www.heraldtribune.com The Associated Press

San Francisco Bay area gas prices are breaking records and irritating motorists, and the price is not much lower in Southern California. In San Francisco, regular unleaded fuel now costs an average of $2.19 a gallon, according to a survey by AAA of Northern California. In Oakland, gas averages $2.09 a gallon, and in San Jose it has hit $2.08. Statewide, the average price is $2.04, beating the previous record of $2.03 set in May 2001. The average price was a bit under $2.01 per gallon in the Los Angeles area and about a penny higher in Orange County. San Diego drivers were paying an average of nearly $2.04 per gallon. Over the past year, the price for self-serve regular gas has jumped an average of 67.8 cents in California. "It's ridiculous," said Sandra Cerrigan, who paid $2.23 for gas for her Land Rover at a San Francisco Chevron Station. "We're getting gouged." Prices could rise even further for the summer driving season, which begins in March, said Sean Comey, AAA spokesman. He said gas prices are typically lower in winter. California usually has higher gas prices than most other states because the state has higher fuel taxes and requires a special blend of lower-smog fuel. Nationally, gas prices averaged $1.68 Tuesday, according to AAA. The record is $1.72, set on May 15, 2001. A spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute said the higher prices are determined by crude oil prices and other factors. The price for crude oil almost reached a 12-year high last week at $36.70 a barrel. A potential war in Iraq, cold weather on the East Coast and a strike in Venezuela are blamed for pushing the price of a barrel that high. "California gasoline prices have been rising steadily for the past nine and a half weeks and increases are likely to continue," Carol Thorp, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California, said in a written statement. "The slow march to a possible war with Iraq has been the major factor in pushing up prices. Gas price reductions may be unlikely until the Iraq situation is resolved." When taking into account inflation, current gas prices still are not as high as they were two decades ago, when they hit a peak after President Reagan deregulated gas prices.

Last modified: March 05. 2003 3:07PM

www.grandforks.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 05, 2003 Associated Press

With certain exceptions - Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

Feb. 27

Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail, on Mister Rogers:

Children's programming is more flash and sizzle than substance these days, with singing dinosaurs and Power Puff Girls and mutated superheroes who blast and scorch and send chills of fear down the spine. ...

But children also love Mister Rogers, alias Fred Rogers, who on each show invited children into a shabby and comfortable living room where they would be warm and cozy, slipped on a sweater and into sneakers and sang about a beautiful day in the neighborhood. ...

From a living room set, he welcomed the mailman and puppets and people who would show how they did their jobs or how something was made, the host a comfortable and comforting mentor who actually taught children something.

But it wasn't just the practicalities of learning in which Rogers specialized. Manners were important, and speaking softly instead of raising one's voice, unless the voice is raised in laughter. He believed in simple pleasures and assumed that everyone was essentially good if given the chance to be good. ...

Mister Rogers would by no stretch ... be called reality programming, that genre that has inexplicably become so popular these days.

But oh, what a world it would be if he were.

Feb. 27

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, on the gift of life:

The rare dangers, mistakes and failures linked to organ donations got a lot of publicity lately. It was front-page news when a surgeon botched a teenage girl's heart-lung transplant, by failing to check for an incompatible blood type, and when the same girl got a second transplant that didn't save her life. ...

Jesica Santilian was only 17 when she died. ...

In an ironic twist, Jesica's parents refused to allow her organs to be donated to help someone else.

The United Network for Organ Sharing says there are only two other cases on record nationwide of mismatched organs being transplanted.

More than 80,400 patients now are on waiting lists for organ transplants, about 750 from South Florida. More than 6,300 patients die each year because a transplant is not available. Nearly 23,000 transplant operations were performed last year, but fewer than 12,000 people donated organs. ...

The organ donation system is a means to mitigate human tragedy, fight illness and ease the feelings of permanent loss after death. Organ donations save 55 lives each day.

Give the gift of life; become an organ donor.

