<a href=www.heraldtribune.com>By MITCH STACY Associated Press Writer

In the back room of a storefront office, steel shelves are crammed floor to ceiling with pacemakers and other medical equipment that soon will be helping sick hearts keep beating around the world. The aptly named charity Heartbeat International works with Rotary Clubs worldwide to match donated pacemakers with poor people who need them and surgeons who can implant them. Those who get the lifesaving devices couldn't even begin to pay for them otherwise. But like many charities in these uncertain economic times, Heartbeat International finds itself struggling to make ends meet. Quietly responsible for providing about 6,000 pacemakers since its beginnings in 1984, the charity has grown too big for its own good. Now maintaining 46 "pacemaker banks" in 28 countries, Heartbeat International is having trouble covering administration costs for all the devices that need to be shipped and implanted. "The financial situation is such that we're in serious jeopardy of reaching our 20th birthday in October 2004," said executive director Wil Mick. Administration costs are relatively modest because pacemakers and the services of hospitals and surgeons are donated, Mick said. Heartbeat International pays about $250 for each set of lead wires that connect the pacemaker to the heart, and the cost of getting the devices where they need to be. But the demand for them is so great now that the charity has been forced to reinvigorate fund-raising efforts, trying to raise $2 million over the next two years. It reorganized its board this spring with a sharper focus on raising money and is rallying its international Rotary partners to be more aggressive about seeking donations in their communities. Officials are concerned but not panicky. "This is the greatest challenge we face after 18 years," said Ramon P. Camugun, a Rotarian in the Philippines and a new board member who oversees Heartbeat International's operations in Asia, Africa, Europe. "In the past, there was much concern with improving the knowledge of doctors in the program, but there was not much time given to raising funds for the program. We knew we had to get reorganized." The mission was begun by an idealistic Guatemalan cardiologist, Dr. Ferderico Alfaro, who was haunted by the death of a 17-year-old patient who needed a pacemaker and couldn't afford one. Vowing to never let it happen again, he teamed with his Rotary Club in Guatemala to establish the first pacemaker bank. He started with more than 50 donated pacemakers, many of them harvested from patients who had died. When Dr. Henry McIntosh, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Baylor, visited his former student in Guatemala in 1983, he saw the potential for extending the effort into developing countries worldwide. "I was impressed with his sincerity," said McIntosh, now retired and living in Lakeland, where Heartbeat International was founded. Because of potential problems with used pacemakers, Heartbeat International persuaded manufacturers to begin donating new devices whose "use-by" dates were nearing. Pacemakers carry 10-year batteries, so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires they be sold by a certain date or destroyed. Medtronics and St. Jude Medical, the two largest manufacturers, now donate 300 to 400 pacemakers and related equipment every year worth as much as $2 million. The half-dollar-sized devices are implanted just under the skin on the chest, with two leads snaking into chambers of the heart. Having a pacemaker implanted usually costs between $22,000 to $46,000. After going to the hospital with chest pains, 19-year-old Rama Kumari of Baldi, India, got a pacemaker from Heartbeat International in 1999. The family was so poor they could barely afford to eat. Today she's living a normal life. Giovanni Schwalm of Quilpuc, Chile, was born in 1996 with heart problems that put her in intensive care at 3 months old. The charity provided a pacemaker around Christmas that year, and she was home recovering on New Year's Day. She's now a healthy, active little girl. Doctors said 4-year-old Alexandra Repeto of Puerto Cavello, Venezuala, wouldn't live two weeks with a pacemaker after she was diagnosed with heart problems in 1999. On the 10th day, someone contacted the charity, which immediately provided one and arranged to have it implanted. Alexandra recovered. The availability of the donated devices and demand for them led Heartbeat International to establish 11 new pacemaker banks in the past five years, expanding during that time into Russia, Brazil, Suriname, Turkey and Venezuela. Those involved with Heartbeat International say its benefits go far beyond saving lives. And they're hoping the new moneymaking efforts will keep the charity's heart pumping well past the two-decade mark next year. "We call our pacemakers peacemakers," McIntosh said. "We think we are establishing international goodwill and lasting peace through this program. "It shows that doctors, representatives of the (pacemaker) industry and leaders of an organization like Rotary are able to pull together and do something worthwhile for the world."

On the Net: Heartbeat International:

Sherry Cooper <a href=www.nationalpost.com>Financial Post Friday, March 28, 2003

I was in New York City this week meeting with institutional money managers. The city is vibrant, alive with the first blush of spring, yet a strong undercurrent of concern is there. Fear of terrorist reprisals has tightened security measures and heightened a general level of awareness. However, New Yorkers are learning to live with it. The streets are still busy, the theatres are full, and outside our offices on Times Square, the pedestrian gridlock is still evident around the clock. While the media emphasizes the rush for gas masks and duct tape, none of that kind of panic is evident to the casual observer.

