<a href=www.vheadline.com>venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 By: VHeadline.com Reporters

Teenage mothers to get a chance in life.

• The Caracas Lottery has donated 150 million bolivares to the Caracas Children’s Foundation for help kickstart a program for teenage mothers.

Foundation president and Metropolitan Mayor Alfredo Pena’s wife, Martha Penny says the money will be used to buy a building where the center can function.

"We will begin by catering to 30 girls … it’s a training and educational program, which allows the girls to bring in their children while they are studying."

• According to the Venezuelan Association of Alternative Sexual Education, 1 in 5 women give birth before they reach the age of 20.

Lottery representative Oscar Garcia says it’s a worthy cause since the project "gives teenage mothers a chance to get into the job market and on to higher studies."

Police murder squads top the bill in next HR group visit to the OAS.

The growth of extrajudicial police murder squads will be on the agenda of Venezuelan human rights groups when they visit the Inter American Human Rights Court on October 15. 

Cofavic, Caracas HR Vicariate and Ciudad Guayana Humanas Dignitas will present 100 murders attributed to police goon squads this year as evidence. 

• The Ombudsman’s Office claims 392 cases since 2000.

Cofavic executive director Liliana Ortega says police murder squads have been detected and corroborated in Portuguesa, Falcon, Yaracuy, Anzoategui and Bolivar States.

Tony Seskus <a href=www.nationalpost.com>Financial Post Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Canada faces mounting Kyoto costs and commitments unless Ottawa gets its "act together" before the next set of negotiations on the climate change accord, a policy think tank warned yesterday.

"The next round of commitments is going to be tougher," said Gilles Rheaume, vice-president of policy for the Conference Board of Canada. "If we're not prepared with a clear strategy, we could end up with a lot of problems."

The debate on Canada's decision in December to ratify the accord has faded since Ottawa made a number of concessions aiming to limit its impact during the implementation phase, which runs till 2012. But Mr. Rheaume said the federal government's short-term focus is leaving the country vulnerable to much tougher long-term commitments, which will be negotiated in 2005. He said Ottawa needs to start preparing a strategy for those negotiations now.

Many observers say Ottawa had a chance to develop a detailed strategy in the years that led up to the signing of the Accord last year.

Many felt that Ottawa signed Kyoto without a clear notion of how it would implement the complex deal and without a clear idea of how much it would cost.

"Let's not pull another Kyoto," Mr. Rheaume said at board conference in Calgary yesterday.

"If we're not prepared [for the negotiations], it's going to be tough because I can see by 2007-2008, we're going to have another agreement with stricter targets for a longer time period."

He said uncertainty around Canada's long-term Kyoto plans puts the future of major capital projects at risk.

"They have long lead times, they have long lives and if you don't know what will be Canada's longer-term strategy with respect to climate change, why would you want to put in a major investment that's going to last 25, 30, 50 years?" he said.

In fact, Petro-Canada is expected to address that issue today at its annual general meeting in Calgary when the company should provide some clarity on a $5.2-billion oilsands strategy, which has been clouded by Kyoto.

The company said in December it would be looking for longer-term certainty on Kyoto by the spring before deciding whether to spend $200-million for detailed engineering and other work on its Meadow Creek oilsands project and a refinery conversion.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is still seeking further Kyoto certainty. Of note, it wants Ottawa to pledge not to increase Canada's climate change "burden" until other oil-rich countries, like Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela, sign the deal, said Pierre Alvarez, CAPP's president.

Canada's current Kyoto commitment calls for the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions 6% below 1990 levels by 2012.

Prior to ratifying the agreement, critics warned the deal could cost industry billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of jobs and forever put Canada at a disadvantage to the United States, which won't sign Kyoto.

Ottawa tried to mitigate those concerns with promises to spread the burden across the country and sectors.

In the case of the oil and gas industry -- one of Kyoto's fiercest opponents -- the federal government decided to cap related costs during the implementation stage.

Ottawa has, however, offered few assurances beyond 2012.

Many energy companies believe those costs are unlikely to rise significantly after that time, but Mr. Rheaume said there are no guarantees about what Canada's commitments will look like in the long term.

He said that's why Canada needs a strategy to ensure it negotiates an agreement it can handle.

Canada should even consider negotiating as a block with either North America or the Americas, just as European countries successfully did.

tseskus@nationalpost.com

By Todd White

Madrid, April 29 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- The following summarizes first-quarter earnings expectations for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Spain's second-biggest lender and the owner of Mexico's largest bank.

