icwales.icnetwork.co.uk Mar 11 2003 The Western Mail - The National Newspaper Of Wales   OIL and gas services provider John Wood Group yesterday said the looming war in Iraq was unlikely to have a significant impact on its operations.

The company, which designs and manages oil and gas projects in 34 countries, said it only expected to be hurt by the conflict if war spread across the wider Gulf region.

The company had been hit by the continuing general strike in Venezuela.

But both Iraq and Venezuela could provide medium-term growth opportunities, Wood Group said.

Wood, which said its markets were expected to grow by 5% in 2003, said it looked to the future with confidence after unveiling a 36% rise in 2002 pre-tax profits.

Sales in the year to December 31 rose by 14% to $1.7bn (£1.1bn) with pre-tax profits up $114.7m (£71.8m) from $1.5bn (£0.9bn) last time.

Chairman Sir Ian Wood said, "These results confirm the success of our strategy, with our broad geographic coverage, business spread across the energy sector and focus on less cyclical activities within oil and gas providing both growth and financial resilience.

"We are well positioned to continue the very successful Wood Group story and we look to the future with confidence."

Based in Aberdeen, Wood Group listed on the London Stock Exchange in May 2002 in what was the largest Scottish flotation for nine years.

Shares gained 6p yesterday, or more than 4%, to 148p. Shareholders will also receive 1.2p a share final dividend, making a maiden total dividend of 1.8p.

www.alertnet.org 10 Mar 2003 23:38

WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - A human rights body on Monday painted an alarming picture of human rights abuses in Venezuela with accusations that armed groups were intimidating opponents with "impunity" and that the government was doing little to stop it.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, said some police groups were involved in "extrajudicial executions" amid a backdrop of increasing political tensions there.

Venezuela is deeply divided between supporters of President Hugo Chavez, a fiery populist, and his foes, who organized an unsuccessful strike in an effort to force him to call early elections or resign.

Street clashes between the two sides have left 40 dead and over 750 wounded between March of last year and early January, according to the commission, which said the situation in Venezuela as one of "extreme political polarization."

"The commission observes ... the impunity that characterizes human rights violations in Venezuela, without consideration for state's obligation to investigate and sanction those responsible" for abuses, it said in a statement.

Failure to investigate rights violations would lead to "grave consequences" for the rule of law.

The commission's long list of concerns ranged from harassment of rights activists to a proposed bill that would curtail freedom of the press. It also said that "armed civil groups" carry out political violence and it expressed concern for "the impunity that they enjoy."

Police forces in the interior provinces of the country were involved in "extermination groups," mostly in the interior of Venezuela. Over one-hundred extrajudicial executions have been reported in the state of Portuguesa, according to the commission.

The commission is an autonomous body of the OAS, which brings together 34 countries in Caribbean, North and South America. On Friday, the commission concluded a three-week session, which included testimonies on Venezuela by civil groups, human rights organizations and government officials.

The statement comes as diplomats from six countries --Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and the United States-- met in Brasilia on Monday to find ways to give the stalled talks between the government and the opposition a new start.

reuters.com Mon March 10, 2003 07:08 PM ET By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of Colombia's most powerful drug traffickers pleaded guilty on Monday to heading a cartel that smuggled massive amounts of cocaine into the United States and hid hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.

Alberto Orlandez Gamboa, 47, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, drug smuggling and money laundering in Manhattan federal court. He faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison and a possible maximum of a life term and millions of dollars in fines. Sentencing was scheduled for May 27.

The federal indictment charged that he led an organization based in the coastal city of Barranquilla that smuggled cocaine to Europe, Central America and the United States, where it went to New York, Miami and Philadelphia.

It said the organization sometimes shipped cocaine in crates of mustard and cough medicine to mask its odor. It was also hidden in shipments of engine parts, cement, and sometimes inside ceramic tiles.

The indictment said that the profits were hidden in various ways. In one case, more than $11 million was found hidden in hollowed-out truck transmissions in a shipping container destined for Venezuela from Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.