To be sure, the economy has slowed. The jobless rate in New York City is 8.6%, well above the national average of 5.8%. Office vacancy rates are high in downtown Manhattan, as there was a net decline of more than 43,000 jobs last year, battered by layoffs in virtually all sectors except health care and social services. Tourism is down sharply so hotel occupancy rates remain low, and big-name restaurants are offering discounts. Even reservations are easy to get.

All over the United States the loss of business and consumer confidence is palpable. The war seems less distant and less like a Star Wars video game. The euphoria evident in the first few days ended last weekend as casualties mounted, prisoners were taken and the Iraqi Republican Guard and Fedayeen fought back hard. The stock market surge culminating in the melt-up last Friday was sharply unravelled early this week. Yet gold prices, at US$330 an ounce, remain well below the US$389 level posted in February. Oil prices, as well, have come off their peak despite disruptive unrest in Nigeria and continuing concerns in Venezuela. And the U.S. dollar has barely changed from where it was before the war began. Of course, all of this could deteriorate rapidly if Iraq were to use chemical weapons, or attack Israel, or if terrorist attacks on American soil were to begin again.

In this potentially inflammatory environment, traditional economic analysis can go only so far. All standard models would suggest that the economy should be rebounding as we move into the second half of this year, and I still believe that it will. But as Alan Greenspan and Company suggest, it is difficult to assess the risks as long as the war is still going strong. And in many ways, the risks are imponderable -- scenario analysis and worst-case planning become almost unfathomable in a world where weapons of mass destruction could suddenly annihilate thousands, or maybe even tens of thousands. So what is the ordinary investor, consumer or business manager to do?

Canada is, in many ways, isolated from the worst of the psychological effects of post-terror turbulence and war. We may be kidding ourselves, but we believe our cities are safe, our children are invulnerable, and our government is neutral, even anti the American position. Yet we know that al-Qaeda cells exist in Canada and that budding terrorists may have moved through our borders into the United States. Moreover, 85% of our population lives within 300 km of the U.S. border, too close for comfort for many.

And perhaps the biggest risks lie in our economic dependence on the United States, a point driven home by the attention given to comments by Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, earlier this week. Delays at the border are already costly, and no doubt more stringent inspections will come. Should the United States suffer another domestic attack, draconian measures might well be taken to protect and insulate the country. With 33% of our economy in exports to the United States, any disruption in the transport of goods, services or people would be a devastating blow to our otherwise buoyant economy. We got a minor taste of that in the final quarter of last year when growth slowed to a mere 1.6% thanks to a marked weakening in automotive exports.

Canada is not alone in its reliance on the United States. Never before has the global economy been so U.S.-centric, as no other economy in the world could replace the United States as the importer of last resort. We cannot internally generate the economic power necessary to sustain our rapid employment growth and maintain our high level of confidence -- neither can Europe or Japan. So we are all in this together. It is not their problem, it is our problem, the problem of all supporters of order and freedom.

I'm optimistic. I believe the Americans and their allies will prevail. That the war will end in the next couple of months and order will be established in Iraq. The rebound in economic activity will be sizable and sustained. Stocks will rally and bond yields will rise. Oil prices will fall further and U.S. businesses will once again invest in their future prosperity and expansion. I have been telling this story here all week and mostly it falls on a very receptive audience. For all our sakes, let's hope I'm right.

Sherry Cooper is global economic strategist and executive vice- president, BMO Financial Group.

<a href=www.sfgate.com>Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, March 29, 2003

Exports of crude oil from Iraq's southern oil fields are expected to begin by June after crews remove booby traps, extinguish well fires and fix outdated equipment, according to a British commander.

The remarks by Air Marshal Brian Burridge, who leads British forces in Iraq, are the most detailed yet about restarting Iraq's oil industry under a U. S.-led coalition.

He said that getting the fields to produce at full capacity of 1.8 million barrels a day will cost $1 billion in equipment upgrades. He did not elaborate on where those funds would come from.

Since the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, Iraq's oil infrastructure has been only marginally maintained and needs extensive repairs.

"These oil fields are critical to the future reconstruction and prosperity of Iraq," Burridge said Thursday in a statement from U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

Plans call for using money generated by Iraq's vast oil reserves to rebuild the country after the war and feed its people. Burridge said that future crude exports will be made under the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Under the program, the United Nations oversees Iraqi oil sales and holds the proceeds in an escrow account to buy products such as food and medicine. The system, implemented in 1996, ground to a halt just before the current war began.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted to allow Kofi Annan, the organization's secretary-general, to manage the humanitarian portion of the oil-for-food program for the next 45 days. Details about oil sales, however, have yet to be worked out.

