<a href=www.vheadline.com> Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) rebel leader, Juan Fernández is concluding a week's visit to the USA to give his version of events in Venezuela and of course, inside PDVSA. Fernandez hightailed out of Venezuela on hearing that a Venezuelan court had lifted an arrest warrant against him and six other PDVSA leaders.

The Venezuelan government is holding Fernández & Co. (?) responsible for crippling the oil industry to oust President Hugo Chavez Frias from power in a minimum time possible and maintain a stranglehold on the industry.

Fernández's critics argue that the USA government would not tolerate a group of employees using a strategic national industry to ransom the Nation for political and personal motives. 

• Speaking toVenezuelan TV station, Globovision, Fernández insists that the trip was to "open up communications" with key sectors in the USA.

Fernández addressed a Council of the Americas session in New York on Wednesday, has met the Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere and US Department of Energy officials, dropped in at the White House and has talked to some Organization of American States (OAS) Ambassadors in Washington. 

The last leg of the tour is Miami where Fernández is expected to give a press conference, meet Venezuelan opposition figures and members of the Miami Cuban community sponsoring efforts to shoot down the Chavez Frias Administration for its support of Fidel Castro. 

Fernández says the government must fix a date for the recall referendum, obtain financial resources to hold a referendum and ensure the participation of the international community.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News. Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Police Detective Branch (CICPC)  Anti-Drugs Division agents have seized 4 kilos of cocaine during a raid on a mansion in Maracay (Aragua).  A brief CICPC communique reports that the owner of the house, Luis Felipe Montero was arrested along with 10 others. 

CICPC drug enforcement officers captured military caps, electronic and banking equipment, weapons and double-lined jackets. Shots were fired when the agents entered the house, as those inside tried to make their getaway. 

• The police say they are surprised by the heavy weaponry they discovered in the house. 

Among the people arrested were Puerto Ricans, Trinidadians, and citizens of the Dominican Republic, who apparently were preparing to travel to their respective countries with the drugs using the double-lined jackets.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

In an important editorial TalCual.com afternoon tabloid reminds readers that it endorsed the strategy of fighting for a recall referendum as far back as June 18, 2002, a month after the failed coup against the Chavez Frias administration. 

• At the time, quick-fix adversaries chimed back that the country could not wait till August 2003 ... "it was an irresponsible pretext for coup solutions." 

Editor Teodoro Petkoff warns that there are only 5 months before President Hugo Chavez Frias reaches the half way mark of his term in office and the opposition must get its act together now by clearing the way for the recall referendum. "However, a new alibi has appeared: Chavez will not go to the ballet box."

The editorial states that while there are people of good faith believing the alibi, there are also people in the Chavist camp, who think that the opposition cannot be believed either ... "that's how polarization works: mutual disregard and reciprocal demonization are the predominant characteristics." 

Others, Talcual warns,  maliciously use the pretext as a disguise for new coup attempts. The editorial admits that Chavez Frias has no interest in going to the polls and will try to delay and throw obstacles in the way of a  recall referendum.

"The opposition IS  interested in elections and there is not much Chavez Frias can do, except for a house coup like Perez Jimenez did in 1957 ... he fell from power two months later. "

The opposition has to get its act together and its first move must be to establish the validity of signatures already handed in. 

The proposal that Chavez Frias can run for subsequent presidential elections must also be discussed at the negotiations, the tabloid insists,  each and every time Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel brings the topic up.

Science Blog

New analysis of sediment samples from the southern Caribbean indicate that severe droughts occurred at the same time as the known collapse of the Mayan civilization. In a study in the March 14 issue of the journal Science, researchers report that sediments from the Cariaco Basin in northern Venezuela clearly show a dry spell in the Caribbean region starting in the seventh century and lasting for more than 200 years. From the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute: Century-Long Drought Linked to Collapse of Mayan Civilization

New analysis of sediment samples from the southern Caribbean indicate that severe droughts occurred at the same time as the known collapse of the Mayan civilization. In a study in the March 14 issue of the journal Science, lead author Gerald Haug of Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany, together with Konrad Hughen of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and colleagues report that sediments from the Cariaco Basin in northern Venezuela clearly show a dry spell that the Caribbean region starting in the seventh century and lasting for more than 200 years.

The study looked at titanium concentration in undisturbed sediments recovered by the Ocean Drilling Program. Titanium varies with input from rivers and rainfall patterns over northern tropical South America, with titanium decreasing with decreasing rainfall. The international team focused on sediments from 750 AD to 950 AD, the period when the Classic Maya civilization collapsed in the lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula. The data show a clear link between the chronology of regional droughts and the demise of the culture.

Multi-year droughts in the region occurred at approximately 810, 860 and 910 AD and are believed to have placed enough strain on resources in the region to contribute to the demise of the civilization. The Maya flourished for about 1,000 years and had a peak population of more than one million. They built pyramids and elaborate cities with irrigation systems on the Yucatan, now part of Mexico. They depended on a seasonally consistent rainfall to support agriculture. Although some cities were repopulated at various times, many of the cities were abandoned in the 9th century AD.

