www.duluthsuperior.com Posted on Thu, Mar. 13, 2003 Associated Press

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Victor Martinez knows what's coming. The Cleveland Indians catcher is one of the brightest young prospects in baseball.

Some have compared the 24-year-old's potential to that of New York Mets All-Star Mike Piazza. The hard-hitting Martinez has been named Most Valuable Player in the Class A Carolina League and the Class AA Eastern League the last two seasons.

However, any day now, Martinez will be told he's being sent to the minor leagues.

The Indians want him to spend some time at Triple-A Buffalo, sharpening his ability to call the appropriate pitches and improving his prowess for throwing out baserunners and blocking errant deliveries.

But, Martinez also knows he will be back soon. Probably to stay.

"My part is to work hard and let them (the Indians front office) make the decisions," Martinez said. "I think going to Buffalo would be good for me. I need to catch some more veteran pitchers and be around more veteran players. I need to work on my defense and my throwing. That's the main thing for me."

As good as Martinez is, he's not yet a finished product. For Indians opponents, that's a scary thing. He had been a shortstop as a teenager in Venezuela when spotted by Cleveland scout Luis Aponte.

It was during the next summer, 1997, when Martinez was converted to catcher. The transition was not a smooth one.

"The first pitch I ever received, I caught with my eyes closed," Martinez recalled with a grin. "The coach told me that maybe I should keep my eyes open. The first time I saw a pitch hit the ground, I just got out of the way."

Martinez eventually got the hang of his new position. That's why he furrows his brow a bit when asked about being switched to third base. The Indians have no fast-rising young prospect there and they already possess a promising young catcher in Josh Bard.

"They haven't talked to me at all about it," Martinez said. "I feel like I've gotten better as a catcher. And to get there has taken a lot of work."

Indians manager Eric Wedge, a former catcher, said he has seen Martinez come along well this spring.

"Victor has made significant strides defensively," Wedge said. "We're very happy with the progress he's made in a short period of time. Getting better as a hitter won't take a lot of work."

Indians general manager Mark Shapiro has said Martinez is ready to hit in the big leagues. He has accumulated a .281 career average in the minors and has won minor-league batting titles in 2001 (.329) and 2002 (.336).

His power appears to be developing as well, going from four home runs in 1999 to 10 in 2001 and 23 last year. Indians fans will be able to observe that power at some point in 2003. It may not be on opening day, but Martinez's time will come.

"I'm just going to play hard and see what happens," Martinez said. "You just have to wait for your chance."

Notes:@ 2B John McDonald was scheduled to undergo an MRI on his strained left knee. McDonald, battling rookie Brandon Phillips for the starting job, injured his knee during a "B" game on Sunday. McDonald was kept out of action for three days but is still having pain in his knee.

www.voanews.com VOA News 13 Mar 2003, 16:54 UTC

Roy Chaderton MatosVenezuela's Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton Matos says he fears an attempt may be made to assassinate President Hugo Chavez.

Mr. Chaderton Wednesday accused the media in Venezuela and other countries of calling for the murder of Mr. Chavez. He also alleged that political opponents of Mr. Chavez have pushed for an assassination.

Mr. Chaderton did not immediately provide evidence to support his allegations.

Mr. Chaderton made the comments to reporters in the Colombian capital Bogota, where he attended a meeting of foreign and defense ministers of seven Latin American countries.

The nations on Wednesday signed a pledge to work together to combat terrorism and drug trafficking. The meeting included officials from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

www.firstcoastnews.com

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- A surge in world oil output last month has left producer countries with too little spare capacity to fully offset a wartime halt in supplies from Iraq, the International Energy Agency warned Wednesday. Output increased 2.5 percent worldwide in February and oil inventories tightened in major importing nations, the agency said. Fears of a U.S.-led attack on Iraq propelled prices to their highest levels since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. International oil markets are "running on empty" as war clouds gather again in the Gulf, the agency said in its monthly oil market report. "A further supply disruption would tax a system operating at close to capacity," the report said. The only reliable cushion for consumers may be the 4 billion barrels in strategic stocks of crude that IEA members have amassed for use in an emergency, it added.

