www.dailyrecord.co.uk Feb 17 2003 Magnus Gardham

POLICE in Scotland have had "dirty bomb" training, it was revealed yesterday.

The Executive confirmed officers in all eight Scots forces have received extra training to ensure they are prepared for a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack.

The news emerged after police chiefs down south said all forces in England and Wales would have at least one trained and equipped unit by the end of May.

An Executive spokeswoman said: "Appropriate provision is in place across the Scottish police forces to respond to terrorist incidents.

"There are trained officers within each force, but it is expected that the two largest - Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde - would provide support to smaller forces as appropriate."

The news came as London's police chief warned the risk of al-Qaeda attacks in Britain was high.

Meanwhile, a 37-year-old Venezuelan man was charged last night under the Terrorism Act after a hand grenade was found in his luggage as he arrived at Gatwick Airport last week.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens dismissed suggestions that a hoax was to blame for the terror alert which saw tanks at Heathrow and heightened security at other airports around the country over the past week.

He said the Government's emergency planning committee, codenamed Cobra, was meeting daily to assess the level of threat and did not believe the danger of terror attacks was over.

And he confirmed there were concerns at the highest levels that ground-to-air missile-launchers had been smuggled into the UK and could be used to shoot down aeroplanes taking off or landing at British airports.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling also warned similar security alerts could be expected at airports in the future. He said: "We will just have to make judgments from time to time, based on the advice we get from the security services, as to what level of alert there has to be in airports, in railway stations, on the Tube and in other places that could be the subject of attacks by terrorists.

"What we saw last week is an example of what I am afraid we are going to see from time to time."

Sir John, when asked how many al-Qaeda cells were operating in the UK, said: "It is very difficult to know, but we do know that there is a substantial presence and we are taking action in relation to those. The threat is still high. What we do every day is analyse the threat and meet that threat with whatever resources necessary."

Police last night confirmed they had charged Hasil Mohammed Rahaham-Alan, allegedly found with a grenade at Gatwick, with three offences - including possessing an article for the purpose of committing a terrorist act.

He holds a Venezuelan passport, is known to the country's authorities and has visited "sensitive countries" in the last few months. It is understood Scotland Yard officers plan to fly to Venezuela to establish whether he has any al- Qaeda links. He is being held at the high-security Paddington Green police station in west London.

The US Department of State has said Islamic extremist groups have long operated on Venezuela's Margarita Island, which is home to a large population from the Middle East, many of them oil workers.

Three men arrested near airports in England have been handed over to the immigration authorities, while five other suspects were released without charge.

Meanwhile, a convoy of Britons preparing to act as human shields arrived in Iraq yesterday. The activists have pledged to force the US and UK to bomb their own people in the event of military action.

The Truth Justice Peace Human Shield Action group travelled 3000 miles from London on double- decker buses.

More than 75 members are now in Baghdad, including Stevan Allen from Edinburgh. Spokesman Torben Franck said: "All have arrived safe and sound, if somewhat exhausted by a journey which took eight days longer than planned."