March 3

Journal Star, Peoria, Ill., on executing Saddam Hussein:

... No doubt, it would be simpler if some sharpshooter was able to take out Saddam Hussein. If the choice is between surgically assassinating the Iraqi leader and a potentially deadly war that puts 200,000 American soldiers at risk, it's one many Americans would have little trouble making.

Yet we admit to an uneasy feeling upon hearing U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald say President Bush would authorize Saddam's assassination "if we had a clear shot." This wasn't some off-the-cuff remark by Fitzgerald. He had details about his conversation with the president, presumably while aboard Air Force One in January. He said Bush has already thought about repealing an executive order forbidding assassinations of foreign leaders. ...

Indeed, it is difficult for the United States to hold itself as a beacon of democracy and governmental self-determination while planning coups in other countries. There is a moral dimension to endorsing or facilitating murder, no matter how evil some of our opponents are. ...

In the long run, assassination is a lousy tool of foreign policy that can be counterproductive to U.S. security.

In the case of war, however, the rules change. Saddam could be a target in the U.S. effort to disrupt Iraq's command and control structure and save American lives. We've not convinced it must come to that, but neither Saddam nor President Bush seem willing to find another way.

March 5

Los Angeles Times, on Ashcroft's Russian roulette:

Last year, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft tried but failed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to buy his theory that the 2nd Amendment allows pretty much anyone to buy pretty much any gun, a view the court has consistently if infrequently rejected.

Now Ashcroft has threatened California's top firearms control official with criminal charges if the state continues to use a federal databank to hunt down those making illegal gun purchases, as it has done for years.

Ashcroft's latest decree is reckless and could emasculate this nation's gun laws, hamstring police and put the public at risk. Since 1998, firearms dealers across the country have used the Department of Justice's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, to check, supposedly within 30 seconds, whether a customer is prohibited from owning a gun because of, for example, a felony or a history of mental illness. ...

Ashcroft wants to stop such practices, believing that a gun owner's right to privacy trumps public safety. The federal Brady law, requiring the background check for handgun buyers, requires gun dealers to take one peek at an individual's criminal record. A buyer with a clean record takes the gun home. But if that same individual later commits a crime, is slapped with a restraining order or becomes mentally unstable, Ashcroft has decreed no one should know.

Ashcroft would force California law enforcement officials to play Russian roulette 7,000 times a year when they release a suspect for lack of evidence, spring a parolee from prison or discover that a judge has put a restraining order on a wife beater who has a firearm. Only, in this game, the bullets will be aimed at law-abiding citizens. ...

A large part of Ashcroft's responsibility is protecting the public, not undercutting laws that would help him do that job.

March 3

Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, on politicians and war:

such as street demonstrations and talk radio - the American debate about the war has been reasonably civil. The politicians have been restrained.

Now Republican hit man, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, of Texas, wants to change the tone. In search of a Democrat to bash, he recently settled on presidential candidate Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont. ...

The candidate insists that many options short of war remain. And he insists that Saddam Hussein is a lesser danger by far than North Korea and al-Qaida.

Rep. DeLay calls this posture "appeasement." That term is being heard more and more about opponents of the war. It makes no sense.

"Appeasement" entered the political lexicon in the days before World War II, when some people wanted to (and did) accede to Adolph Hitler's demands for new territory, in the hope that that would mollify Hitler. But Saddam isn't demanding anything.

Appeasement is simply an irrelevant and hyperbolic concept.

At any rate, until the leading doves start calling President Bush bloodthirsty or a warmonger, the hawks ought to refrain from their own name-calling. Let there be no race to the bottom of political oratory.

March 3

Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal, on new airport security measurers:

When passengers book a flight and check their bags, are they also checking their civil rights?

The government's latest action in the name of national security could be seen that way. Its new risk-detection system, called CAPPS II, assigns a "threat level" to everyone booking a commercial flight.

Transportation officials have been short on details about the computer prescreening system - how the information will be gathered and how long it will be kept - which in itself attracts concern. Ordered by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, the system will be piloted by Delta Air Lines for three months and could be comprehensively in place by the end of the year.

