WASHINGTON – Old hand diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who is a closest diplomat on the Afghanistan war, was in basic condition after undergoing more than 20 hours of surgery to fix a dart in the pre-eminently a free artery that moves blood from the heart.

President Barack Obama gave a soup‡on of the seriousness gry of the lay of the land, saying in a disclosure that he and principal lady Michelle Obama were praying for the purpose Holbrooke's recovery. He called Holbrooke, "a paramount figure in American imported approach" who has been a basic jock in developing the dispensation's policy on Afghanistan.