The agency issued its grim assessment a day after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to leave its oil production quotas unchanged at 24.5 million barrels a day. OPEC, which pumps about a third of the world's crude, made clear that it would boost its output to try to cover any shortfall arising from a war. The IEA is the energy watchdog of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of the world's wealthiest oil-importing countries. While highlighting many causes for concern in oil markets, the IEA expects that the end of winter - the peak season for heating oil sales - will reduce demand for crude by about 1.6 million barrels a day. Such a decrease would in itself offset a loss of Iraq's current exports under the U.N. oil-for-food program, the report said. The IEA acknowledged efforts by OPEC and independent producers to put additional crude on the market. World production rose in February by 1.96 million barrels a day to 79.41 million barrels, and OPEC contributed more than three-fourths of the increase, the agency said. OPEC member Venezuela boosted its daily production by 850,000 barrels as its oil industry continued to recover from a crippling strike. Saudi Arabia's output grew by 330,000 barrels a day, and of OPEC's 11 members, only Iraq and Indonesia failed to pump at higher levels last month, the report said. "If the IEA's numbers for OPEC production in February are correct, there's a lot of oil on the water that should be hitting inventories in a few weeks. That's the good news for consumers," said Adam Sieminski, an oil price strategist at Deutsche Bank in London. Sieminski agreed that OPEC's limited amount of spare capacity could be a problem if markets suffer a serious supply disruption. Most producers are pumping all they can, and only Saudi Arabia - with the world's biggest oil reserves - has significant room to pump more. OPEC claims to have 2 million to 4 million barrels in additional production capacity. The IEA argued that OPEC's "effective spare capacity" - the additional crude it could produce on short notice - was much smaller. The agency said OPEC's effective spare capacity fell last month to 1.72 million barrels a day from 2.37 million barrels in January, as the cartel produced more oil to make up for the outage from Venezuela. With OPEC increasing production to cash in on current high prices, this extra capacity has probably diminished in March to fewer than 1 million barrels a day, the report said. It warned that OPEC would therefore be unable to quickly cover a war-induced shortfall from Iraq, which produced 2.49 million barrels a day in February. If U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq during the second half of March, the IEA suggested that it would be May before OPEC could offset the shortfall. U.S. spot prices for light, sweet crude climbed by an average of 8.4 percent in February to $35.75 a barrel, while futures prices peaked at $39.99 on Feb. 27. The average spot price of North Sea Brent, the European benchmark crude, rose by 4.3 percent to $32.67, the report said. Projected oil demand for 2003 is 78.01 million barrels a day. A cold winter and greater industrial use of crude in Asia and North America kept demand strong in January, and seasonal demand should fall by 1.6 million barrels a day in the spring, the IEA said. "I think that's a vast underestimate," said Kevin Norrish, head of commodities research at Barclays Capital. He argued that high crude prices are discouraging consumption and slowing economic growth. "The risk has got to be that we'll see a very, very steep fall in demand in the second quarter," Norrish said, echoing OPEC's fears of a possible drop in prices if Iraqi exports resume quickly after a war. On Wednesday, April contracts of U.S. light, sweet crude rose $1.11 to $37.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On the International Petroleum Exchange in London, April Brent rose 62 cents to $33.91 a barrel.

www.bloomberg.com Top News Sat, 15 Mar 2003, 10:08am EDT By Morag MacKinnon

Sydney, March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Australian bonds and the currency had their biggest losing week of the year as the U.S. struggled to win support from the United Nations Security Council to give Iraq an ultimatum to disarm.

The Australian dollar this week shed more than 2 U.S. cents, ending its run as the world's best-performing currency in 2003 in its worst week against the U.S. dollar since September 2001. Bonds fell, pushing yields to their biggest weekly gain since Jan. 3. Stocks gained on the week.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond dropped to a two-year low earlier this week as investors sought debt's haven on speculation the U.S. may lead a military attack on Iraq as soon as next week. In response to opposition from Security Council members, the Bush administration yesterday signaled it may extend diplomatic efforts to disarm Iraq, sending yields higher.