The system carries out instantaneous background checks on passengers, checking credit reports and bank account activity, and compares passenger names with those on government watch lists.

A long list of law enforcement and intelligence agencies would have access to the information. ...

But authorities should have this kind of information before the passenger books a flight. When the routine buying habits of Americans become part of a national database, citizens should be concerned.

Citizen concern conceivably could translate into another disincentive for choosing to fly - at the worst financial time in aviation history. United Airlines and US Airways are in bankruptcy; American Airlines appears headed that way. Eastern and Pan Am are already names of the past.

Conceivably, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System could be helping to place Delta on that at-risk list.

March 2

The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, Calif., on oil markets:

Are oil companies gouging us? Across Orange County, drivers now are paying above $2 a gallon for 91 octane and nearly $2 even for 87 octane. It was only 18 months ago that we were paying about $1.41 a gallon. Home heating oil and natural gas prices have increased just as fast.

Unfortunately, some politicians are taking advantage of the problem. "It is imperative that the Department (of Energy) and the (Bush) administration assure the American people, now and in the future, that the prices that they are paying at the gas pump and for their fuel oil are not the result of price manipulation or gouging," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., wrote on Feb. 24 to Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. ...

The volatility, of course, stems from the potential invasion of Iraq, which would disrupt world oil supplies, and the civil turmoil in Venezuela, which has shut down oil production there.

There's no "price manipulation or gouging," only market responses. ...

Markets should not take the rap for problems caused by political turmoil. As happened with the 1991 gulf war, once the political turmoil is over with, prices will drop.

March 3

Mobile (Ala.) Register, on the capture of an al-Qaida terrorist:

The capture of al-Qaida leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is both a huge blow for freedom and a strong rebuke for critics of the Bush administration.

Consider the latter issue first. For at least half a year, naysayers and political opportunists among Democrats in Congress have argued that President George W. Bush's focus on Iraq was hobbling efforts to fight the al-Qaida terrorist network.

The worst offenders charged that the administration, by supposedly doing little more than grubbing for oil in Iraq, was negligently leaving the United States vulnerable to more al-Qaida attacks of the 9-11 variety.

One prominent senator and now-presidential candidate, Bob Graham of Florida, voted no on last fall's congressional resolution authorizing military force against Saddam Hussein specifically for that reason. Sen. Graham said, in effect, that the United States couldn't fight Iraq and al-Qaida at the same time.

Mr. Graham himself is no cheap-shot artist. His positions at least have had the courage of consistency. But others in his party in recent months have picked up that same drumbeat without his level of knowledge or nuance. ...

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's arrest is the most important counterterrorist arrest, ever. ...

This is big stuff. The world is safer as a result. Next up for the cause of freedom: Take out Saddam Hussein. Because when it comes to fighting terrorists, the United States can indeed walk the walk against some and chew Saddam at the same time.

March 3

The Independent, London, on the potential war against Iraq:

On the one hand, the British Prime Minister conveys to readers of this newspaper his deeply held belief that the threat of war against Iraq is both morally right and necessary. On the other hand, the Iraqi tyrant plays a wily game, offering, partially, to disarm. It is a compelling contrast. ...

Whatever the motives of Saddam, the U.N. weapons inspectors are making some progress. Here is a moment to build on, a hint of an alternative course to war. It would be an act of willful recklessness to rush into a conflict at this point. Let us briefly rehearse the consequences. If there is war, innocent Iraqis will be killed. The terrorists will hail a recruiting agent of their dreams. The future of postwar Iraq - let alone the surrounding region - is still far from clear.

This is a moment when Mr. Blair should bend a little in order to avoid a war. He has done so before. ... In Northern Ireland he has shown considerable political courage by being flexible, patient and tolerant to preserve the peace process. Sometimes it is much bolder to be adaptable. His pragmatism has kept the peace process alive.

