Comatose Sharon moves home

JERUSALEM - Israel's comatose former prime minister Ariel Sharon was moved back to his desert ranch on Friday, leaving the secure hospital ward that had been his home for almost five years, officials said.

Sharon, 82, will continue to receive treatment at Sycamore Farm, where as premier he would often retreat with aides to plan strategies such as Israel's 2002 offensive in the Palestinian West Bank and the surprise 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Felled by a massive stroke in January 2006, ex-general Sharon left an often jittery state that has fought two wars while charting an uncertain course in US-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians.