Iraqi President Talabani to leave hospital soon

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will leave hospital soon, his personal physician said Wednesday, but declined to give an exact date. Talabani, 73, who collapsed Sunday suffering from exhaustion and dehydration caused by lung and sinus infections, is now in "excellent shape" and has "no clinical problems at all," Yedgar Hishmat said in a telephone interview. The Iraqi president was flown to Jordan late Sunday and admitted to the King Hussein Medical City hospital in the capital, Amman. Earlier in the week, Hishmat, who accompanied Talabani from Iraq, dismissed rumors that the president also had a heart problem.