www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 28, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) president Ali Rodriguez Araque, the Amuay refinery should be completely up and running midway through March. If this is possible, it will be a huge step in the battle to recover Venezuelan production which fell sharply as a result of the opposition work stoppage. The refinery has a capacity of around 960,000 barrels per day.

Rodriguez also said that the force majeure will be lifted as soon as production recovers to above 2.5 million barrels per day. He estimates that current output is two million barrels per day, while striking PDVSA executives claim the number is nearer to 1.6 million.

"Of course as we normalize production, and this will occur when we're above 2.5 million barrels per day, the force majeure will be suspended entirely."

The force majeure in the east of Venezuela has already been lifted, but problems restarting complex older wells in the west of the country have delayed production rises.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 28, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

US Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro has expressed his nation's concern over the escalation of violence in Venezuela over the past two weeks.  The US diplomat met with Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister Lucas Rincon, during which the pair discussed the killings of three soldiers and a civilian two weeks ago as well as the explosions at Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas earlier this week.

"We are worried because obviously they were executions ... we are worried about the physical and verbal violence from both sides, I have said this on several occasions."

Shapiro's comments come several days after President Hugo Chavez Frias told US State Department spokesmen to stop meddling in Venezuelan affairs.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 28, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

The two-month-long opposition national work stoppage has cost Venezuela around $7.6 billion according to Finance (Hacienda) Ministry estimates. According to the Ministry, the strike has forced businesses to close down, reduced wages, increased unemployment, lifted prices and caused shortages.

"The damages caused are severe and long term, they will permanently affect the whole population," Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega said.

The Minister estimates that the total loss of production caused by the strike amounts to $6.2 billion, while loss of fiscal income for the government adds another $1.4 billion.

Of the loss of production, $2.7 billion is from the petroleum sector and $3.5 billion from the non-petroleum sectors.

www.forbes.com Reuters World News Highlights 1000 GMT Feb 28 Reuters, 02.28.03, 5:03 AM ET

BAGHDAD - Iraq will comply with U.N. demands to destroy al-Samoud 2 missiles and dismantling of the weapons could begin on Saturday, Iraqi sources said. The sources confirmed that Baghdad had sent a letter to Hans Blix, chief of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), in which it said it would abide by his order to destroy the missiles.

UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON - The United States dismissed Baghdad's agreement to destroy its al-Samoud 2 missiles and pressed on with its war preparations against Iraq, deploying a sixth aircraft carrier and B-2 stealth bombers.

BEIJING - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia opposed any U.N. Security Council resolution which would lead to a war to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and declined to rule out a Russian veto.

SEOUL - North Korea, which is reported to have fired up a key nuclear reactor, now looks set to raise tensions further by preparing to start reprocessing plutonium and test a ballistic missile, officials and reports said.

KARACHI - A gunman killed at least two police officers and wounded six other people outside the U.S. consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, police said.

WASHINGTON - Warplanes taking part in U.S.-British air patrols attacked three air defence targets in the northern "no-fly" zone of Iraq and two targets in the southern "no-fly" zone in response to Iraqi threats, the U.S. military said.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began a second term at the head of a hawkish coalition that includes fierce opponents of a Palestinian state and staunch supporters of Jewish settlement on occupied land.

NICOSIA - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders had agreed to a new deadline of March 10 for them to sign a peace deal to unite the island.

JAKARTA - Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was handed over to prosecutors in Indonesia to face trial for treason, police said. Bashir has been described by several Southeast Asian nations as the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah network that officials blame for the Bali bomb blasts. He denies any link.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's negotiators failed to show up for talks with the opposition, and foes accused the leftist leader of resisting efforts to discuss how to end a long-running political conflict.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to ban all forms of human cloning, roundly defeating a rival bill that would allow the use of cloning technology for medical research.

DILI - East Timor prosecutors charged more than 50 people, including a former police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity over violence surrounding a 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia.

www.mirror.co.uk Feb 28 2003 By Gary Jones

A TERRIFYING security loophole was exposed by a Daily Mirror sight-seeing flight over London yesterday.

We hired a helicopter without identity or luggage checks and flew over many of the capital's landmarks - including the Houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf and the City of London.

TARGET: Parliament

Had we been terrorists, it would have been easy to overpower the pilot and send the helicopter crashing onto the House of Commons or Big Ben.

We could have hurled a bomb or unleashed a deadly poison cloud.