There is, of course, a significant difference between Northern Ireland and Iraq. When it comes to dealing with Saddam, President Bush will decide whether or not there is war. Already the president has made clear that he will go to war if there is a second U.N. resolution. The Northern Ireland precedent is of no interest to him. Sadly it appears to be of no interest to Mr. Blair either.

We are in the midst of an appalling tragedy. War over the next few weeks could be avoided, but President Bush and Mr. Blair have made up their minds and they do not seem willing to move for the sake of peace.

March 4

The Guardian, London, on the U.N. and Iraq:

The diplomatic tug-of-war over a second U.N. resolution on Iraq is turning into a charade. Three times in the past five days, George Bush has made plain his intention to overthrow the Iraqi regime, whatever the U.N. says. His aim, he said last week, was "a liberated Iraq. ... America's interest in security and America's belief in liberty both lead in the same direction." At the weekend, Mr. Bush again sketched out plans for a bright new future entirely predicated on Saddam Hussein's downfall. The U.S. president's candid although still very blurry focus on a post-Saddam settlement, rather than on disarmament, makes it clear that nothing less than physical as opposed to behavioral regime change will now suffice. U.S. determination to impose its will by force renders the U.N. debate redundant in terms of practical outcomes. It makes a mockery of the Security Council. ...

March 5

Le Monde, Paris, on the North Korean challenge:

Iraq masks a second emerging crisis, no less dangerous, perhaps even more: North Korea. The recent interception of an American spy plane in international airspace by four North Korean fighter jets over the Sea of Japan, Sunday March 2, ... gives the impression that the Korean Peninsula is skidding.

Wrong or right, North Korea feels it is the next target of Washington after Iraq; it intends to show it is not intimidated by the United States. ...

Washington insists it does not want war with North Korea and is favorable to negotiating a solution to the crisis started by the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang.

But the more the Americans delay restarting dialogue with Pyongyang, the more the process of reactivating a (nuclear) reprocessing facility in Yongbyon, capable of producing plutonium, becomes inescapable.

Feb. 28

Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, on North Korea and the United States:

North Korea, out of its growing sense of isolation, might well take such outrageous actions as test-launching ballistic missiles and starting nuclear reprocessing facilities. The Bush administration says it has no intention of attacking North Korea. But it also believes North Korea already has nuclear weapons. The United States might not hesitate to use force if it believes North Korea has the capability to conduct a nuclear attack on the U.S. mainland.

North Korea would then retaliate, throwing the Korean Peninsula into chaos. This scenario would be the worst-case nightmare for Japan as well. The danger of brinkmanship is that the perpetrator can go over the brink without even realizing it, and fall into that void itself. The United States should open direct talks with North Korea before the circumstances develop into such a stage. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should be more emphatic in urging the United States to do so. It is one thing to discuss with the other country how to end its nuclear development program and quite another to give in to nuclear blackmail.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's administration has placed the highest priority for now on a policy to advance toward resolution of North Korea's nuclear development. Cooperation between Japan and South Korea has become even more important, not only regarding North Korea, but toward the United States as well.

March 4

Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, on prospects for a U.S. attack on Iraq:

It may be weeks, if not days, before the U.S. goes to war with or without U.N. endorsement. Of course, it would be useful for Washington in political and financial terms if it wrested UN blessing.

With their massive troops and firepower already in place in the Gulf, the U.S. and its unswerving ally Britain are fighting tooth and nail to win a diplomatic battle now raging at the U.N. Security Council. The diplomatic battle may be harder than the war the U.S. is poised to wage against Iraq.

A decisive victory at the U.N. will dispel lingering doubts about the U.S. as an unchallenged diplomatic, economic and military power of the world. A vociferous opposition by France, Germany and Russia against U.S. rush into war against Iraq underlines their own frown about the American plan to be the policeman of the world.

All opponents agree with the U.S. that Iraq must comply with U.N. resolutions about disarmament. However, they realize that what makes the U.S. tack is not Iraq's purported possession of proscribed weaponry, but a consuming desire to foist its agenda on the rest of the world in this unipolar era.

