Free Republic

The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has spent weeks completely cut off from the outside world after its telecommunications network collapsed. Its isolation is so complete that no one is even sure who the country's president is any more. Nauru, an isolated speck in the southwest Pacific with a population of 12,000, is in a "critical situation", according to the last message received by the outside world. That came via an address given three weeks ago by the man last believed to be running the country, President Bernard Dowiyogo, details of which were given on Friday by Radio Australia....

MELBOURNE, Australia, Mar 09, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Nauru's President Bernard Dowiyogo, 57, has died in a U.S. hospital, a spokeswoman for the Pacific island nation said Monday. Dowiyogo died at 7:40 a.m. local time (2040 GMT Sunday) at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, said spokeswoman Helen Bogden, who is based in Melbourne. Dowiyogo had undergone an 11-hour heart operation last Tuesday. Bogden said the U.S. Air Force had agreed to fly Dowiyogo's body back to Nauru later in the week for a funeral service. Dowiyogo is survived by a wife and four children. A...