has stabilized." (In the words of one of the guys on our trip: "Maybe he's just *mostly* dead, not totally dead." I thought that was pretty well-placed.) However the vice-president was seen crying while praying for their president, so it seems that they are giving mixed signals. Talking to some of the local Zambians, they're not sure what's going on -- "we just have to wait until they tell us the whole truth, whenever that will be." I just thought I'd update on that, since it's not every day that a national lead dies and then isn't dead anymore.

Some other thoughts on the matter:
-Who goes to France for treatment of hypertension? If anything, being in France would raise mine.
-Why go to the trouble of anonymously reporting that the president is dead if it's a hoax? It's not like there was any widespread pandemonium or anything. At best, the response here in Zambia was "Oh that's really too bad... wait, huh? He's ok? What's going on??"
-On the other hand, if the president had actually passed away (or became incapacitated suddenly), it would definitely make sense to suppress that information until a smooth transition of power was arranged. This makes me lean toward believing that he's not ok. (Even though I hope he is, because everyone here says he is a very good leader).
-"His condition has stabilized" is pretty vague. Being in a persistent vegetative state is stable. So is being dead. There's a lot of room for interpretation in that statement.
-Why can't Mugabe or Hugo Chavez go to France for hypertension? If I were their doctor, I would definitely order for a rectal tube to high wall suction. (For the non-medical folks, think of slipping a shop-vac hose into your trousers.)
-Moffat for president!!