Expected Earnings:

The Bilbao-based bank probably will say first-quarter profit declined 12 percent to 515 million euros ($566 million), or 16 cents a share, from 587 million euros, or 18 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter, according to the median forecast of seven analyst estimates collected by Bloomberg News.

Profit was reduced by the Mexican peso's slide against the euro and lower investment income. Those more than offset higher Spanish consumer bank profit and savings from cutting expenses, analysts said.

Personnel and administrative costs probably fell about 11 percent to 1.4 billion euros, after the bank shed 5,500 jobs worldwide in 2002.

Time

The Bilbao-based bank plans to report earnings Wednesday, sometime in the afternoon Madrid time.

Behind the Numbers:

Banco Bilbao and domestic rivals all had to lower rates charged on loans to track falling benchmark interest rates. That eroded gains from higher mortgage lending and leasing, Bilbao's fastest-growing loan categories in 2002.

Euribor 12-month interest rates fell to about 2.4 percent on March 31 from 4 percent one year earlier.

The bank sold more than 650 million euros of stakes in profitable companies last year, including Metrovacesa SA and Acerinox SA, reducing investment income in the first quarter.

Earnings from its Grupo Financiero BBVA-Bancomer SA unit, Mexico's No. 1 bank, were undercut when translated into euros by the Mexican peso's 31 percent slide from the year-ago quarter.

That held profit in Mexico, before financing and other charges, to a gain of 16 percent to 116 million euros, Jose Luis de Mora, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst in London estimated.

Profit from Colombia and other Latin American countries fell about 37 percent to 38 million euros, he estimated. BBVA owns the second-largest bank in Venezuela, where the bolivar fell 58 percent against the euro from the year-earlier quarter.

The currency declines also hurt asset management income, as Banco Bilbao is Latin America's largest pension manager based outside the continent, analysts said.

Chairman Francisco Gonzalez has said he's looking to make acquisitions. Target candidates are most likely in Portugal or the U.S., analysts said.

What the Experts Say:

``Mexico's results will be impacted by good volume coming from economic growth,'' Merrill Lynch's de Mora said in a report.

Bancomer is benefitting from a rebounding economy in which new mortgage lending by local banks likely will triple this year, officials at the unit have estimated.

Bancomer expects to maintain its 25 percent share of the Mexican mortgage-lending market, helped by government subsidies for low-income housing and more powers to repossess defaulted properties.

The Mexican government recently predicted the nation's $600 billion economy will expand by 3 percent this year, or triple last year's pace.

``There was a negative effect from repricing'' that reduced interest earned on loans more than what the bank paid on deposits, said Vicente Gonzalez, an analyst at Ibersecurities in Madrid.

Previous Market Reaction:

Banco Bilbao shares rose 1.7 percent, below the 2.7 percent gain of the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index, on Jan. 30 when it reported an 88 percent decline in fourth- quarter profit on Latin American write-offs.

The shares have climbed 4.6 percent this year.

BBC News

British oil giant BP has made $3.7bn (£2.3bn) in just three months, its largest ever quarterly profit.

BP's coffers were boosted by a sequence of world events that sent the oil price soaring.

These include the run-up to the war in Iraq, the national strike in Venezuela which blocked oil exports, and civil unrest in Nigeria which stopped production.

The profits represent a 136% rise over the same period a year earlier.

It means that BP was earning $41m a day during January, February and March.

"Oil markets have been driven by the impact of war in Iraq, together with the loss of Venezuelan and Nigerian exports and a cold winter in the northern hemisphere," said BP chief executive Lord Browne.

Worrying outlook?

However, oil prices have now decreased significantly after the war in Iraq did not damage world supplies as much as feared.

And that is expected to lead to a slump in BP's profits during the current quarter.

The benchmark crude oil price averaged $31.5 a barrel during the first quarter but was languishing at five-month lows of $23.05 a barrel on Tuesday.

Analysts also expressed concern about other elements of BP's business, including weak demand for chemicals and lower refining margins.

"They look good at the top but when you read more into the statement there are some uncertainties," said one dealer.

BP's shares rose at first but fell back to end the day down 3.25 pence at 399.75p.

Tue April 29, 2003 05:08 AM ET

LONDON (<a href=asia.reuters.com>Reuters) - Giant British oil firm BP Plc delivered its biggest ever quarterly profit on Tuesday boosted by war in Iraq, strikes in Venezuela and unrest in Nigeria.

Net profit adjusted for exceptional items and to reflect the current cost of supplies grew 136 percent from a year earlier to $3.729 billion, at the top end of analysts' expectations, as supply concerns linked to events in these three key producing nations boosted the price of crude oil.