Source 05/04/2003 - 11:16:08 am Cork racing driver, Michael Keohane, driving with the Promatecme team will start tomorrow’s first round of the British Formula 3 Championship in Donington Park on the fourth row of the grid. 31 cars lined up for today’s first qualifying session at the East Midlands circuit and Keohane posted his fastest time - one minute 04.597 seconds early in the twenty-minute session. Elsewhere, Adam Carroll (Sweeny Racing) from Portadown, with the new Lola Dome chassis qualified down in 18th. place with a time of one minute 05.416 seconds. His team mate, Ernesto Viso from Venezuela, qualified an impressive tenth and topped the times for the Scholarship Class drivers. Ballymena’s, Ivor McCullough posted the second fastest time in the Scholarship category where the cars are two years older than the Championship Class cars. The fastest time was set by Britain’s, Jamie Green ahead of his Carlin Motorsport team mate, Richard Antinucci. Rob Austin was third from Nelson Piquet Jr.

1. Jamie Green 1m. 04.167s.
2. Richard Antinucci 1m. 04.268s.
3. Rob Austin 1m. 04.318s.
4. Nelson Piquet Jr. 1m. 04.506s.
5. Ronnie Bremer 1m. 04.559s.
6. Alan van der Merwe 1m. 04.570s.
7. Michael Keohane 1m. 04.597s.
8. Fauzy Fairuz 1m. 04.855s.
9. Clivio Piccione 1m. 04.902s.
10. Ernesto Viso 1m. 04.927. Scholarship Class Top 3: Ernesto Viso 1m. 04.927s. Ivor McCullough 1m. 05.292s. Karun Chandhok 1m. 05.302. The second qualifying session (for tomorrow’s second race) takes place this afternoon. Meanwhile, in Kirkistown, Quentin Smith set the pace in the Fiat Punto Abarth Cup ahead of Liam Denning and defending champion, Richie Faulkner. Joe Freeburn was fourth quickest in the session. Rally star, Andrew Nesbitt was 21st.

rediff.com Pradeep Puri | April 05, 2003 14:35 IST

What's the worst-case scenario? Gulf War II could drag on for months. It might spread to Syria and Iran and the entire region could go up in flames.

As the Tomahawk missiles and the B-1 bombers go screaming across the skies, the oil tankers would stop coming through the Arabian Gulf. Oil prices would shoot skywards and there would be shortages everywhere from India to remote islands in the Pacific.

Nobody expects an economic and political catastrophe on that scale. But the planners in India's petroleum ministry are prepared for the worst. They've been drawing up plans long before American troops began their drive through the Iraqi desert.

They've prepared for all eventualities -- a short war or a long, prolonged one -- and they are determined that nothing should go wrong. "Everything has been worked out to the last detail," says a senior bureaucrat in the ministry.

India's oil czars have spent almost as much time as the US Army preparing for this war.

The meetings to draw up the plans for India's oil security started in September and by November the entire plan was in place. There is, of course, no telling if it will work. We'll only know about that if the plans actually have to be implemented.

There's no doubt that India is at risk as the soldiers clash on the outskirts of Baghdad. India imports 70 per cent of its crude oil requirements and a large chunk of it comes from the Gulf. So, it goes without saying that any disturbance in the world's biggest oil-producing region is bad news for India.

The war could cut off supplies from the Gulf countries. Even if that doesn't happen prices could climb to exorbitant levels.

But if the bureaucrats and their political bosses are worrying they aren't showing it. Petroleum minister Ram Naik seems complacent both on supplies and prices.

"There has not been any disruption of supplies so far and we do not anticipate any major dislocation in the near future. On the price front too, we have sufficient reserves of foreign exchange to foot any oil import bill."

It should, of course, be said that India is far better off than it was during Gulf War I. At that time India's foreign exchange reserve levels were at rock bottom and any slight dislocation could have upset the economic applecart.

It isn't only the ability to pay that is giving the government confidence. As part of its plans, the government has been stocking up and it has sufficient stocks of crude oil and petroleum products to last two months.

Says Naik: "We have tied up oil supplies with some countries far away from the war zone. Added to this is the supply of three million tonnes per annum of crude supplies that ONGC Videsh Limited will start getting from next month as its share from the Greater Nile project in Sudan."

