www.inq7.net Posted: 8:59 AM (Manila Time) | Jan. 13, 2003 Agence France-Presse

CHICAGO - The death penalty is either formally banned or has fallen out of use in 111 countries out of 195, and those using capital punishment are increasingly reluctant to do so, according to Amnesty International. Some 40 countries have dropped the death penalty in the past 20 years, added the London-based rights group, which opposes it. Data from the World Coalition against the Death Penalty indicates some 76 countries have totally abolished the death penalty, 14 others abolished it for civil crimes only and 21 have abolished it in practice.

In Europe, Russia retains the death penalty for civil offenses though it signed a protocol in 1996 promising to eliminate it in order to secure membership in the Council of Europe.

But faced with the Russian Parliament's reluctance to approve the legislation, President Boris Yeltsin issued a moratorium on judicial executions in 1996.

On August 3, 2002 Turkey abolished the death penalty for civil crimes only, but maintained it for exceptional crimes such as those under military law or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances.

In Latin America, Cuba stands out as the only country that uses capital punishment. Other countries have entirely abolished it or, like Mexico, only maintain it for treason in time of war or for the assassination of a president.

Guatemala has suspended all executions while waiting for the legislature to vote a bill introduced last July to abolish the death penalty.

The last official executions in Latin America took place in 1985 in Chile and Peru in 1979. Venezuela, the fist abolitionist country in South America, has not executed anyone since 1863.

However 84 countries still maintain capital punishment.

China is by far the country that executes the most but no official data or statistics exist on the subject.

The US stands out since it reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Since then more than 800 people have been executed and at least 3,500 people are on death row.

Recent executions have taken place in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Taiwan and Rwanda.

www.thescotsman.co.uk

BILL JAMIESON AND JOHN BOWKER MEMBERS of the OPEC oil cartel agreed yesterday to boost their oil production target by 6.5 per cent to 24.5 million barrels per day to prevent oil prices soaring out of control and plunging the world into recession.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced the increase at an emergency meeting in Vienna yesterday, in the hope of calming fears of a supply crunch caused by the continuing strike in Venezuela and looming war in the Middle East. The increase will take effect on 1 February. The Venezuela strike, launched early last month by political opponents seeking to oust President Hugo Chavez, has slashed the country’s exports by about two million barrels per day. Venezuela is normally OPEC’s third largest producer and a major oil supplier to the US.

OPEC’s president, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, is trying to send a very strong message that it will do its utmost to stabilise demand and supply. OPEC pumps about one-third of the world’s crude supplies, which total 79 million barrels per day.

Leading cartel producer Saudi Arabia, in control of most of the world’s spare capacity, said it was already pumping more to fill the two million barrels-per-day hole in markets. Riyadh is trying to prevent oil prices soaring to heights that might harm already fragile world economic growth.

US oil prices recently rose above $33 per barrel for the first time in two years. It was valued at $31.58 on Friday.

With no end in sight to the Venezuela strike, Ali Rodriguez, president of state Petroleos de Venezuela, blamed sabotage at oil fields and refineries for the prevention of a swift return to production.

MEANWHILE, North Sea oil and gas giant BP is expected to announce early this week that some of its underperforming assets will be put up for sale.

The move will kickstart a radical review of the firm’s core business, as promised to investors by chief executive John Browne following three production growth forecast downgrades in as many months. A BP spokeswoman said details would be revealed at the group’s official strategy review on 11 February.

She confirmed that the energy giant was looking to streamline its exploration and production business, which accounts for 80 per cent of operating profits. And she added that "the sooner we know how that will happen, the better".

Assets to be put up for sale are expected to come from the North Sea and the US as well as South America. BP said it would be reviewing the sector after November’s growth forecast downgrade.

www.themoscowtimes.com, Jan. 13, 2003. Page 6 By Dmitry Zhdannikov Reuters

The powerful head of state pipeline monopoly Transneft, Semyon Vainshtok, is under mounting pressure from private oil companies, which believe he is not expanding capacity fast enough to match surging production.

Analysts said Friday that the position of Vainshtok, who turned Transneft into a power in the land from an obedient arm of private business after his appointment in 1999, was still safe due to Kremlin support and an impressive financial record.