The debate over selling Iraqi oil promises to be divisive between supporters and opponents of the war in the United Nations. Bitter disputes will almost certainly arise over who represents Iraq's oil industry if Saddam Hussein is still in power, possibly causing delays in getting exports to the world market, analysts said.

Iraq's northern fields remain intact and continue feeding a pipeline to Ceyhan, Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast. However, no tankers have picked up oil there for more than a week. The northern fields remain under the control of Hussein's forces.

According to Burridge, British forces have secured southern Iraq's principal oil field, Rumailah, and are sweeping the area of munitions and booby traps. He said that three well fires have been extinguished by firefighters, leaving six others still burning.

Under the past U.N. program, oil from the southern fields was loaded on tankers from Mina al-Bakr, a rig in the Persian Gulf. On-land security is, therefore, less of an issue.

However, minesweepers must clear the waterways for tankers, and forces must ensure that ships aren't attacked by missile or from boats. It's unclear whether banks would offer oil companies lines of credit to operate in such conditions, analysts said.

Lt. Col Gene Pawlik, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees Iraqi oil field operations, was more circumspect than Burridge about the resumption of Iraqi oil exports. Pawlik said U.S. crews have inspected Iraq's southern oil fields but haven't done any detailed analysis of what needs to be done.

Security in the area remains tenuous, Pawlik said. He added that continued fighting in the area might delay the resumption of exports beyond three months.

"As far as our last report, we haven't been able to get in and examine the Iraqi infrastructure to know how long it would take to get the fields running again," Pawlik said. "If there is active combat going on, we may not be able to go in, no matter how long it takes."

Kevin Saville, managing editor for Platt's, an energy information service in New York, said: "I don't think anybody has an accurate grip on how long it's going to take. The way it's going now, it will probably be months rather than weeks."

The situation is clouded, Saville said, by the possibility that U.S. forces will still be laying siege to Baghdad for several months. Government officials haven't said whether they would still try to export Iraqi oil from the south with war still raging a couple of hundred miles north.

Lichtblau said the world can live without Iraqi oil. Saudi Arabia has said it will make up for the loss in Iraqi oil by producing more, although production disruptions due to unrest in Nigeria and Venezuela are causing oil prices to be higher than they would be under normal conditions.

"The idea that it may take three months isn't frightening," Lichtblau said. "If it's just a questions of Iraqi oil not being available, the market can deal with it."

E-mail Verne Kopytoff at vkopytoff@sfchronicle.com.

Saturday, March 29, 2003 <a href=www.stripes.osd.mil>By Kendra Helmer, Stars and StripesEuropean edition

Petty Officer 2nd Class Bounlay Khaiaphone, 25, is a gas turbine technician on the USS Cowpens. He is from Laos, one of 15 nationalities represented by sailors in the engineering department.

ABOARD THE USS COWPENS — Every day on this ship is like a United Nations gathering.

The 400 sailors in the engineering department hail from 15 countries, from France to the Philippines to Venezuela. That means melding several languages, cultures and customs into one purpose.

“I think it’s part of our strength,” said Lt. Cmdr. Vince Perry, 37, USS Cowpens chief engineer. “Some of these guys have done more to prove their devotion to the United States than U.S. citizens.”

The engineering department sailors on the guided-missile cruiser hail from the United States, Romania, France, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, China, Haiti, Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands, Mexico, Cameroon, Jamaica, Panama and Venezuela.

Several, including Petty Officer 2nd Class Ngoc Le, have applied for U.S. citizenship, a requirement for becoming an officer.

Le, a gas turbine engineer, was born in South Vietnam. Though he’s a Christian, people sometimes unknowingly do something offensive to his Buddhist upbringing.

“For me, you don’t touch my head,” said Le, 28. “Our head is a symbol of high authority. You don’t let people walk over your head.”

Learning about those cultural differences makes ship life interesting, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Bounlay Khaiaphone, 25. He left Laos as a child for a refugee camp in Thailand.

“You chat about countries, learn about lots of other places,” said the gas turbine technician.

For the most part, the cultural differences aren’t noticeable, though the accents take some getting used to. Petty Officer 3rd Class Zhenping Wu keeps an English dictionary handy to point out words in case people don’t understand him.

Native to China, Wu was nervous about serving on a ship.

“I was scared because I didn’t know anything,” said Wu, 23, a gas turbine technician. “But I don’t feel different [from the other sailors] now.”

His family didn’t want him to join the military for fear he’d go to war. But he is at war, albeit from the sea. The Cowpens was the first ship from the Persian Gulf to launch Tomahawk missiles against Iraq last week.

Wu plans to get out of the Navy and return to the United States to take care of his parents, who don’t speak English.

