President of Nauru dies

President of Nauru dies

The President of the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, Bernard Dowiyogo, has died of a heart attack at the age of 57.

Mr Dowiyogo, who had been the president of Nauru on six separate occasions since 1976, was in hospital in the United States and had just undergone emergency heart surgery.

Nauru, a 21-square-kilometre island just south of the equator, is home to 12,000 people.

It is effectively bankrupt - millions of dollars from its one major industry, phosphate mining, were lost in failed investments.

Government employees were not being paid - despite revenue from housing refugees on behalf of Australia - and the country was trapped in political deadlock while President Dowiyogo was in the US for medical treatment.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service