``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 0.620, or A$6.20 per A$1,000 face amount, to 109.109 at 5:25 p.m. in Sydney. Its yield rose 8 basis points to 5.33 percent, a 19 basis point gain on the week. The yield on the 7.5 percent bond maturing in July 2005 rose 9 basis points to 4.56 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

The Australian dollar bought 59.53 U.S. cents. The currency has lost almost 3 percent of its value against the dollar this week.

``Extra Mile''

President George W. Bush ``is willing to go the extra mile for diplomacy,'' and debate on a United Nations ultimatum for Iraq may go into next week, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday.

Speculation about a U.S.-led attack on Iraq had spurred demand for the safest securities. Australian government bonds maturing in between 7 and 10 years have returned investors 9.6 percent this year, while Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index has dropped 8.4 percent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 stock index today had its biggest one- day gain since Aug. 7. It closed the week higher for the fourth time this year. Gains in stocks crimped demand for the safety of government debt.

The markets have anticipated a fair amount of war risk,'' said Julian Foxall, who helps manage A$8 billion ($4.8 billion) in global bonds at Pimco Australia Ltd. Pimco Australia is part of Pacific Investment Management Co., a unit of Allianz AG. They just want to lighten up on that risk position.''

www.forbes.com Reuters, 03.13.03, 12:33 PM ET By Susan Schneider NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - Latin American sovereign bonds climbed on Thursday as signals the United States may extend its diplomatic drive to win support for a military strike on Iraq fueled a buying spree in U.S. equities and set a rosy tone for the broader region. Brazil's share of J.P. Morgan's Emerging Market Bond Index Plus added 1.28 percent in daily returns, as the country's benchmark C bond <BRAZILC=RR> notched 0.625 points higher to 78.25 bid. The bonds of Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru also rose, giving the J.P. Morgan index a gain of 0.12 percent on the day. The climb in Latin American bonds came after White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said a vote on a United Nations resolution opening the door to an invasion of Iraq could spill over into next week. The United States is facing fierce resistance to the war in the U.N. Security Council and even possible no votes from the veto-wielding countries of France and Russia. "This morning there are stories out of the White House that diplomacy will go on until next week," said Paul Masco, head of emerging market trading at Salomon Smith Barney. "It looks like there are two things: war is not necessarily going to happen immediately and, secondly, if it does happen, it will happen with more of a coalition in place than we would have thought a few days ago," he said. So far, only the United States, Britain, Spain and Bulgaria support a resolution giving Iraq just a few days to disarm. The United States and Britain are pushing hard to sew up nine of the 15 Security Council votes, support that would likely enable the nations to argue they have a moral victory to undertake a war even if the resolution were vetoed. U.S. officials said on Wednesday they thought that three Africa votes on the council -- Guinea, Angola and Cameroon -- were leaning their way, but Guinea said on state radio it might abstain from the vote. Chile, Pakistan and Mexico are also undecided, while Russia, France, China, Germany and Syria oppose the resolution. Investors fear a U.S.-led conflict would wreak havoc on an already weak U.S. economy so they take heart from any suggestion that a conflict may be short-lived or postponed. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added nearly 2 percent in the wake of the White House news, while the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gained 1.8 percent. The bonds of market heavyweight Brazil have largely resisted the geopolitical angst generated by the Iraqi war uncertainty as investors cheer new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's push for structural reforms. The nation's debt has surged more than 16 percent so far this year, bolstered by Lula's avowed overhauls of the social security and tax systems. While some investors have questioned how far Brazilian bonds can rise without a resolution to the Iraqi standoff, the debt continues to benefit from investors on the hunt for higher yielding bonds, traders said. "There was a seller out of Russia that went into Brazil," helping buoy Brazil, said an emerging debt trader. "And I think people are more confident -- the market going up always brings buyer." Among other Latin American sovereign bond issuers, Ecuador jumped 3.34 percent in terms of daily returns, while Colombia added 0.39 percent. Venezuela gained 0.1 percent and Peru moved 0.8 percent higher on the day, according to the EMBI-Plus. (Reporting by Susan Schneider; editing by Caroline Valetkevitch; Reuters Messaging: susan.schneider.reuters.com@reuters.net, tel: +1 646 223 6319)