“The Chinese have a responsibility to take care of their family,” he said. “I made a deal with my sister that after four years I have to go back to join the family.”

Family has been on the mind of Petty Officer 3rd Class Gueldo Cesar lately. His second daughter was born last month while he was under way.

Cesar, 30, a Haitian, and others said they joined the Navy because of a chance to learn about technology. Learning about other cultures has been an unexpected benefit.

But one sailor said it’s no big deal to work with so many nationalities.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jermaine Johnson, 24, grew up in St. Catherine, Jamaica.

“The Jamaican national motto is, ‘Out of many comes one people.’”

Sheila Gardner and Pedro Morales <a href=www.rgj.com>RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 3/29/2003 12:18 am

Gas prices have dropped about 12 cents a gallon at some stations in northern Nevada in the past week, but suppliers said Friday they don’t expect the break in skyrocketing fuel costs to last.

“On the West Coast, one of the issues compounding the gas prices besides the war in Iraq and the repercussions from the Venezuela strike is the changeover at the refineries from winter fuel to summer fuel,” said Steve Yarborough, who is president of the Nevada Gasoline Retailers Association and owns Union 76 stations in Reno, Carson City and the Lake Tahoe area. “That is complete now and all the refineries are back up and operational.

“The supply side is starting to catch up with the demand,” he said “When you have an adequate supply, competitive forces come into play and drive the price back down.”

In Reno, some drivers at the Arco on the corner of Mill Street and Kietzke Lane said they were relieved to see the price drop to $1.91-a-gallon there, but expressed skepticism about whether prices would rise.

“I hope it’ll last. I don’t know though. I’m doubtful because it’s happened before. We think it’s going to go down and then it goes up,” said Fallon resident Frankie Galaz, 31, a housemother. “If it drops a penny, I think it’s better than nothing. Twenty cents is twenty cents.”

Yarborough said prices at his stations have dropped from $2.01 two weeks ago to $1.89 for regular. Comparable pump prices were reported in Carson City, Minden and Gardnerville.

He declined to predict what might happen to gas prices or what role the war in Iraq will play.

“I don’t think in this day and age you can count on a lot of anything,” he said. “We’ve got this issue and this tragedy of war going on in the hub of our oil exports, and I don’t know where our administration is going to stop.”

Sean Comey, a spokesman for the California State Automobile Association, said Friday fuel prices on the West Coast remained the nation’s highest from $2.27 in San Francisco to $2.03 average in Nevada. The national average Friday was $1.67 per gallon, down a penny from Thursday.

According to the automobile association, the cheapest gas in the United States is $1.50 a gallon in Missouri.

“We’re seeing a brief period of stability in prices. Whether that continues is uncertain,” Comey said. “It’s too early to say it if is a trend, but it’s the only encouraging news in retail gas prices consumers have had. Unfortunately, gas prices go up quickly like a rocket and drop like a feather.

“When gas gets over the $2 mark, people just get irate,” he said. “It’s real money. If current prices continue climbing, you are talking about $400 more a year in fuel costs for the average motorist.”

Peter Krueger, state executive director of the Nevada Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, said the price of crude oil had dropped more than $10 a barrel.

“The war jitters have been put aside a little bit. We’re doing OK,” he said. “There is a lot of uncertainty in the market. Gasoline is a commodity and people speculated before the war driving the prices up. Would the oil fields go up in smoke? How well would we do? Pretty much those fears are allayed.

“Can it go back up?” he asked. “Sure it could. But if I get out my big crystal ball, I think within 90 days, if all goes well, it could go back down to $1.65.”

He said members of the organization were not profiting from the high prices.

“There is no doubt in my mind. Our members are not gouging these prices,” Krueger said. “These men and women are making small margins and they’re gross margins at that. Nobody is getting wealthy.”

One motorist in Reno, Keith Lockhard, 56, a senior civil engineer for the city of Reno, said he believes the lower prices probably are a result of people driving less. He said dealers have had to adjust their prices accordingly for now, but expects prices to go up.

“My inclination is that it might drop a little and stay down for a while,” said Lockhard, a resident of an unincorporated area of Washoe County. “After some point in time it (gas) will be subject to other factors.”

Reno resident Casey Collins, 36, said people should hope for the best, but even he couldn’t look too far into the future.

“You gotta be optimistic, I think everybody is. I think they’re not going to get higher,” Collins, an auto mechanic, said. “But we’ll see when summer comes.”

Jeff Stone, 32, of Reno, was a little more pragmatic.

“I don’t think they’ll go as low as they once were,” Stone, a carpenter, said, referring to the prices of several years ago. “We’re seeing the beginning of high gas prices.”

“The time of the internal combustion engine is over. They need to find an alternative fuel source.”