U.S. authorities said Orlandez Gamboa also went by the alias of Caracol and that his name was sometimes spelled Orlande Gamboa.

He had been scheduled to go on trial on Monday for leading conspiracies to import thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drug proceeds.

Orlandez Gamboa was extradited to the United States in 2000 from Colombia, where he had been arrested in 1998. If he is eventually released from U.S. prison, he could be deported to Colombia.

Although he had initially pleaded not guilty to the U.S. charges, he changed his plea after a federal appeals court issued a critical ruling against him last month.

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that incriminating statements he made in Colombia to local authorities during unsuccessful plea talks there could be used as evidence in his New York trial.

The statements were made in 1999 when the U.S. government began seeking his extradition. In an effort to remain in Colombia, Orlandez Gamboa made certain admissions to Colombian authorities in the hopes of reaching a deal that would allow his case to proceed there.

He was among the first Colombian nationals extradited from that country to the United States after the Colombian government eliminated the ban on extradition in 1997.

The crimes to which Orlandez Gamboa pleaded guilty began in 1996, however authorities said he began leading the cartel of large-scale traffickers in 1990 or earlier and kept running the group while in prison during 1998.

The indictment charged that he kept his leadership role by directing others to commit bribery and acts of violence, including carrying out kidnappings and assassinations of rival drug dealers.

www.upi.com By Bradley Brooks UPI Business Correspondent From the Business & Economics Desk Published 3/10/2003 7:05 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, March 10 (UPI) -- Brazil is leading the Latin American bond market to its biggest rally in more than four years, largely because of a socialist president's surprisingly austere financial moves.

While analysts are concerned a war in Iraq will damage emerging economies in numerous ways -- high oil prices spiking inflation, stock markets bottoming further -- those who follow bond markets say military action might actually aid the bond sector, as investors abandon equities for government debt.

"Clearly, the higher aversion to risk from the Iraqi war uncertainty is combining with a realization of the remarkable returns emerging market bonds have given in the last three to five years," said Brad Durham, director of fund research at the Boston-based EmergingPortfolio.com.

"It's really exceeded about all other asset classes out there."

Developing countries such as Russia, Brazil and Mexico -- the top three emerging-market bond issuers, according to Durham -- have seen their debt become attractive in the last six months as investors leaving turbulent equities are lured by the high returns on bonds.

Since October, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s EMBI Global bond index has shot up 19 percent, with many nations gaining each month since that time. Not since 1998, just before Russia's default, have emerging bond markets seen such sustained success.

"I really think risk aversion plays into the hands of the emerging bond markets," Durham said. "It hurts equities, but it plays toward fixed income, just as being a safer investment, a safer asset class."

According to Durham's research, emerging-market bonds brought in $380 million net in the first seven weeks of this year -- about triple the year-earlier period.

Driving investors to emerging bond markets as well are the slim returns on U.S. Treasurys. Emerging market debt such as Brazil's benchmark 8 percent bond due 2014 yields 14 percent, or about three times as much U.S. bonds, too good an option for investors to pass up with anemic equities worldwide.

These returns are finally being noticed, analysts say.

"Emerging market bond funds have had a remarkable performance in the last five years, yet in every year up until 2002, investors were pulling money out," Durham said.

"At some point in 2002 there was a sentiment shift, a realization that this asset class has provided phenomenal returns -- something like 17 percent annual returns in the last five years."

For Brazil in particular, the shift was dramatic.

The country's bond lost one-third of its value in the first nine months of 2002, as investors fretted over the campaign and then election of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist many feared would drive the country to default on its $240 billion debt.

Before the election, Brazil's bond sunk to 44 cents on the dollar, yielding 28 percent.

Since that time, it has risen to 75.88 cents, yielding 14.55 percent. Fitch Ratings on Monday raised its outlook on Brazilian debt to stable from negative.

One New York fixed-income strategist said that Brazil's rise is attributable to the surprising continuity in government policies Lula's first months have offered, and the notion that bluer skies are ahead for emerging debt.

"The assumption here is that once the war is over the market will do well, so we're seeing anticipation of that in Brazil," the strategist said.