On the prices front too, Naik is relaxed. "During the 1991 Gulf war, Brent prices had crossed the $40 a barrel mark. This time its maximum price has been only $35 a barrel. Moreover, during the 1991 Gulf war, the country had only $1 billion foreign reserves, whereas now these reserves are exceeding $73 billion."

Petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi also appears unworried.

"The contingency plans are in place to take care of any difficult situation."

Two scenarios have been considered by the petroleum ministry while drawing up these plans.

The first plan visualises that the military action will be limited to Iraq; and the second plan considers the impact on India's crude availability if the war spreads to other countries leading to disruption of exports from the Persian Gulf region.

If the supplies from only Iraq are disrupted, there shouldn't be a major disruption as the overall global availability of oil would fall by only 3 per cent. India needs about 78.7 million tonnes of crude annually and it imports less than 5 per cent of that from Iraq.

In this scenario, the government would ensure physical availability of oil from other Gulf countries, and outside the region. However, the prices of crude during this period may go up 'substantially.'

In the event that the war spreads and leads to the closure of the Arab Gulf, crude oil supplies to India's refineries could be badly affected.

But India wouldn't be the only country affected. Its plight would be shared by all the major oil-importing countries like Japan, US, France, Germany and Italy.

As per the contingency plan, 'under such a situation, it is likely that the reasons for the closure of Arab Gulf would be addressed quickly and appropriate action would be taken to restart oil exports from the region.'

If oil supplies are disrupted, the petroleum ministry has two fallback plans. Firstly, refineries would go on a worldwide hunt for crude oil and it would probably resort to spot purchases from sources outside the Gulf region.

Secondly, the government would go on a diplomatic blitzkrieg aimed at winning over oil-producing countries outside the Gulf.

These include Egypt, Yemen, Nigeria, Russia, Malaysia, Norway, Angola, Venezuela, Oman and Australia for the supply of appropriate grades of crude oil to India 'during the troubled period.'

Now with the Iraq war entering its third week, the petroleum ministry is also going to fine-tune its contingency plans. It's reviewing the plans every fortnight to make sure that nothing will go wrong.

During the first such review, the government decided to consider the possibility of importing and floating at least 15 days' inventories for public sector refineries by hiring very large crude carriers.

Besides the issue of oil supplies and prices, there's another aspect that India has to consider.

It has made small investments in Iraq's petroleum sector and is involved in exploration in an area called Block-8. India might have invested more but it hasn't been able to because of United Nations sanctions.

Block-8 itself was taken over recently by the public sector OVL after signing a production sharing agreement with the Iraqi government.

To save on costs, OVL brought the block's seismic data to India for processing. It was scheduled to take up intensive seismic activity in the block after the summer.

But now, any further activity in the block will depend upon the outcome of the war and the installation of the new government.

While OVL has earmarked Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) for investment in Block-8, it has only spent a few crores so far.

The government is confident that even this minimal investment in Block-8 won't be wasted.

The Iraqi government went through the entire legal process before signing the PSA, so executives at OVL hope that any new government will respect commitments made by the current regime.

However, OVL may have to start afresh on the Tuba field which is considered to have around one-third the oil and gas reserves with Mumbai High.

Both OVL and an Algerian firm, Sonatrach, were holding parallel negotiations with the Iraqi authorities for the field. But these negotiations did not make much headway because of sanctions. Barring these two projects, India hasn't made much of an effort to participate in Iraq's oil sector. The Iraqi government did invite Indian firms to invest in its refineries, but India couldn't do so because of sanctions.