Transneft's ability to further expand its massive pipeline system in 2003, when new export routes are needed as never before to ship booming output, could be decisive for Vainshtok's future.

"His position is still incredibly strong. He is one of the most effective managers in the business. His key task now is to quickly match demand from the oil firms for new export routes," said Steven Dashevsky from Aton brokerage.

"The demand for new routes is higher than ever. And if Transneft fails to build them quickly, forcing oil firms to curb output growth, Vainshtok could face problems," said Valery Nesterov from Troika Dialog.

Vainshtok, 55, a former employee of Russia's largest oil firm LUKoil, literally stormed the world's biggest pipeline firm in 1999, when after a battle between influential Kremlin groups he sent in police to throw out his predecessor. Despite having no experience in the pipeline business, Vainshtok managed in less than three years to build two major pipelines and a port at Primorsk.

These were the first oil infrastructure projects to be completed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Under Vainshtok, a previously timid Transneft started to flex its muscles. In 2001, the firm abruptly halted oil exports of LUKoil, after receiving a complaint backed by a court ruling from a shareholder with a tiny stake in LUKoil.

But private majors were willing to accommodate Vainshtok's behavior as long as he was building new routes.

"The situation is getting tougher for Vainshtok. ... The monopoly is not being flexible enough and is not expanding the system as quickly as they want," said Nesterov.

The first serious sign of discontent surfaced in late 2002, when the four biggest private oil majors took an unprecedented decision to join forces to build a huge Arctic export port at Murmansk on the Barents Sea. They invited Transneft but Vainshtok said he was not convinced by the plan and preferred a Pacific route.

This week five majors have asked the state to persuade Transneft to reopen a pipeline to the Latvian port of Ventspils and cut oil shipments from neighboring Kazakhstan. The move follows a call from OPEC for Russia to increase supplies together with the cartel to take the heat out of prices driven higher by fears of war in Iraq and a long-running oil strike in Venezuela.

"Oil firms do not want to tolerate losses anymore by seeing Transneft artificially cutting their exports," Nesterov said.

Transneft has slashed oil shipments to Ventspils to zero from around 350,000 bpd at the beginning of 2002, saying oil firms preferred other routes to reach world markets.

Market players say the move is instead designed to put pressure on the port's owners to sell Transneft a stake in the terminal, once the biggest outlet for Russia's crude on its way to northern Europe, at a bargain basement price.

Ventspils is the only easy option for Russia to quickly boost exports -- currently running at 4 million bpd. Other pipelines are pumping at capacity and Russia faces bottlenecks in its main oil ports with total output at a 10-year high of 8 million bpd.

"Oil firms are simply saying that in difficult years, such as 2003, Transneft should put their interests first," Vladislav Metnyov from TIB Bank said.

However, he added that power rested with the Kremlin, which has the last say on whether the monopoly takes more crude from Kazakhstan or cuts supplies to Latvia.

Nesterov said if the government decides to approve this year Transneft's plan to expand Primorsk and build a huge pipeline to the Pacific it would be the best proof yet it still is fully confident in Vainshtok.

asia.reuters.com Sun January 12, 2003 08:09 PM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - NYMEX crude futures rebounded from early losses in off-hours trade on Monday as traders discounted OPEC's weekend decision to raise output as unlikely to boost supplies in the key U.S. market for the next few weeks.

U.S. light crude for February delivery dropped to an early intraday low at $31.20 a barrel, down 48 cents from Friday's settlement in New York.

But the dip was short-lived and the market rallied into positive territory, striking an intraday peak so far at $31.80. At 7:57 p.m. EST Sunday, February crude stood 10 cents off at $31.58.

Brokers said OPEC's decision on Sunday to raise group production by almost seven percent, or 1.5 million barrels per day, had already been priced into the market.

Of more concern was that supplies would take four to six weeks to hit U.S. shores, where crude inventories have fallen to near 26-year lows due to an opposition-led strike in Venezuela, which supplies 13 percent of U.S. oil imports.

The strike has removed about two million bpd of crude from world supplies.

