<a href=www.regiaodeleiria.pt>regiaodeleiria.pt 11/04/2003 07:41

A Amnistia Internacional (AI) instou hoje as autoridades venezuelanas a investigarem os confrontos registados há um ano nas proximidades do palácio presidencial de Miraflores que causaram 19 mortos e mais de cem feridos.

O pedido da AI ocorre um ano após o líder da "revolução pacífica bolivariana", Hugo Chávez, ter sido afastado durante 48 horas do poder após confrontos violentos em Caracas entre apoiantes e opositores do presidente venezuelano.

Num comunicado divulgado ontem, a AI, afirma que "a classe política venezuelana ainda não assumiu o seu papel na tragédia nem garantiu que os responsáveis sejam levados perante a justiça".

A organização de defesa dos direitos humanos questiona uma possível falta de vontade política para a realização de uma investigação imparcial sobre os acontecimentos.

Para o sucesso da investigação será necessária a "cooperação transparente", do Executivo, da oposição, do poder judicial e dos corpos policiais, assim como da Procuradoria-Geral da República.

Lusa

Caracas, April 11, 2003 April 11, 2002 was the peak of a crisis that has not been solved and that emerged at the end of 2001. Armed revolution in Venezuela.

On April 11, 2002, when a human flood was heading to the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez risked everything: he ordered the deployment of the so-called Plan Avila -which authorizes the use of military force during state security emergencies- and called upon the Bolivarian Circles to take action

More: El Universal, daily news and executive summary

<a href=www.canada.com>Canadian Press Saturday, March 29, 2003

BERLIN (CP) - Anti-war demonstrators turned out in the hundreds of thousands from South Korea to Chile on Saturday, spattering streets with paint, jeering outside U.S. embassies and in one case forming a 50-kilometre human chain, while U.S. and Canadian cities saw smaller rallies supporting the invasion of Iraq.

Chanting: "America imperialist, No 1 terrorist!" tens of thousands of protesters in Indonesia marched on the U.S. Embassy on Sunday in what appeared to be the country's largest anti-war demonstration to date.

The protesters - many dressed in traditional Muslim attire and representing the country's largest Islamic groups - numbered about 100,000, witnesses said.

They chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," and wore headbands reading: Peace, No War. One banner read: "Bush, Iraq is not your killing field."

The event was organized by the Indonesian Committee in Solidarity with Iraqi People.

The crowd gathered in front of the British Embassy in central Jakarta early Sunday and marched peacefully to the United Nations office before heading to the U.S. Embassy about one kilometres away. Flanked by more than 1,500 police officers, the protesters slowed traffic but otherwise caused no problems.

More than 100,000 people protested in strongly anti-war Germany on Saturday, half of them at a rally in Berlin, where banners in the crowd read: Stop America's Terror. About 30,000 people held hands along the 50 kilometres between the northwestern German cities Muenster and Osnabrueck - a route used by negotiators who brought the Thirty Years War to an end in 1648.

Hundreds of women, some carrying placards declaring: The United States and Britain are the Axis of Evil, protested in Sana, capital of Yemen. Elsewhere in the Arab world, 10,000 turned out at a rally organized by Egypt's governing party in Port Said, and in Jordan's capital Amman, more than 3,000 people demanded the kingdom's government expel U.S. troops.

In Stuttgart, Germany, about 6,000 protesters encircled the U.S. military's European Command, releasing blue balloons adorned with white doves as they joined hands to form a chain.

Farther north, police detained 100 demonstrators taking part in a sit-down protest outside the main gate of the Rhine-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, a key transit point for U.S. military traffic to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

Protesters in Rome hung black mourning banners from the city's bridges. At Vicenza, in northeastern Italy, demonstrators threw red paint and flares at the walls of a U.S. military base where hundreds of paratroopers now in northern Iraq had been based.

In the Greek capital Athens, 15,000 people chanting: "We'll stop the war" marched to the U.S. Embassy. Protesters splashed red paint on the road outside the building and on the windows of a McDonald's restaurant.

In the United States, thousands of flag-waving war supporters packed the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg. Police said about 8,000 people showed up but organizers put the number at 12,000.

A rally in Cape Cod, Mass., supporting U.S. troops drew about 2,000 and in Miami, thousands of Cuban exiles and others marched to support the U.S. military and to oppose opening relations with Cuba.

In San Francisco, where two days of anti-war demonstrations led to about 2,200 arrests in the days after the war began, a few hundred people gathered Saturday near City Hall to show support for the troops.

In Boston, 15,000 nuns, veterans, students and other anti-war protesters collapsed on a city streets in a "die in" to show their opposition to the war. Hundreds also rallied in New York City and a South Central Los Angeles neighbourhood where Linda Bolton urged the U.S. government to look at problems closer to home.

"Leave those Iraqis alone and come over and take care of business here first," said Bolton, 48.

"Look right here how many people in South Central are dying every day. Clean up here first before you clean up someone else's home."

In Manhattan, where an estimated 125,000 to 250,000 people protested against the war last weekend, several hundred staged a Times Square anti-war rally, while throwing in a wide array of other causes - from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to abortion rights.

Dmitri Bronovitsky held a placard combining the Palestinian and Iraqi flags that read: One Tragedy.

Braving chilly wind and rain, 4,000 rallied on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to cheer on U.S. forces and boo Canada's decision to remain on the sidelines.

As a counterpoint to the pro-U.S. rally not far away, about 400 peace demonstrators peacefully marched through the downtown streets to the U.S. Embassy.