www.iht.com Chi-Chu Tschang Bloomberg News Monday, February 17, 2003   BEIJING China has posted an unexpected trade deficit for the first time in over six years as it stockpiles crude oil ahead of a possible war on Iraq and consumers take advantage of tariff reductions to buy more imported cars. The deficit in January was $1.25 billion, the first time China has posted a shortfall since December 1996, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said Friday, citing customs statistics. Imports rose 63 percent to $31 billion, driven by a 78 percent increase in the volume of oil imported. Exports rose 37 percent to $29.8 billion. General Motors Corp. and other carmakers are taking advantage of China's entry into the World Trade Organization to import more cars into China and raising production at plants assembling parts shipped from overseas. "It is surprising," said Robert Subbaraman, an economist at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. "My suspicion is there were temporary factors involved. Oil prices have been going up so China might be trying to front load their imports." As China imported greater quantities of oil, prices rose. The price of crude in New York has risen 73 percent in the past year on concern that an Iraq war may disrupt supplies from the Middle East. A workers' strike in Venezuela also reduced output from the world's fifth largest oil exporter. "Half of the deficit is due to oil," said Gordon Kwan, an industry analyst with HSBC Securities in Hong Kong. Kwan said the import bill might keep rising as war jitters cause crude prices to increase further. China will build a 20-million-ton strategic oil reserve to protect itself from a war in Iraq and other conflicts that may disrupt supply from the Middle East, the government said last month. The country plans to stockpile about 149 million barrels, enough to meet oil demand for one month, said Song Chaoyi, a deputy director at the State Development Planning Commission. There is a growing appetite for raw materials and machinery in China, whose economy is expanding by about 8 percent a year, the fastest pace of any other major nation in Asia. As the economy grows, incomes are rising and foreign cars, wines and other goods becoming more affordable. Car imports rose more than three-quarters to 127,394 units last year after China raised its vehicle quotas as part of its WTO commitments. Car and auto part imports totaled $860 million last month, two and a half times what they were a year earlier, the report said. China will increase its vehicle import quota 15 percent this year to $9.12 billion. General Motors said it imported 789 cars in January, compared with 145 a year earlier. The company's total vehicle sales in China last month topped 30,000, compared with 14,500 a year ago. While China is allowing foreign companies greater access to the growing Chinese market, trading partners such as the United States are pressing for trade barriers to come down faster. The U.S. trade deficit with China widened by a fifth to $93.6 billion in the first 11 months of last year, the U.S. Commerce Department. Chinese negotiators may be tempted to use China's January trade deficit as a reason for easing import restrictions more slowly when they meet next week in Beijing with the U.S. trade representative, Robert Zoellick. Economists said China would need sustained deficits to reasonably argue such a case. Last year, China had a trade surplus of $30.4 billion, up 35 percent from 2001, according the Chinese government.

boston.com By Stephen Ixer, Associated Press, 2/16/2003 17:47

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) President Hugo Chavez said Sunday interest rates should be fixed to reverse Venezuela's deteriorating economic situation, just days after he imposed exchange controls and price controls for the same reason.

''I want interest rates to be lowered,'' Chavez said. ''I want the interest rates to be fixed ... and I call on the Central Bank of Venezuela to fix them.''

Chavez suggested a maximum rate of 30 percent for commercial banks' lending rates, compared with well over 40 percent at present. This would give small companies and farmers better access to credit, he said. The central bank's current lending rate is 37 percent.

Chavez, speaking on his weekly TV and radio program, also threatened to send troops to seize food-processing plants that have threatened to stop producing because of newly imposed price controls.

To slow rising prices, the government last week slapped price controls on more than 220 goods ranging from powdered milk to beef and rice. Some producers say their businesses will not be profitable if they sell at the new prices. Opposition leaders predict shortages of many goods.

''If they close the plants I'll take them away from them again,'' Chavez roared. ''Here and now I order the armed forces and the defense minister ... to start drawing up plans to seize the plants.''

Last month, troops raided two bottling plants that had closed in support of a national strike against Chavez, seizing drinks to distribute among the population. Chavez accused the companies a local bottler of Coca-Cola and Venezuela's largest food and drink producer, Empresas Polar of hoarding basic necessities.

The two-month strike was called by a coalition of labor unions, business chambers and opposition political parties to force Chavez into resigning or accepting a vote on his rule. On Feb. 3, the strike was lifted in all areas, except the oil industry, to protect businesses from bankruptcy.

Inflation topped 30 percent last year, fueled by a rapid devaluation of the bolivar currency. The bolivar lost another 25 percent in January, prompting the government to introduce exchange controls which peg the currency at 1598 per dollar.

Chavez has fired over 10,000 workers from the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., since the strike began, and used only government sympathizers to bring oil production up to around half of pre-strike levels.

Chavez said Sunday production had exceeded 2 million barrels a day; fired oil executives say the figure is around 1.3 million barrels.

Venezuela's Central Bank is, by law, an autonomous institution but has worked closely with Chavez's government in drawing up the recent price and exchange controls.

Chavez, a former paratrooper, was first elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000. He promised to wipe out the corruption of previous governments and redistribute the country's vast oil wealth to the poor majority.

His critics charge he has mismanaged the economy, tried to grab authoritarian powers and split the country along class lines with his fiery rhetoric.

www.boston.com By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press, 2/16/2003 16:44

LA ESPERANZA, Colombia (AP) Investigators on Sunday hauled away the wreckage of a U.S. plane that crashed on an intelligence-gathering mission in the Colombian jungle, where a frantic search was underway for three Americans who were on board.

