<a href=www.wtnh.com>News Channel 8 WTNH

GUANTANAMO: State Department pressures Pentagon to move on long-detained terror prisoners WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a strongly worded letter, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has urged Pentagon officials to move faster in determining which prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay can be released, defense officials said.

Powell's April 14 letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld questioned the continued detention of some 660 prisoners from 42 countries who were captured during the war against al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations.

A Pentagon official, speaking Saturday on condition of anonymity, said the "strongly worded" letter made it clear that the secretary of state wanted the Defense Department to quickly determine which prisoners could be released.

Since the prison was opened in January 2002, only 22 people are known to have been released. They were all men, including one who was mentally ill and another reported to be in his 70s.

JAMAICA: Angered by police killing of 14-year-old, residents set fire to four buildings

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (AP) _ Enraged at the killing of a 14-year-old boy by police, residents set fire to four buildings Saturday as they took to the streets of a town in western Jamaica, police said.

The boy, Omari Wedderburn, was shot by police Friday night in Negril, which is fringed with some of the Caribbean country's premiere tourist resorts. The next day, more than 300 people gathered to protest, police said.

Some broke the windows of two banks and hurled firebombs into them, while others set afire two convenience stores, police said.

One bank and one store had major damage, while the other two had minor damage, police said. Firefighters were kept away for a time by the angry crowd. No one was arrested.

The circumstances of the 14-year-old's killing were in dispute.

CUBA: Venezuelan oil shipments back to normal after strike

HAVANA (AP) _ Venezuela's oil exports to Cuba have returned to normal after disruptions during a two-month strike in Venezuela, the Venezuelan ambassador here said.

"Exports of oil and derived products have been normal for two weeks," Julio Montes told reporters on Friday.

A general strike that collapsed in February paralyzed Venezuela's oil industry and brought exports to a near halt. Venezuela's government says output is now back to normal at more than 3 million barrels a day.

Venezuela has a pact to sell Cuba 53,000 barrels a day under preferential financial terms _ providing one-third of the island's oil imports. Montes said Cuba was making payments on its US$144 million debt in the deal. He added the debt was being refinanced but did not elaborate.

During his four years in office, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has forged strong ties with Fidel Castro's government. Under another cooperation deal, more than 3,600 Venezuelans have traveled to Cuba for free medical treatment since 2000, Montes said. He said Cuba has spent at least US$120 million treating the Venezuelans.

BARBADOS: Pepsi bottling plant announces relocation to Trinidad

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) _ The maker of Pepsi-Cola drink is closing its Barbados plant this month to relocate operations to Trinidad, the company announced.

Pepsi-Cola Barbados, which has operated at a loss since it opened 17 months ago, informed its 33 employees it would cease operations May 26, general manager Pierre Evans said Friday.

"The Barbados market did not expand as quickly as we anticipated, and we were sustaining severe losses," general manager Pierre Evans said, but would not give details.

The new plant in Trencity, Trinidad, will bottle drinks in both glass and plastic like the Barbados operation, Evans said. No further information was immediately available.

Pepsi-Cola Barbados is a subsidiary of PepsiAmericas, based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

PepsiAmericas, with $3.2 billion in revenue, runs several other bottling plants in the Caribbean, including in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Jamaica.

It is one of several bottlers and distributors of Pepsi soft drinks under PepsiCo Inc., which holds a 36.7 equity interest in PepsiAmericas.

CUBA: Government crackdown may not decrease U.S. farm trade

WASHINGTON (AP) _ U.S. companies sold food worth $138.6 million to Cuba in 2002 and are on track for a 19 percent increase in sales this year despite Fidel Castro's recent crackdown on dissidents.

The Castro government's behavior during the past month makes it unlikely that Congress will further relax the 42-year-old trade embargo against Cuba. It is equally unlikely that lawmakers will restrict sales of farm commodities to a nation that quickly has become a big customer of American wheat, corn, chicken, soybeans and rice.

Congress in 2000 allowed sales of U.S. farm commodities to Cuba but limited them to cash-only deals. That restriction actually has proved to be good for U.S. companies, said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

"Cuba is one of the safest export markets in the world for U.S. companies today, because the law requires cash-only transactions," Kavulich said. "So there is no risk to exporting products to Cuba. No other country in the world that trades to Cuba can say that."

SURINAME: Police shut down Ecstasy laboratory, detain six suspects

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) _ Police raided a laboratory allegedly set up to make the Ecstasy and detained six suspects, police said.

The lab in Paramaribo, the capital, was the first found in Suriname for making the synthetic party drug. It had yet to begin production, but was capable of turning out 500,000 pills a day, police said Saturday in a statement.

Police dismantled and seized the lab equipment, along with several firearms, ammunition and hand grenades found at the scene.