March 4

Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden, on US-Iraq:

When the Baghdad regime is brought up for discussion, the sensitivity and delicacy that the Bush administration showed after Sept. 11, has turned into war drums and ultimatums.

The members of the U.N. Security Council belong to those who have been presented with a fait accompli: either you support us or we act on our own.

We've seen the result. The Turkish parliament's "no" to the stationing of U.S. troops in the country is only the latest example.

There's much at stake. The day the United States attacks Iraq on its own (or possibly with the support of Great Britain and other states), not only will the already-fragmented coalition that is needed in Iraq fall apart, but there is also the risk that the international coalition against terrorism could do the same.

And what that could lead to is best not to even think about.

March 5

Straits Times, Singapore, on the U.S. and Iraq:

Unless global sentiment changes suddenly within the next few weeks, Washington will be launching its invasion of Iraq with less support than it has ever had in its entire history. Will it matter?

In a word - yes! The problem is not winning the war - that the U.S. can do alone. Turkey's refusal to cooperate will make things difficult for the U.S., but not impossible. The problem is winning the peace - and that the U.S. cannot do alone.

For one thing, the cost of Iraqi reconstruction is likely to be prohibitively high. With the 2003-2004 U.S. budget deficit already projected to exceed US$300 billion without factoring in the cost of the Iraqi war, Washington will need all the help it can get to put a post-Saddam Iraq back on its feet.

Having raised the stakes so high - nothing less than the transformation of the entire Middle East - how is Mr Bush going to accomplish such a colossal task without the support of his key allies, let alone regional powers like Turkey?

A diplomatic strategy that ignores the doubts of many, that keeps changing the goalposts, that is endlessly flexible in the justification it offers for war - disarmament, terrorism, 'regime change,' regional transformation - is not calculated to win the confidence of the global community.

Washington has no more than two weeks to win the legitimacy that only a Security Council resolution can provide it. If it fails in this effort, it will still win the war, but its winning the peace will be in serious doubt.

March 5

La Repubblica, Rome, Italy, on war and the pope:

Can a fast stop the spiral toward war, which quickens more every day? Can a fast save peace?

To a believer, the purpose of a fast, as of a prayer, is linked to the promise and mystery of God. But for all of us, believers or not, this gesture proposed by the pope is a challenge to logic of interests, of force and of violence.

It is a political act in the highest sense of the term, because it concerns the most profound reasons of human coexistence. To fast as a personal choice, when a large part of the world risks starvation, means committing oneself to a cause and defining oneself as responsible.

It would be wrong to consider the pope's call anti-American, or as an answer to Bush's refusal of his overtures for peace. It is much more. The pope condemns terrorism along with war, refusing violence from all sides. He denies the pretenses of men and states to judge over good and bad, condemning all holy wars.

The pope's call for a fast has a strong religious meaning, coinciding with Ash Wednesday. But it is also a historical, powerful and tangible contribution to the difficult road of peace in the Iraq crisis.

www.granma.cu BY MARIA VICTORIA VALDES-RODDA —Granma International staff writer—

WITH the imperative of achieving a new Venezuelan economic model mainly benefiting a large part of the population, President Hugo Chavez has assured that his government "is ready to neutralize any intended terrorist act."

This refers to the recent attacks in the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic offices in Caracas and the failed sabotage of the oil industry in Zulia state. "Terrorism in this country will be defeated in the same way that Bolivarians put an end to last December’s strike," insisted Chavez on his "Alo Presidente" program of Sunday, March 2.

"If we have to repel the terrorists with weapons, then they will be repelled with weapons," he asserted, later stressing that such people will not get their way in Venezuela. In this context, he appealed to the ministries of defense, the interior and justice to "fulfill the sacred duty of protecting the homeland." The Venezuelan leader put the same request to the heads of garrisons.