Buckingham Palace was within close range. And at one point, the helicopter hovered over Parliament at 1,500ft.

We passed the Commons three times, causing so much noise that guests at a special lunch attended by Lord Tebbit could hardly hear themselves speak.

Intelligence sources have warned that al-Qaeda terrorists might attempt a propaganda suicide bombing of Westminster.

Helicopter sight-seeing tours were banned briefly after the September 11 attacks in America.

In the US, tough security measures were introduced following the air hijackings - including stringent identity and bag checks for helicopter flights.

But there were no questions asked when photographer Emma Cattell and myself arrived at Biggin Hill in Kent for yesterday's trip. We didn't even give our full names.

I had phoned Biggin Hill Helicopters at about 10.30am saying I wanted to hire a helicopter for a sight-seeing tour as a birthday present for my girlfriend.

At first I was told one wasn't available because of a training lesson but I was called back shortly afterwards on a mobile phone to be told: "If you can get here by 1.15pm you'll be OK."

After parking directly outside BHH's prefabricated building, I was met by a man called Will, who said: "You must be Gary."

After a short briefing about the flight, involving how to wear seatbelts correctly and avoid the rotor blades, the four-seater helicopter landed to pick us up.

I had a black bag with strap slung over my shoulder and my colleague a large handbag containing a digital camera. At no stage were the bags checked for their contents. They were not even given a cursory glance.

The only mention made of my bag - which could easily have concealed a gun or a gas canister - was when I laid it at my feet.

I was asked by the pilot called Simon, in his late 20s, what it contained. I replied: "A camera." I was told to put the bag in the back because it could become entangled in the pedals.

No check had been made on either of our identities before we boarded the flight. Apart from the credit card details which I had given over the phone earlier, BHH had no information about us.

It was only after we had landed and were driving back to London that an address was asked for so a receipt could be given for the cost of the flight.

The helicopter emblazoned with the sign LBC - the capital's independent radio station which hires the chopper for its travel reports - flew directly towards Canary Wharf before following the path of the River Thames.

The spectacular journey passed the City of London and was supposed to end at Battersea power station.

But our trip was interrupted by a Ministry of Defence Chinook helicopter taking special services personnel to the Duke of York's barracks at Chelsea.

The distinctive dark green MoD chopper was given priority and flew beneath us a couple of kilometres away as we hovered above the Commons.

Helicopter sight-seeing trips follow a pre-determined path into the capital, twisting and turning along the Thames.

But with the Houses of Parliament directly on the river, a terrorist would not need to manoeuvre the helicopter any great distance to hit the target. Security services and anti- terrorist police have warned of the threat of attack.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens says: "It is not a question of if, but when."

Earlier this month troops and tanks guarded Heathrow Airport after warnings of a possible surface-to-air missile attack on aircraft. A grenade was found in the possession of a passenger who flew into Gatwick from Venezuela.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said at the time: "First this reinforces that we really do have a problem.

"People have been saying that it doesn't exist. Second, it means that our security services are on the ball. Third, it has given us leads and over the next few days we need to follow them through."

Anti-terror police have a massive ongoing offensive against alleged British supporters of Osama bin Laden.

A joint investigation between police, MI5 and MI6 continues to target bin Laden loyalists in Britain and around the world.

UK security forces are hunting scores of British Muslims trained by bin Laden and suspected of plotting attacks here. It has emerged that the names of almost 1,200 suspects are known to the intelligence services.

Some who survived the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan are thought to have sneaked into Britain where they have gone to ground but remain sympathetic to al-Qaeda which has made Britain its number one target in Europe.

Within weeks of the attacks in New York and Washington, three Algerians were arrested in Leicester, suspected of being involved in a plot to crash a helicopter into the US embassy building in Paris.

They were all members of an Algerian Islamic terror group, Tafkir-Wal-Hijra, and were captured after the arrest of the group's leader Djamel Begal in Dubai.

Begal, 35, had confessed to police that he ran three groups in Europe, including one in Leicester where he had lived for a short time in the 1990s.

Detectives in the Midlands have investigated the backgrounds of hundreds of Algerian asylum-seekers who have entered Britain from the strife-torn country.

Some are believed to be belong to the fanatical Armed Islamic Group (GIA) which aims to overthrow the Algerian regime and replace it with a strict Islamic state.

A source in the Birmingham Algerian community said: "Mostly they help to raise funds through credit card and passport frauds but there are others who are more actively involved in organising terrorist activities."