"Whatever barrels OPEC adds to the market, they are going to be some time -- weeks -- in getting to the United States where physical inventory is key and it's pretty tight," said Paul Ashby, oil and gas analyst at ABN Amro in Sydney.

Venezuelan oil normally takes about five days to reach the United States.

"I certainly see oil staying above $30 until the Venezuelan situation is sorted out," Ashby said.

OPEC's agreement at an emergency meeting in Vienna brings the cartel's official production ceiling for the 10 members bound by quotas to 24.5 million barrels per day.

But the increase was divided pro-rata among members, meaning that Venezuela, OPEC's third biggest producer, was also granted its share of the higher output limit despite the ongoing strike, which entered its 43rd day on Monday.

Traders are also concerned that many others in OPEC have little, or no, spare capacity to bump up production.

NYMEX oil futures also rebounded from early losses. February heating oil gained 0.02 cents to 86.55 cents a gallon, while February unleaded gasoline futures gained 0.36 cents to 87.55 cents a gallon.

The Tokyo Commodities Exchange was closed on Monday for a holiday.

www.zenit.org Piden a los negociadores dar las respuestas que el país espera

CARACAS, 12 enero 2003 (ZENIT.org).- La Conferencia Episcopal de Venezuela (CEV) publicó este viernes un documento en el que alerta que la agudización de la crisis está poniendo seriamente en peligro a la misa República.

El comunicado fue hecho público con motivo de la reunión de representantes del episcopado con el secretario general de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), César Gaviria, y los miembros de la Mesa de Negociación y Acuerdos. El país vivía el cuadragésimo día de huelga.

En el encuentro participaron monseñor Baltazar Porras, arzobispo de Mérida y presidente de la CEV, monseñor Ovidio Pérez Morales, arzobispo de Los Teques, y monseñor Ubaldo Santana, arzobispo de Maracaibo.

Monseñor Porras leyó el documento en el que se afirma que «el prolongado enfrentamiento político ha adquirido muy peligrosos niveles de crispación y violencia verbal, física y moral. Por lo mismo, mientras más se radicalice, como desgraciadamente se prevé, no dejaría vencedores ni vencidos, sino una gran derrotada: Venezuela».

En el documento, los obispos piden a los negociadores que «se consagren, con urgencia, a dar las respuestas que el país aguarda con angustia y esperanza».

Respecto a los objetivos que se trazó la Mesa de Negociación, el episcopado califica de «sabia» la decisión de encontrar una salida electoral, pues «la situación convierte en imperativo que sea el pueblo quien libremente decida su destino».

Asimismo, exigen «encarar» la violencia política, social y política que permanece impune, lo que, a juicio de los obispos, «ha llevado a la pérdida de confianza en la credibilidad de las instituciones judiciales y de los poderes públicos».

También se recuerda que propuesta, apoyada originalmente tanto por el Gobierno como por la oposición, de crear una Comisión de la Verdad que estableciese las responsabilidades y sanciones a los culpables de la violencia política.

La Conferencia Episcopal aprovechó para recordar las palabras que pronunció el papa Juan Pablo II el pasado 1 de enero, cuando señaló que «quienes ocupan puestos de responsabilidad y no acepten cuestionarse con valentía su modo de administrar el poder y de procurar el bienestar de sus pueblos, será difícil imaginar que se pueda progresar verdaderamente hacia la paz».

«Frente a una casa que se incendia no buscamos paliativos sino acuerdos efectivos y rápidos que den solución a este drama», señaló monseñor Pérez Morales, a la salida de la reunión.

El presidente Hugo Chávez advirtió este sábado ante miles de seguidores que no será derrotado en ningún frente de batalla porque le asiste la razón, la moral, la verdad «y, además, Dios está con nosotros. Porque ésta es la lucha de Dios, Cristo está con nosotros». Este tipo de citas religiosas impropias es común en su lenguaje, y en el pasado fue criticado por ello por los obispos.

El paro ha llevado a Venezuela a exportar menos de una quinta parte del crudo que tradicionalmente enviaba al extranjero --que antes de comenzar la acción eran 2,7 millones de barriles diarios (bpd)-- y ha reducido a niveles mínimos la producción petrolera.