THE GUILTY WILL BE FOUND

After the late February events that attempted to blame on the Bolivarian revolution of encouraging a climate of chaos and lack of security, Venezuelan Vice president Vicente Rangel recalled that "Venezuela is a country that does not have a history of terrorism like other countries and we are concerned about what precisely happened in the early morning of the 25 (February), because it seems to us that it is a kind of unprecedented macro neo-terrorism."

He announced that the national assembly had approved an anti-terrorist law, and in his own words: "This now obliges us to act in the light of these new circumstances, for what we are going to create is an anti-terrorist mechanism in Venezuela."

The law consists of five points and, according to PL, emphatically and unequivocally rejects the bomb attacks on the Spanish and Colombian facilities. It likewise condemns all forms of terrorism and calls on the relevant authorities to carry out effective investigations that end with the capture and sentencing of the guilty parties.

The body of the new legislation advocates for a national campaign in favor of democratic rights, human rights and peace, aimed at achieving understanding and conciliation among all social sectors.

On February 26, Rangel warned U.S. State Department spokesman Phil Reeker to "be more careful with his rhetoric." He was alluding to the Washington government’s opinions on the embassy attacks that painted Chavez as instigating violence.

UNSUCCESSFUL TERRORIST ACTIONS

In a long explanation on radio and television given during the first weekend in March, Venezuela’s leader accused the opposition of being happy with its attacks on the foreign embassies and of continuing with its tentative attempts to boycott the oil industry.

He denounced how they had sealed the valves of gas ducts en route to the Paraguaná refinery complex and that were it not for timely intervention by the National Guard, the plant’s workers and other security organizations, the plant would have exploded.

Cable dispatches datelined March 3 referred to the fact that 30,000 barrels of unleaded gasoline had been produced at the Paraguaná refinery, which experts mark as an important recovery for the sector.

Ivan Hernandez, the plant’s general manager, assured that in the first 15 days of the current month, the definitive reactivation process of the Paraguaná (the world’s largest refinery complex of its type) would be complete, allowing the country to stop importing gasoline.

PL reports that in his words on Sunday, Chavez referred to the attacks on the Colombian Consulate and the Spanish Office for Ibero American Cooperation, stressing: "There are very few people in the country who are trained in the use of explosives and those who are, we have registered.

"After the failure of the April 2002 coup, some destabilizing sectors are now placing their money on terrorism and also on attempts to paralyze the oil industry," he declared.

Nevertheless, the president affirmed that the opposition has not managed to affect the government’s good relations with friendly countries.

"The leaders of these incidents are trying to endanger links with Spain and Colombia, aiming to create international conflict; but they have not achieved their objectives and, conversely, representatives of these countries have rejected all forms of violence," highlighted Chavez.

REACTIVATING THE ECONOMY

Although the anti-terrorism fight was one of the main aspects analyzed in the president’s speech, he also touched on other topics of national interest, such as reactivating the economy.

Chavez reiterated the people’s will to move towards building a new development model, mentioning a new hydro-electrical center in Caruachi. The project is vital for generating 2.1 million kilowatts in 2005.

"Caruachi is one of the largest and most important projects in the continent and will create great economic and employment benefits for the entire Guayana region," he explained.

During his weekly radio and television program, Venezuela’s leader repeated the project’s outlines: more employment, incomes and work plus a guaranteed better quality of life for Venezuelan people.

"The time has come to transform the economic model, we have to supercede the 20th century economic model, a model that created wealth for a minority and poverty for the majority; a model based on inequality that has created unemployment and poverty; it was the model of exclusion," he emphasized.

Despite his concerns, Chavez said he had no intention of "getting rid of the country’s business class, rather to call on businesspeople to reflect."

"I call on all honest businesspeople in Venezuela to reflect. They cannot let themselves be used by coup plotters, by fascists and terrorists, because the future belongs to all Venezuelan people," concluded Chavez.

web.worldbank.orgmenuPK:34463-pagePK:34370piPK:34424theSitePK:4607,00.html Also available in : Portuguese Spanish   Press Release No: 2003/242/LAC Contacts: Alejandra Viveros (202) 473-4306 Aviveros@worldbank.org Lee Morrison  (202)-458-8741 Lmorrison1@worldbank.org

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2003.- Women in the Latin America and the Caribbean have made significant advances with regard to equality but traditional social patterns continue to undermine their participation in the labor market, and hinder the ability of households to escape from poverty, a new study of the World Bank indicates.