"A lot of people are saying maybe Brazil has gone as far as it can go, but some people are obviously betting the opposite, as the run there has shown."

Not all emerging market bonds are faring so well, which analysts say is consistent with growing sophistication on the part of investors in terms of recognizing individual country risk.

The most striking example is that of Brazil and its neighbor Argentina, which defaulted in December 2001.

But there is also the case of Venezuela, where the struggle between President Hugo Chavez and his detractors has sent foreign capital fleeing.

Also, Uruguay's bond markets aren't exactly bouncing, as investors see that the country felt the brunt of Argentina's meltdown.

"Latin external credit markets have decoupled decisively of late from Latin local markets," a Morgan Stanley report this week indicated, highlighting the difference between Brazilian bonds and equities.

"Inflows into external debt funds continue and their deployment contributes to the sustenance of the credit rally."

Morgan Stanley did indicate it sees some sort of corrections as probable, either in a credit sell-off or cash being directed towards equity markets if and when they improve.

Durham said as well that despite a war with Iraq being priced into markets and actually spurring investors into bonds, a more protracted conflict could eventually hurt emerging market debt.

"Emerging markets, just because of the reputation they have for volatility, could see a flipside there," he said.

"But I don't really see much of a plummet, even in equities, after a war begins. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something of a rally."

sg.biz.yahoo.com Tuesday March 11, 6:53 AM By Andrew Dowell Dow Jones Newswires

NEW YORK -- U.S. pump prices climbed higher yet again in the week ended Monday, with gasoline just missing an all-time high and diesel setting a new record, according to the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.

Gasoline prices gained in every region of the country, pushing the U.S. average price of retail gas up 2.6 cents to $1.712 a gallon, 48.9 cents above the year-ago average and just shy of the $1.713 record set in May. California prices led the way, with that state's average up 7.2 cents to $2.084, 63 cents higher than a year earlier.

The U.S. average price of diesel set a record for the fourth-straight week, climbing 1.8 cents to $1.771 a gallon. Diesel prices are now up 55.5 cents from a year ago and have risen 29.3 cents, or 20%, in the past eight weeks.

The EIA has said it expects U.S. retail gasoline prices to set an all-time high in spring and peak in April at $1.76 a gallon. Soaring prices have already prompted several politicians to ask questions about market manipulation, as well as raising concerns additional pressure is being put on U.S. consumers as the economy struggles to mount a sustained recovery.

Industry analysts say pump prices have been pushed up by costly crude oil, which has risen 56% in the past year to near 12-year highs on concerns about supply disruptions in the event of war with Iraq, reduced output from Venezuela due to a strike and inventories that are running near the bottom of what are considered sustainable levels.

Crude-oil costs account for about half of the pump price of a gallon of gasoline or diesel, the EIA noted.

The agency has also said high prices are likely to persist, as there isn't enough crude flowing through the system to enable inventories of petroleum products and the crude from which they are produced to recover simultaneously.

While gasoline prices are up throughout the country, California's consumers have seen the sharpest spikes, a result of hiccups in the state's transition to gas blended with ethanol. The low-evaporation blend required for summer use is particularly difficult to get right, as the higher volatility of ethanol has to be counteracted, analysts have said.

California's pump prices are easily the highest in the country, running at least 40 cents a gallon over other regions. Prices on the West Coast as a whole increased 6.1 cents on the week at $1.993 a gallon.

Prices in the politically sensitive Midwest region rose 2.6 cents to $1.690 a gallon. Attorneys general in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa asked the Federal Trade Commission Friday to look into whether market manipulation has played a role in the rising prices.

Gasoline was cheapest on the Gulf Coast, the heart of the country's refining industry, where the average gained 1.3 cents to $1.592 a gallon.

Diesel prices climbed in every region but the Gulf Coast, where they fell 0.3 cent to $1.697 a gallon. Prices were highest on the West Coast, where they shot up 8.1 cents to $1.886 a gallon.

-By Andrew Dowell, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4430; andrew.dowell@dowjones.com