The Americans apparently were kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. A fourth American and a Colombian army sergeant were executed at the crash scene.

The U.S. government has not identified the people on the flight or disclosed their mission.

A Colombian soldier on a mountain road across the river from the crash scene said the investigators were Americans. The U.S. embassy has said the plane went down in the lush jungle mountains after experiencing engine trouble.

National Police Director Gen. Jorge Campo said Sunday the plane was struck by gunfire from the ground, but that did not cause the crash.

A suspected rebel captured by authorities was sent to Bogota on Sunday to be interviewed about the case, said Alonso Velasquez, director of the local prosecutor's office.

The plane crashed in a cattle pasture carved out of the mountain jungles in the tiny hamlet of Ano Nuevo. The aircraft, seen from across the river, appeared damaged badly, lying near a home perched on the side of the mountain.

While the investigators sifted through the charred remains of the single-engine Cessna, half-a-dozen military helicopters circled overhead and some 600 Colombian soldiers protected the site and investigators.

A corporal who declined to give his name said peasants in the region refused to talk about what they may have seen.

''The people there don't talk,'' he said. ''I asked them what happened and they only told me that they heard an explosion. They're scared.''

The crash site is near the border of a former rebel safe haven granted to the FARC during three years of failed peace talks. The Colombian government revoked the safe haven last year and sent troops back into the area. Security forces are in the major towns, but the FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group, still controls much of the countryside.

A priest in the diocese of Florencia, which includes the tiny hamlet, said many peasants in the region fear the guerrillas.

''The countryside is very controlled at the moment,'' he said. ''There are areas where in order to enter or leave, you have to ask for permission from the guerrillas. (The peasants) don't say anything out of fear.''

The priest, who asked that his name not be used, said he had received death threats from the rebels. He worried about the captured Americans.

''I think they're living through the most difficult moments of their lives,'' he said. ''As representatives of the American government, it may be more complicated.''

The United States has given Colombia almost $2 billion in the past three years, mostly in military aid. The aid initially was restricted to anti-drug operations. The rebels finance their fight through drug trafficking and the priest said much of the region farms coca plants, the base for cocaine.

The rebels consider Washington's support for the Colombian government an act of war and have said they would target U.S. citizens and interests.

Washington recently lifted the aid restriction to allow Colombian forces to use U.S.-purchased equipment and U.S.-trained troops to battle the rebels directly. Last month, about 70 U.S. Green Berets were sent to an embattled northeastern state to train Colombian counterterrorist troops.

Separately, authorities said Sunday the bodies of two missing Colombian soldiers were found buried in Venezuela, near the border with Colombia.

The two soldiers disappeared Feb. 1 from the Venezuelan village of El Amparo, across the border from Arauca state, Gen. Carlos Lemus said. Colombian soldiers based in Arauca frequently cross the border in their free time.

Authorities believe the two were kidnapped by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Lemus said. The ELN is Colombia's second-largest rebel group.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.16.03, 5:46 PM ET CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Venezuela will provide $40 million daily from February for importers, foreign debt holders and tourists under its new strict currency control regime, Planning Minister Felipe Perez said in a statement. The Central Bank will complete the transactions when businesses needing U.S. currency have complied with requirements established by CADIVI, the government's new currency control board, Perez said in a message on a government Website. The minister said the amount of currency available in March would be evaluated when the government had more details about the flow of dollars and the recuperation and finances of state oil firm PDVSA, which has been ravaged by a two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez. Perez said demand during the last two quarters had been around $90 million a day. But the minister said demand for dollars had fallen as the country's production slipped and less imports entered the country. In early February, the Venezuelan government established a fixed exchange rate, tightened access to foreign currency and introduced price controls to offset the economic impact of the opposition strike that cut into vital oil exports. The government has said that the buying and selling of dollars will resume at the start of next week. Businesses have had no official access to U.S. currency since Jan. 22 when the government closed foreign exchange trading to shore up its reserves and the Bolivar currency. Venezuela's economy, battered by recession and the grueling strike, contracted nearly 9 percent during 2002. Economists and opposition leaders have warned that the currency controls will create a huge black market, hike inflation and create shortages of imported goods.