www.bloomberg.com Fri, 14 Mar 2003, 10:22am EDT By Morag MacKinnon

Sydney, March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Australian bonds tumbled, sending yields to a two-month high, after the U.S. signaled it may extend diplomatic efforts to disarm Iraq. Gains in stock futures crimped demand for the safety of government debt.

President George W. Bush is open to extending into next week diplomatic efforts and he seeks a diplomatic solution'' to the confrontation with Iraq, his top aides said. Bush is willing to go the extra mile for diplomacy'' and debate on the Iraq resolution at the United Nations may go into next week, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

``The more conciliatory tone we are seeing from the White House has encouraged people to diminish their expectations for war which is seeing equities bid and bonds sold,'' said Greg McKenna, a market strategist at National Australia Bank Ltd.

The 6.5 percent bond maturing in May 2013 fell 1.249, or A$12.49 per A$1,000 amount, to 108.480 at 8:43 a.m. in Sydney. Its yield rose 15 basis points to 5.4 percent, its highest since Jan. 16. The yield on the 7.5 percent bond maturing in July 2005 rose 14 basis points to 4.62 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentagepoint.

The futures contract for Australia's S&P/ASX 200 stock index due in March jumped 1.7 percent.

Speculation about a U.S.-led attack on Iraq has spurred demand for the safest securities while Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 stock index has dropped 10.4 percent this year.

The Australian dollar bought 59.46 U.S. cents compared with 59.40 U.S. cents in late Asian trading. The currency has lost 3 percent of its value this week.

``We've had the clean out that we needed,'' said McKenna, who forecasts the currency will extend its 6 percent gain this year and rise as high as 65 U.S. cents by June. He recommends buying the currency when it dips to around 59 U.S. cents.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Pro-government parliamentarians say answers to April 11-14 deaths, looting and other incidents depend on public powers.

Speaking after a forum entitled '11 Months After', Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputy Dario Vivas says the forum is the threshold to the Americas Social Forum scheduled for April 11-14 in Venezuela.

International organizers describe it as "a chance to build up a network of solidarity with the Bolivarian process … in addition to a cultural and artistic celebration of the victory over the coup, the core of the event will be an international forum on the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution, the enemies of that Revolution and the struggle against neoliberal globalization.” Poet of the Revolution, MVR deputy Tarek William Saab forecasts that the forum will the best way to seek the truth about April 11.

www.upi.com By Hil Anderson UPI Chief Energy Correspondent From the National Desk Published 3/12/2003 6:41 PM

LOS ANGELES, March 12 (UPI) -- Oil prices moved ever higher on Wednesday after closely watched weekly inventory reports showed the United States' oil supply fell nearly 4 million barrels last week as crude imports declined by more than 1 million barrels per day.

The news contributed to a jump of $1.11 for April crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday and an increase of more than 70 cents on London's International Petroleum Exchange.

"Crude oil imports have averaged over 8.3 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, but this is still 300,000 barrels per day less than averaged during the same four-week period last year," the Energy Information Administration said. "Although the origins of weekly crude oil imports are very preliminary ... imports from Venezuela over the last two weeks appear to be much closer to pre-strike levels than earlier in the year."

The agency reported last week's total imports averaged 7.6 million barrels per day. Modern supertankers generally have a cargo capacity of nearly 2 million barrels.

The news, coming at a time that the United States is poised to launch a war in the Persian Gulf, contributed to Wednesday's upward momentum on NYMEX that carried April crude to $37.83 per barrel, a level not seen since Iraq's brief occupation of Kuwait in 1990. Prices were expected to test $38 per barrel during after-hours trading.

April heating oil gained a half-cent to $1.0352 per gallon while April gasoline settled at $1.145 per gallon, up 1.58 cents.

Oil has been extremely volatile to the upside ever since the United States and Iraq began moving toward a military confrontation. Gasoline prices in the United States have reached virtual record levels of $1.706 per gallon, according to AAA, with California averaging a whopping $2.119.

The EIA said that U.S. gasoline stocks fell 4.1 million barrels last week and remained "below the low end of the normal range," while crude supplies in the Midwest continued to bump along at slightly above the lowest level recorded since the EIA began keeping supply records in 1989.

This year's low supply and high prices have been used to bolster the Bush administration's goal of increasing domestic petroleum production, particularly in the pristine Alaskan wilderness where environmentalists fear wildlife could suffer a devastating blow to their habitat.

The Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that the North Slope's caribou population had boomed since oil production in the region began in the 1970s. The announcement was followed Wednesday by an Interior press release calling the protected Arctic National Wildlife Reserve the most-promising area in the nation for potential oil production.

"The Coastal Plain of ANWR's 1002 area is the nation's single greatest onshore oil reserve," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in the statement. "The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that it contains a mean expected value of 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. To put that into context, the potential daily production from ANWR's 1002 area is larger than the current daily onshore oil production of any of the lower 48 states."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Opposition hardliner, former Patria Para Todo leader, Carlos Nieto, who now heads the Ventana por la Libertad NGO, has challenged the government’s record on prison reform.

Arguing that the government moves only when the media splashes a story, Nieto says reforms fell through ... not because of the lack of international financing but due to negligence ... “several governments have already contributed $90 million between them.“

Nieto points to 10 million euros from the European Union (EU) to finance a penitentiary project led by MIJ official Jose Antonio Moreta and $90 million from the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) to finance prison projects.

“The MIJ has done nothing on either project … the money has been there for several years … IADB has an office at the MIJ Rehabilitation & Custody Department in El Platanal.”

Apart from the above contributions, Nieto adds that the British Embassy in Caracas had financed a project to train prison wardens … “it’s been wasted because nothing was done.”

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister, General (ret.) Lucas Rincon Romero has been quick off the mark to redress long-standing complaints from Venezuela’s prison inmates installing the first of special control tribunals to tackle a backlog of pending cases.

Arriving by helicopter to Carabobo’s Tocuyito jail at 9.00 a. m., Rincon Romero inspected administrative and inmate areas, as well as the women inmates' wing.

At 1.35 p.m. International Human Rights Committee Ombudsman for Latin America Juan Carlos Betancourt arrived at the prison with Zoraida Carillo to undertake a short report on the state of delayed legal processes and to establish responsibilities for delays ... but the National Guard (GN) did not let them in.

Rincon Romero has announced that the prisoners have agreed to lift their hunger strike.

The tribunals started working today at 10.00 a.m. and it has been announced that State Attorney Armando Paredes will coordinate the installation of the prisons tribunals.