See Source 08:59 PM EST Mar 28 MALCOLM MORRISON

TORONTO (CP) - Stock markets closed lower but well above the lows of the session Thursday as investors faced the realization that the war in Iraq won't be over in a matter of days.

"This thing is going to go on for a while. President Bush said today it'll be over when it's over, when we win. And so we have to be prepared to live with it for a while," said Fred Ketchen, manager of equity trading at Scotia Capital. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average came back from a 125-point loss to close with a decline of 28.43 points at 8,201.45, on the lowest volume in two weeks.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index lost 3.46 points to 6,353.44. The TSX Venture Exchange rose 3.42 points to 1,044.10.

The absence of Iraqi crude oil, low inventories and supply interruptions in Nigeria and Venezuela forced the price of oil past the $30 US a barrel level, moving up $1.74 to $30.37 US a barrel. That kept the TSX energy sector positive with EnCana rising $1.23 to $47.91.

The Canadian dollar hit its best close since April 2000. As the American dollar weakened amid war anxiety, the loonie was up 0.30 cent at 68.36 cents US.

The Nasdaq composite index moved 3.20 points lower to 1,384.25 while the S&P 500 index was up 1.44 at 868.52.

"There hasn't been any particularly huge disaster here," said Ketchen.

"Those who thought this was going to be a three-, five- or seven-day war are coming to the realization that that was far overly optimistic given the size of the country."

Declines this week have come after an impressive eight-session runup fuelled by expectations that markets would rally strongly, as they did in the last Gulf War in 1991.

"Everybody you talk to in the last week was very skeptical about this runup," said Scott Kinnear, economist at MMS in Toronto, but investors were still inclined to pile into it.

"The runups have been so few and far between in the past two or three years, to sort of miss out on one now would be pretty tough on portfolio managers."

The release of a major report on bank mergers didn't have much effect on the TSX financial sector, which was down slightly. The Commons finance committee report recommends that merging banks be required to guarantee service levels, minimize job losses and protect rural customers.

It was a mixed performance in the sector as Bank of Montreal lost 99 cents to $40.96 but Royal Bank was up 47 cents at $58.30.

Markets kept their gaze fixed on the war and ignored economic reports.

Statistics Canada said higher fuel prices pushed raw materials prices up 22.6 per cent in February compared with a year earlier.

In the U.S., the latest revision to fourth-quarter gross domestic product showed the American economy grew at a mediocre 1.4 per cent annual rate.

In another report, U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by a seasonally adjusted 25,000 to 402,000.

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA Sports 27 Mar 2003, 20:25 UTC

Venezuela is happy with the opportunity to play the United States in a soccer friendly on Saturday in Seattle. Venezuela has only one week to prepare for the match as they are ranked 69th in the world by FIFA. The United States is ranked 10th in the world.

It is Venezuela's first match since a 1-0 win over Uruguay in November. Better known for its baseball, Venezuela is slowly being recognized as a soccer nation after a series of upset wins during South American qualifying for the 2002 World Cup.

The chance to play the Americans came after Japan canceled a two-game tour, citing security reasons because of the war in Iraq. In their last meeting, Venezuela rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the United States 3-3 in the 1993 Copa America.

<a href=www.lapress.org>You must register to see the full version on this article Friday,  March 28,  2003 LATIN AMERICA Barbara Fraser.  Mar 27, 2003

Studies find that attitudes toward democracy are closely linked to people’s economic stability.

Latin America’s movement along the road to democracy, though undeniable, is not without detours. In 1997, Bolivians elected Hugo Bánzer (1997-2001), a former dictator, to the presidency. Venezuela and Ecuador are now governed by former military men who were once involved in plotting or carrying out coups. Nor are political parties a constant. In various countries, including Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador, the parties that carried the president to power were relatively new political groups formed for that purpose.

Ambiguity about democracy is also evident in the attitudes of Latin Americans. In a survey last year, about 57 percent of Latin Americans said they preferred democracy to other forms of government. While that was a significant increase over the 48 percent registered in 2001, it is lower than in any other part of the world, according to María Lagos of Latinobarómetro, the Chilean-based polling organization that conducted the survey.

See Source By JOHN BRANCH March 27, 2003

This has to be No. 7, at least. Maybe eight.

But the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga, will live at least one more life with the San Francisco Giants.

When the Giants on Wednesday relegated first baseman Damon Minor to Fresno to start the season, Galarraga - signed to a minor-league contract in January - was left with an apparent spot on San Francisco's Opening Day roster.

