2 Apr 2003

Nauru's acting president suffers heart attack

5:53 am on 2 April 2003

The acting president of Nauru has suffered a heart attack just weeks after his predecessor died in a US hospital.

Derog Gioura was appointed acting president last month after the incumbent leader Bernard Dowiyogo died after a heart operation in Washington.

A spokeswoman for Australia's foreign ministry says Mr Gioura, who is 71, is undergoing treatment in an Australian hospital.

She says the Nauru parliament has been dissolved and elections aren't until May.

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