Source By Ikenna Emewu

Following the claim Wed-nesday by Information and National Orientation Mini-ster, Prof. Jerry Gana that the energy crisis that has been crippling the nation since February is the handiwork of saboteurs, the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) has accused Gana and President Olusegun Obasanjo of being the real sabotuers. According to a press statement issued by the Buhari-Okadigbo campaign organisation, "the only reason our people don't have fuel is because the nation's refineries are not working. The refineries have been left to rot because Obasanjo prefers to continue to service his government's famous corruption through the lucrative fuel importation business which has long become a scam". The statement signed by Deputy Director-General of the campaign organisation, Sam Nda-Isaiah accused Gana of "lying shamelessly and engaging in cheap and insensitive talks, even in the face of excruciating suffering of the masses of the nation". The group lamented that "today it takes N10,000 to fill the tank of a car that used to take about N1,500 previously, and the Nigerian people are going through this gnashing hardship because they have been saddled with a government that is incompetent, insensitive, irresponsible, mean and corrupt without apologies". ANPP further alleged that "fuel importation is a lucrative venture that keeps the Obasanjo's government's corruption machine alive and well. The refineries will not be repaired as long as Obasanjo remains in power. The statement lampooned the Obasanjo government for cashing in on flimpsy reasons to justify the crisis, sneering that "first they said it was as a result of strike in far away Venezuela, then another said it was a technical fault. The party Chairman later said it was because of the war in Iraq, and now the tale is about saboteurs". "Obasanjo, Gana and and other members of the PDP gang are the real saboteurs of Nigeria. They are the ones who have held Nigeria on the jugular in the last four years," ANPP further submitted.

Source By Ikenna Emewu

Following the claim Wed-nesday by Information and National Orientation Mini-ster, Prof. Jerry Gana that the energy crisis that has been crippling the nation since February is the handiwork of saboteurs, the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) has accused Gana and President Olusegun Obasanjo of being the real sabotuers. According to a press statement issued by the Buhari-Okadigbo campaign organisation, "the only reason our people don't have fuel is because the nation's refineries are not working. The refineries have been left to rot because Obasanjo prefers to continue to service his government's famous corruption through the lucrative fuel importation business which has long become a scam". The statement signed by Deputy Director-General of the campaign organisation, Sam Nda-Isaiah accused Gana of "lying shamelessly and engaging in cheap and insensitive talks, even in the face of excruciating suffering of the masses of the nation". The group lamented that "today it takes N10,000 to fill the tank of a car that used to take about N1,500 previously, and the Nigerian people are going through this gnashing hardship because they have been saddled with a government that is incompetent, insensitive, irresponsible, mean and corrupt without apologies". ANPP further alleged that "fuel importation is a lucrative venture that keeps the Obasanjo's government's corruption machine alive and well. The refineries will not be repaired as long as Obasanjo remains in power. The statement lampooned the Obasanjo government for cashing in on flimpsy reasons to justify the crisis, sneering that "first they said it was as a result of strike in far away Venezuela, then another said it was a technical fault. The party Chairman later said it was because of the war in Iraq, and now the tale is about saboteurs". "Obasanjo, Gana and and other members of the PDP gang are the real saboteurs of Nigeria. They are the ones who have held Nigeria on the jugular in the last four years," ANPP further submitted.

<a href=www.zenit.org>ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Archbishop Pietro Monni Addresses European Conference

ROME, APRIL 4, 2003 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican aide lamented the legal vacuum that exists in regards to sexual tourism, and he called for an appreciation of the efforts by religious institutions to combat pedophilia.

Archbishop Pietro Monni, permanent observer of the Vatican to the World Tourism Organization, highlighted the legal deficiency when he addressed the European Conference for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation. The two-day conference ended today in Rome.

The Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Kenya were the countries the archbishop mentioned as the principal objects of sexual tourism.

This "new form of slavery" is the result of an "apathetic policy, the economic greed of local privileged classes, the poverty of certain countries, and the struggle for survival of some sectors of the population," he stressed.

One of the causes of the "enormous increase in sexual tourism is the lack of appropriate laws" but also, even when there are severe penal norms, the absence of "effective measures directed to their application," or the existence of "police complicity," the archbishop lamented.

The Vatican representative spoke about the role of the Church in promoting healthy and responsible tourism, and of the constant efforts and concrete commitments of religious institutions worldwide in the struggle against all forms of exploitation of children.

"I have personally accompanied nuns who went out late at night in a jeep on the streets of Bangkok to collect the children being displayed in private premises and centers," the archbishop recalled.

They courageously challenged "dramatic situations and criminal groups, a memory "I carry always with me," he added.

Archbishop Monni also referred to John Paul II's repeated condemnation of this phenomenon. In October 1997 the Pope "described child prostitution as a 'world scourge.'"

The Vatican permanent observer concluded his address by saying that "not only in Europe and the United States, but in all the continents, the episcopal conferences are moving to address with more appropriate means the tentacles of this destabilizing monster of pedophilia."