Cheney Taken to Hospital With Breathing Problems

The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was admitted to hospital early yesterday complaining of shortness of breath, but was released four and a half hours later.

Mr Cheney, 64, who has had four heart attacks and is fitted with a pacemaker, was taken to George Washington hospital in Washington at 3am.

Doctors found he was retaining fluid because of medication for a foot problem, so he was given a diuretic and released from hospital.

Mr Cheney had his first heart attack in 1978 when he was 37. Ten years later, after a third heart attack, he had quadruple bypass surgery.