This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.

Yasser Arafat was buried Friday in the West Bank city ofRamallah, on the grounds of the Muqata. That is the headquarters ofthe Palestinian Authority which Mister Arafat led as president.

Officials wanted to keep the areaclear, but tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered. Palestinianguards fired shots into the air in an effort to keep order after ahelicopter brought the body. Some mourners waved Palestinian flagsand pictures of the man they also knew by his war name, Abu Ammar.

Earlier in the day, Egypt held a private military funeral inCairo. The presidents of Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Indonesia wereamong the foreign leaders who attended. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullahand American Assistant Secretary of State William Burns were alsothere. Mister Arafat died early Thursday at a French militaryhospital near Paris. He was seventy-five years old.

Yasser Arafat spent forty years leading the efforts for aPalestinian nation. Some people will remember him as a terrorist.Israel had restricted him to the Muqata since December of twothousand one, until he became sick recently. Israel held himresponsible for many bombings and other attacks on civilians. Butothers will see him as a freedom fighter who made the world thinkabout the Palestinians.

Yet he was not always very popular. There was criticism ofdishonesty in the Palestinian Authority. And, now, Palestinians mustfind all the money that he put into banks around the world.

They will also need to find a new leader. Prime Minister AhmedQureia is taking Mister Arafat's duties with the PalestinianAuthority. Mahmoud Abbas, the former prime minister, was named tohead the Palestine Liberation Organization. Farouk Kaddoumi willlead Fatah, Mister Arafat's movement within the P.L.O.

And Rauhi Fattouh, the parliament speaker, is to serve astemporary president for sixty days. After that, Palestinian lawcalls for elections for a new president.

Yasser Arafat was born in Cairo in August of nineteentwenty-nine. As a teenager, he supplied weapons to Palestiniansfighting Jews and British troops in the British territory ofPalestine.

Yet, in nineteen ninety-four, heshared the Nobel Peace Prize for a peace agreement with Israel.Then, in two thousand, there was an American-negotiated plan toexchange land for peace. Israel accepted; Mister Arafat did not. InSeptember of two thousand, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gazabegan new violence that continues today.

On Friday, President Bush said he believes there is "a greatchance" to establish a Palestinian state. He said he will work forthat goal during his next four years. He spoke during a newsconference in Washington with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mister Blair wants to hold an international conference. WithYasser Arafat gone, he says it is important to renew the search forwhat he called a "genuine, lasting and just peace in the MiddleEast."

In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by JerilynWatson. This is Steve Ember.