He'll serve as a backup first baseman, a big right-handed bat off the bench and - most importantly, perhaps - the feel-good vibe of the clubhouse.

Go ahead and root for Barry Bonds to finally win the World Series. Rationalize that he somehow deserves it.

Root harder for Andres Galarraga to simply play in one. He deserves it more.

There is a place for nice guys. And San Francisco is it, for now.

"I think a lot of people will remember me for being a nice guy," Galarraga says when asked about his likely legacy. "I like that."

No higher calling. Just "nice guy." If only every big-leaguer and professional athlete could aspire to such a lofty post-career epithet.

Galarraga is one of baseball's few true ambassadors, the kind of player who makes fans stand up and cheer for doing nothing but showing up. That's because everything he does - hitting home runs, backhanding a hard grounder, chatting with fans or reporters - is accompanied by the sport's biggest smile.

It's such a simple formula. Makes you wonder why more athletes don't try it.

"He is a lot of fun," says infielder Neifi Perez, who spent a couple of seasons with Galarraga in Colorado. "He's a great teammate. And if he stays like this, he'll play 'til he's 60."

Galarraga turns 42 in June. He's hoping for that elusive Series and another 14 home runs. That would make him the 35th player to reach 400. He'd pass - ho-hum - Johnny Bench, Graig Nettles, Joe Carter, Dale Murphy and Al Kaline along the way.

It's not just that he's one of those players who forever will sit at the Hall of Fame's doorstep, just outside immortality. And it's not just that he smiles through everything life has thrown him.

It's that he has been dismissed so many times. Every time he seems to disappear, he emerges again, filled with new life.

Galarraga was an overweight teenager from Caracas, Venezuela, signed by the Montreal Expos in 1979 on the advice of Felipe Alou, then a minor-league manager. Now Alou is San Francisco's manager and the man keeping Galarraga's career going nearly 25 years after the two first met.

"I knew he'd be a player," Alou says. "But I didn't know he would be a player for this long."

No one did. Galarraga spent nearly seven seasons in the minors. But he emerged as one of baseball's best hitters in the late 1980s, then fizzled hard in 1991.

The Expos gave up, traded him to St. Louis. That's where he found hitting coach Don Baylor, who revamped Galarraga's swing and drastically opened his stance.

In 1993, with Baylor managing the expansion Rockies and Galarraga signed as a free agent, Galarraga hit .370. He later led the league in home runs and RBI. He became the heart of Colorado's Blake Street Bombers, second only to John Elway in the Denver sports hierarchy.

Eventually, Colorado couldn't afford him. Galarraga signed with Atlanta in 1998, hitting .305 with 44 home runs and 121 RBI as if to prove he didn't need thin air to excel.

The next spring, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

He somehow smiled through the announcement. He vowed to return. And then he disappeared to spend a summer receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

"When I had the cancer, the doctors said they had medicine," Galarraga says. "I said I not only want to stay alive, I want to play baseball."

So he did. He hit .302 with 28 home runs and 100 RBI in 2000. He was the comeback player of the year.

He's a lot grayer and a little heavier now, not as agile as he was when former Expos player Bob Bailey dubbed him the Big Cat nearly 20 years ago. The past two years have taken him to Texas and San Francisco and Montreal and back, now, to San Francisco. The years have turned him into a backup and a clubhouse leader.

"He still has some juice left in his bat," Alou says.

The Big Cat is unsure how many baseball lives he has left. He doesn't think about it.

"I just want to help my teammates stay up," he says. "That's why I'm smiling all the time - to tell my teammates that this is a special game."

It's special because of people like him. Root for him.

• E-mail John Branch at jbranch(at)fresnobee.com. (Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, www.shns.com.)

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

President Hugo Chavez Frias continues to attack the war on Iraq, warning that the world is returning to jungle law by breaking the international order and bypassing the United Nations (UN) to attack and invade other countries. 

Speaking at the commencement of "Businessmen for Venezuela" assembly in Caracas, Chavez Frias has questioned the right of the Anglo-American forces to bomb the cities of Iraq.  "We want peace and the UN to intervene!" 

The President told his audience that he agrees with Brazilian President Lula da Silva's comment that no country and in this case, the USA has the power to define what is good and what is bad in the world. 

Turning to the domestic scene, Chavez Frias tackled opponents who he says seem delighted with the idea of the USA attacking Venezuela for a regime change. 

"How far are people ready to go? How is it possible that political leaders have gone so far as to say that they would prefer a General of an invasion force to Chavez Frias as President? Are they that crazy?"