Cheney out of intensive care

Former US vice president Dick Cheney is out of intensive care but still in hospital more than five weeks after being admitted for his latest heart problems, his daughter said yesterday. Last month doctors implanted a pump that improves heart function...

Former US vice president Dick Cheney is out of intensive care but still in hospital more than five weeks after being admitted for his latest heart problems, his daughter said yesterday.

Last month doctors implanted a pump that improves heart function in the 69-year-old Cheney at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, in the Washington suburbs. He was admitted late June.

"He's out of the intensive care unit and hopefully will be home later this week," his daughter Liz Cheney told Fox News Sunday.

After the operation in early July to install a heart pump called a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), Mr Cheney issued a statement saying it had gone "very well."

One of America's most powerful and controversial vice presidents, Mr Cheney was a driving force behind George W. Bush's "war on terror" that included the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, warrantless wiretapping on US citizens, and the use of torture on terror suspects.

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