According to Challenges and opportunities for gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, women have made significant improvements in education and access to the labor market. However, the report indicates that there is much to be done with regard to poverty and social exclusion, reproductive health care and protection from domestic violence.

“In spite of the significant progress over the past 20 years, gender inequalities remain   an obstacle to the full development of the countries in the region,” said Maria Valéria Pena, Leader of the World Bank’s Gender Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Inequality translates into losses resulting from the unrealized potential of women’s full integration in the economy, the social and economic cost of violence against women, and the loss in human capital from maternal mortality and pregnant girls and boys who drop out of school.”

The study, which describes the most important changes in the condition of women in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past two decades and the challenges, both by region and by country, points out that even though the participation of the women in the formal economy has continued to increase, there are still obstacles -especially those in rural areas and affecting indigenous women.

Overall, the participation of women in the labor market continues to be much lower than that of men. In Brazil, 56 percent of women take part in the labor market; in Chile, 44 percent; Colombia 56 percent, Mexico 43 percent and Peru 55 percent, while in all of these countries the participation of men is over 88 percent 

Although the salary divide between genders has narrowed considerably in many countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico, women earn less than men in all countries of the region with the exception of Costa Rica. In Argentina, women earn 98 percent of what men earn, in Mexico 89 percent, in Colombia 84 percent, in Peru 80 percent, 77 percent in Brazil and Chile, in El Salvador 74 percent, and in Nicaragua 64 percent.

Factors contributing to this phenomenon include the large-scale participation of women in the service sector, which is generally the most poorly paid sector of the economy. What’s more, women are generally the ones who are responsible for caring for their families, often leading to a higher turnover rate in the labor force and a preference for part-time work.

“Even though Latin American women have almost reached the same level of education as men, and in some countries have even surpassed them, they continue to participate less in the labor market and earn less than men”, writes María Elena Ruiz Abril, author of the World Bank report. “This is a fundamental issue that should be addressed by public policies”.

This situation is all the more acute for rural women, since they also deal with high fertility rates, a high number of dependents and lack of access to land. Although access to land has significantly increased in countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile and El Salvador, Mexico is the country with the region’s biggest gender gap in land ownership, with women only holding 21 percent of all land titles.

The report shows that women, especially older women and heads of household, are more vulnerable to poverty. Accordingly, discrimination concerning access to education and to health care puts indigenous women at a disadvantage at the same time they are fighting against poverty and social exclusion.

“In order to address poverty in Latin American households, we need policies and programs aimed at redressing gender inequalities, since they will benefit not only women, but their families and the Latin American society as a whole,” said Ernesto May, World Bank Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in Latin America and the Caribbean..

To do this, the report recommends labor policies aimed at reducing the barriers that women face, particularly, poor women, when attempting to enter the job market. These policies include increasing the number of daycare centers, providing family planning services, and a more equitable distribution of the workload at home.

With regard to health care, the document points out that even though maternal mortality has decreased in most countries, it continues to be women’s principal healthcare problem, above all in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. AIDS, in turn, has become one of the most serious problems in the Caribbean, where men and women suffer from a similar level of infection.

In education, the gap between men and women has been closing in all countries in the region, and in some, women have reached a higher level of education than men, such as in Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Colombia. This is due to the fact that fewer boys enroll in school and leave school more frequently in order to help their families economically. However, during economic crises, it is the daughters that parents are more likely to take out of school.

For its part, the study emphasizes that domestic violence “remains a challenge for countries across the region”, with Haiti being the country with the highest rate of the female population affected (70 percent). According to the document, “the risk of physical abuse for women decreases with household income level and years of completed schooling, and increases with marriage and, disturbingly, with  women’s independent income in certain countries.” 