"The resolution of many paleoclimate records has limited us in the past from documenting a clear link between climate change and the detailed, often complex evolution of some of the great cultures around the world," Hughen says. "Evidence of long periods of drought had been found previously in sediments from lakes in Guatemala, but the resolution was not sufficient to identify the three phases of abandonment known from historical data. Our records have annual resolution so we can measure both the timing and the durations of the drought periods that caused each incremental collapse."

How this once great civilization collapsed has been the subject of continued debate. Paleoclimatologists have developed an increasingly accurate record of climate change for the past few thousand years, covering the same period in which human societies developed and flourished. Until recently, archaeologists and historians lacked information on short-term climate change, but now high-resolution records from ice cores, tree rings and some deep sea sediments provide evidence that climate shifts often coincided with sudden changes in human history.

Hughen, an assistant scientist in the Institution's Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, said the sediment records show a dry period beginning about 1,200 years ago that was punctuated by periods of three to nine years each when there was little or no rainfall. Each event placed more stress on the civilization, leading to a collapse of a portion of the population each time. The remaining population could not survive the last severe drought at about 910 AD.

Archeological data show that the Mayan communities in the southern and central lowlands collapsed first, while those in the northern highlands lasted for another century or so, possibly because they had access to more ground water resources. In the end, however, they couldn't survive the final dry period.

The study was conducted by Gerald Haug of Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland, who is currently at Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany, Detlef Gunther of ETH in Zürich, Switzerland, Larry Peterson of the University of Miami, Daniel Sigman of Princeton University, Konrad Hughen of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Beat Aeschlimann of ETH in Switzerland. Their work was supported by the Schweizer Nationalfonds (SNF) in Switzerland, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and by British Petroleum and Ford Motor Company through the Princeton Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI).

WHOI is a private, independent marine research and engineering, and higher education organization located in Falmouth, MA. Its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, the Institution is organized into five departments, interdisciplinary institutes and a marine policy center, and conducts a joint graduate education program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Female Condom Thursday March 27, 1:00 pm ET Female Condom Gets Go Ahead in India

CHICAGO, March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Female Health Company (OTC Bulletin Board: FHCO - News) announced today at its Annual Meeting of Shareholders, that it has filed a patent on a second generation version of its FC Female Condom. The Company initiated development to find a product that presented the same physical and very positive clinical and acceptability performance but that could be produced at a significantly reduced cost compared to its current product. The Company believes that it has been successful. Studies required to establish comparability to FC are now on-going.

The Female Condom is mainly distributed in developing countries where HIV/AIDS is rampant and where costs associated with prevention programming is critical to governments' ability to implement education outreach activities. The Company believes that reducing the cost of The Female Condom, will increase accessibility of the product for women who most need it and accelerate its market penetration. Studies have shown FC to be an effective barrier to the viruses and bacteria that cause sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Studies also show that when FC is available along with male condoms, the number of protected sex acts increases.

The Company also told its shareholders that it along with its partner in India, Hindustan Latex Ltd. (HLL), has received certificates of product registration and importation for The Female Condom from the Central Drugs and Standards Control Ministry of Health of the Government of India. The Female Health Company announced its partnership with HLL late in 2001. During 2002 application for approval of the product and the manufacturing process was submitted to the Ministry of Health. As part of the process, HLL and The Company initiated acceptability studies which were highly successful. HLL recently announced that it will expand the acceptability studies in April and plans to launch the product in August. India, with a population of approximately 1 billion is actively pursuing HIV/AIDS prevention programs. HLL and The Company believe that The Female Condom will be an important part of these programs. FC is available in 100 countries.

HLL, a Government of India Undertaking, was established in 1966 to make superior quality male condoms widely available in India. HLL has subsequently launched numerous brands of condoms and also manufactures oral contraceptive pills, intra-uterine devices, latex gloves, blood bags, shunts and sutures. With headquarters in Trivandrum in Kerala State in South India, HLL has several factories throughout the country. In addition, HLL has an extensive sales and marketing force throughout all of India with over 1000 wholesalers and over 350,000 retail outlets for its products. HLL is the largest supplier of male condoms in India, manufacturing over half of India's annual male condom supply of one billion.

The Female Health Company, based in Chicago, owns certain worldwide rights to The Female Condom including patents which have been issued in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, The People's Republic of China, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Venezuela and Australia. The Female Condom is the only available product controlled by a woman that protects against sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancy.

"Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Action of 1995: The statements in this release which are not historical fact are forward-looking statements based upon the Company's current plan and strategies, and reflect the Company's current assessment of the risks and uncertainties related to its business, including such things as product demand and market acceptance; the economic and business environment and the impact of government pressures; currency risks; capacity; efficiency and supply constraints; and other risks detailed in the Company's press releases, shareholder communication and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Actual events affecting the Company and the impact of such events on the Company's operations may vary from those currently anticipated.

For more information about the Female Health Company, dial toll-free via fax, 1-800-PRO-INFO and enter company code "FHCO". Also, visit the Company's web site at www.femalehealth.com and www.femalecondom.org . If you would like to be added to an e-mail alert list, please send an e-mail to FHCInvestor@aol.com .

Source: The Female Health Company