INTERNATIONAL

Security Council delays lifting Sudan sanctions because of terrorist attacks against U.S.

Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council delayed discussion yesterday on lifting five-year-old sanctions on Sudan because of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, whose country holds the rotating council presidency, said a vote scheduled for Monday had also been delayed. No new date had been set to take up the matter.

The United States had insisted that Sudan demonstrate it was no longer providing sanctuary to terrorist groups before lifting sanctions. However, Washington has been working with Sudan to address concerns about the nation's alleged backing of terrorism.

Colombia's U.N. Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso said council member had been told the Americans were ready to lift sanctions.

The sanctions order U.N. members to reduce Sudan's diplomatic presence in their countries, to restrict the movement of its officials, and ban its planes. The sanctions remain on the books, but have never been enforced.

The measures were intended to pressure Sudan to hand over gunmen who opened fire on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's car on June 26, 1995, while he was visiting Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The suspects were believed to have fled to Sudan.

Last month, an official in the Bush administration said U.S. counterterrorism experts had concluded the gunmen are no longer in Sudan and do not enjoy the support of the government.

The council also postponed a scheduled discussion of violence in Burundi because former South African President Nelson Mandela, a peace mediator in the conflict, was not able to come to New York. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said this was because of medical treatment.

STATES

Surgeons implant sefl-contained heart in 70-year-old Kentucky man

Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A man was implanted with a self-contained artificial heart yesterday, becoming only the second patient in the world to receive the experimental device.

Tom Christerson, 70, was resting comfortably at Jewish Hospital, spokeswoman Barbara Mackovic said. The first implant was done at the same hospital in early July.

"The patient is now recovering in the intensive care unit at Jewish Hospital," Abiomed Inc., the device's maker, said in a news release.

The procedure on Christerson, of Central City, Ky., was performed by University of Louisville surgeons Laman Gray Jr. and Robert Dowling, who also implanted an AbioCor artificial heart in the chest of Robert Tools on July 2.

Tools, 59, was recently removed from intensive care, and his surgeons say the artificial heart has worked flawlessly.

The softball-sized pump has no wires or tubes that stick out of the chest. An internal battery and controller regulate the pumping speed, and an external battery powers the device by passing electricity through the skin.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the experimental device for use in five patients, all dying of heart failure and too sick to qualify for human heart transplants.

Under terms of the FDA approval, the company could proceed with five more operations if the initial five are successful, and then five more after that if things are still going well.

Besides Jewish Hospital, four other medical centers in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and Houston are working with Abiomed.

LOCAL

America West flight returns to Phoenix airport after passengers notice odd smell
Associated Press

PHOENIX - An America West Airlines flight that left Phoenix's airport after the federal air travel ban was lifted had to return and make an emergency landing yesterday.

The crew of Flight 751 smelled an electrical-type odor in the cockpit of the Airbus 320 shortly after takeoff about 1 p.m., said America West spokeswoman Patty Nowack.

She said the plane - headed to Minneapolis with 86 passengers aboard - returned to Sky Harbor and landed without incident about a half hour later.

Officials had not determined the source of the odor, said Nancy Faron, an airport spokeswoman.

It was not immediately known whether the passengers would be able to switch to another flight because of the limited service being offered by all airlines.