The document explains that even though there are some gender problems that are shared in most of the countries in the region, such as maternal mortality, these same countries often have their own unique development challenges related to gender.

While access to the labor market is the main problem for Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela, in Colombia it is domestic violence, and in Guyana, French Guiana and Surinam, maternal mortality. Argentina has problems related to the job market and teenage pregnancy; in Brazil, the labor market and maternal mortality are the foremost problems; in Central America, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay, the main problems are maternal mortality and domestic violence; in Bolivia, they are maternal mortality and teenage pregnancy and in the Caribbean, AIDS and domestic violence are the greatest problems.

### 

To read Challenges and opportunities for gender equality in Latin American and the Caribbean online, please click here: 

For more information about the World Bank’s work in Gender in the Latin America and Caribbean region, please visit: www.worldbank.org/lacgender

www.duluthsuperior.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 05, 2003 Associated Press

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Alex Escobar is eager to quit thinking about passing the next test and just play baseball naturally.

"I haven't been 100 percent for so long, I'm not sure right now what that feels like," Escobar said Wednesday after participating in base-running drills at the Cleveland Indians' training camp. "I can feel improvement every day, but I don't consider myself completely back until I don't wear a brace on my knee."

It has been just over a year since Escobar hurt his left knee when he ran into the center-field wall March 4, 2002, in an exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Fla.

Before the injury, the 24-year-old outfielder was considered one of the brightest prospects in the game. Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said he would not have made the multi-player trade that sent All-Star second baseman Roberto Alomar to the New York Mets without getting Escobar.

Shapiro's insistence came from seeing Escobar bat .310 with 27 homers and 49 stolen bases in Class A ball in 1998, then rise through the Mets system. Escobar hit three homers in 18 games in his first trial in the majors in 2001.

"We regard Alex as a five-tool player, so the injury was a major setback and very frustrating," Shapiro said. "But Alex may have had the best outlook of anybody. I remember talking to him the next day and he was proud of the catch. He said, 'It was a great catch.' He was more concerned with making the play."

Escobar made a similar catch in a game Monday against Tampa Bay.

"It was just like the one I got hurt on," he said. "I took the test and I passed. I didn't even think of it at the time. Later, I said, 'Hey, that happened the same way, I hit the warning track then hit the wall.'

"To make that catch without thinking about it was a big step."

On Tuesday, he returned to Bradenton against the Pirates on the one-year anniversary of the injury.

"That was just a coincidence and I really didn't think about it because I know my knee is fine," Escobar said. "It is more the mental side that I'm overcoming now. I can't think about how I will catch a ball. It has to happen naturally and I am back doing that every time."

Escobar didn't go out to the wall and curse it or hit it with a bat.

"I'm too busy working on getting into shape to do things like that," he said.

Manager Eric Wedge said Escobar likely will begin the season at Triple-A Buffalo, wearing a knee brace and getting as many at-bats as possible to regain his hitting stroke.

"We'll see how things play out with Alex in terms of how much time he gets in the outfield," Wedge said. "We want a completely healthy Alex. At some point, the brace will come off - but not until it is time."

Escobar said that he will make that decision.

"The person who has to say when is me," he said. "Tuesday, I did some light jogging and sprints without it. It felt pretty good and I'm going to do it again this afternoon. Hopefully I can throw that brace away later this month.

"I still consider myself fast. Maybe with a brand new knee, I'll be even faster."

Coach Al Bumbry said he judges Escobar's conditioning on the way the slender outfielder looks after a workout.

"There hasn't been any problem for him in the outfield or on the bases," Bumbry said. "I watch him afterwards. I've seen him with a little more energy, not dragging, after practice."

Escobar said he works on conditioning with the understanding that his talents are still there.

"The other things, hitting, throwing, are natural instincts," he said. "They will come around the more I just get out and play.

Escobar could not play winter ball as planned in his native Venezuela due to political unrest this year.

"The day I was to start, they shut down the league," he said. "I was more concerned for my family because you don't know what is going to happen."