At least two rallies on the Prairies also supported U.S. efforts in Iraq. About 200 demonstrators, many carrying U.S. flags and signs critical of Chretien, gathered in front of the Manitoba legislature.

A few anti-war protesters showed up which triggered a brief shouting match.

It was a larger crowd in the central Alberta city of Red Deer where more than 600 people rallied outside City Hall. The demonstators also carried U.S. flags and placards with slogans such as Peace Is For Pussies and We Love Our American Cousins.

In Halifax, about 1,000 marched to call for peace.

Barbed-wire roadblocks and riot police kept thousands of Bangladeshi protesters away from the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka. The demonstrators burned a U.S. flag and an effigy of President George W. Bush.

Police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, used tear gas to break up a protest outside the Australian Embassy, whose country has about 2,000 soldiers in the coalition.

Students in South Korea's capital Seoul scuffled with riot police as thousands marched down half of an eight-lane boulevard chanting: "Stop the bombing! Stop the killing!"

The mood was more subdued in Britain, where public sentiment had been strongly against the government's participation in the U.S.-led coalition before the outbreak of fighting but appears to be swinging. A MORI poll released Friday put Prime Minister Tony Blair's popularity rating at its highest level in nine months.

Turnout at a series of British rallies was a tiny fraction of protests before the war. Still, activists said they will keep marching to demand Blair pull British troops out of Iraq.

"We didn't stop the war starting but we can still stop its progress. I think this is going to become the next Vietnam," said Rebecca Mordan, 26, an actress who took part in a rally of about 100 people in London.

Poland, which committed up to 200 soldiers to the war, saw its largest demonstration yet. Two thousand mostly young people marched to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, banging drums and chanting: "No blood for oil." They called President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller "Bush's two dogs."

In Hungary, another country whose government has supported the war, about 2,000 people whistled and jeered as they marched past the U.S. and British embassies in Budapest on their way to parliament.

A crowd estimated at 6,000 people demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

More than 10,000 people marched in Paris, watched by 5,000 police. The demonstration turned violent when about 20 youths attacked a couple angry about protesters carrying posters of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Both were treated for bruises by rescue workers.

Around 8,000 people marched in Dublin to criticize the Irish government's decision to let U.S. forces bound for Iraq use the country's Shannon Airport for refuelling and stopovers.

In Santiago, Chile, more than 3,000 people staged a peaceful march and in Caracas, Venezuela, about 100 people called for an end to the war.

By Hil Anderson <a href=www.upi.com>UPI Chief Energy Correspondent From the National Desk Published 4/7/2003 6:17 PM

LOS ANGELES, April 7 (UPI) -- The coalition's military progress in Iraq kept oil prices on the run Monday despite OPEC's plans to meet later this month to discuss possible cuts in crude production in an effort to shore up prices.

May crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 66 cents on the day to $27.96 per barrel after hovering slightly above $28 during the morning hours while traders digested reports that OPEC ministers would meet April 24 to presumably talk about the post-war supply situation and the winding down of the "war premium" that had pushed NYMEX to nearly $40 per barrel in February.

London crude fell 10 cents to $24.85 per barrel.

Crude also appeared to be influenced by NYMEX gasoline futures, which dipped 2.78 cents to 84.25 cents per gallon.

The downturn in futures prices should deflate retail gasoline prices somewhat in the United States as the annual summer increase in demand looms. The national average price for a gallon of regular at the pump Monday was $1.637, according to AAA, compared to $1.643 the previous day and $1.683 a month ago.

OPEC officials had little comment Monday on the Vienna meeting's agenda; however, ranking energy officials in the cartel's member nations have recently spoken of a "glut" of crude rather than any shortages caused by the war.

"Things have been very fragile, which is why we've seen the prices where they've been," Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, told the Los Angeles Times. "If there are no further disruptions of supply from other countries, then we'll see the supply-demand fundamentals improving week to week."

OPEC has increased its output this month to a combined 26.3 million barrels per day despite political and ethnic strife that cut production in Venezuela and Nigeria. Nigerian exports are expected to resume in the coming days while Venezuela has gradually returned to normal export levels.

In addition, U.S. and British officials are hoping that Iraq can begin exporting in the near future as well in order to help finance its post-war reconstruction.

Iraq's southern oil fields were seized largely intact by coalition forces early in the campaign and could begin producing this summer once repairs are completed.

The impact that Iraq's return to the market will have on short-term prices is still the subject of debate. Some analysts foresee the low oil inventories in the United States acting to support prices while others opine that the psychological impact that a flush market will have on traders will cause prices to fall further.

<a href=www.troyrecord.com>AFX News Ltd. April 10, 2003

PARIS, Apr 10, 2003 (AFX-Asia via COMTEX) -- The International Energy Agency said global oil production rose by a further 740,000 barrels per day in March, after February's 2.25 mln bpd increase.

OPEC crude supply gained 95,000 bpd with higher output from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait helping offset losses from Iraq and Nigeria.

Non-OPEC supply increased by 240,000 bpd, the agency said.

The Paris-based agency left its 2003 global oil demand forecast virtually unchanged at 78 mln bpd, compared to 78.01 mln bpd in February.

Though damage to oil infrastructure in Iraq appears limited so far, the timing and extent of supply recovery both from Iraq and Nigeria is uncertain, it warned.

OPEC spare capacity is low, but that is partly offset by significant volumes of oil on the water plus seasonal demand decline, it added.

fw/cw