Six suspects, including some Dutch citizens, were detained in the Saturday morning raid, police said, but would not say how exactly many were Dutch. The suspects have yet to be charged.

The raid followed a yearlong investigation by Suriname's anti-narcotics police and Dutch police.

Police said the lab equipment had been shipped from the Netherlands to this former Dutch colony in South America.

Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a mild hallucinogenic stimulant. Overdoses on the drug can cause hypothermia or excessive body heat and possibly death.

CUBA: Tourism industry bounces back in first four months of 2003

HAVANA (AP) _ Cuba's tourism industry bounced back this year from a deep slump, with the number of visitors up 19 percent during the first four months of this year, tourism ministry officials said.

Until the end of April, 770,000 people visited Cuba, 19 percent more than those who visited during the same four months in 2002 and 2 percent more than the same period in 2001, Tourism Vice Minister Marta Maiz Gomez said Saturday.

Maiz spoke at a news conference organized for an annual convention of international tourism operators opening Monday in the beach resort of Varadero, east of here. About 900 tour operators from 60 countries are expected to attend _ including 63 from the United States.

Tourism is this cash-starved island's most important source of hard currency, bringing in as much as US$2 billion annually. Cuba, like other Caribbean nations, suffered a serious slump in tourism last year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks on the United States.

CRICKET: 2007 World Cup in Caribbean presents logistical challenges, cricket chief says

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) _ The head of cricket's world governing body said holding the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean would be difficult, but that organizers were "on track" in planning the event.

Because the region contains more than 10 cricket-playing countries, events will require extra attention to logistics, International Cricket Council chief Malcolm Speed said Friday after meeting with officials from the West Indies Cricket Board.

The two sides discussed progress and future plans in organizing the event, which is being held for the first time ever in the region, Speed said.

"There has been a good deal of planning. A great deal of strategic thought has gone into the process to date, and we were very pleased to sit in the meeting and come away confident that West Indies is on track," Speed said after the meeting in Barbados.

Holding the event in the Caribbean "will enable people to see different cultures in countries where we play, and gives cricket an opportunity to say to the world that we are prepared to tackle difficult projects like running the World Cup in a region such as the Caribbean," he said.

CRICKET: Gillespie leads attack as disciplined Australians take control

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) _ Pacer Jason Gillespie grabbed three wickets as Australia's disciplined bowling attack kept the team in control of the third test against the West Indies on day three.

The home team, overnight 89 without loss, slumped to 291 for eight at the close on Saturday, still 314 behind Australia's mammoth first innings total of 605 for nine declared.

Chris Gayle topscored with 71, and fellow left-handed opener Devon Smith hit 59.

But once Gillespie removed both after their opening stand of 139, Australia was in command.

Gillespie took three for 31 off 21 overs. Leg-spinner Stuart MacGill supported well with two for 95 off 31.2 overs.

Andy Bichel claimed the prize of ill captain Brian Lara late in the day, while Brett Lee and Darren Lehmann also provided key breakthroughs.

(kd)

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 04, 2003 By: The Very Reverend Roger Dawson

Problems of believing the impossible Easter 3, May 4, 2003 sermon by The Very Reverend Roger Dawson Dean of St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral, Caracas

You can be sure of one thing and that is disbelief at what is unusual. In fact it is what is unusual and unexpected that makes us laugh. Comedians rely on finding a story to which the end must have an unexpected turn at it is this that makes us laugh. For example a mother told her son off for pulling the cat's tail. "But I'm not," he protested, "I'm only holding the cat's tail it is the cat who's pulling."

Laughter has also greeted the idea that someone could rise from the dead. When we die we are expected to stay dead and not reappear. The apostles, apparently, did not treat this as a laughing matter, they were somewhat scared but later generations when they were presented with the story of the resurrection were skeptical that Jesus had risen and the gospels were amended and altered and added to in order to convince the skeptics. I was going to say, "convince the skeptics of the truth" but we first have to ask, "what is the truth?"

Unfortunately, none of the gospel writers are eyewitnesses and what they have given us is confusing to say the least. One minute we have Jesus walking through walls and the next minute we are being told that he eats broiled fish and, according to Luke in today's Gospel reading Jesus is given to say that "ghosts do not have flesh and blood."

If anything we are even more skeptical than the people of the second century. We want proofs and signs in ways that other generations have not ... and why ... because we have discovered that the world is full of unscrupulous people who are prepared to tell us anything in order to separate us from our money.

Just go to the grocery store and see the claims on the tins and packets. Only one calorie it says, but you find out that it is one calorie per 50 centiliters and there are 600 in the tin which means that the tin contains 12 calories not one as might have been supposed. New larger size declares the packet, but the contents are actually the same as before. More for your money proclaims a bottle, but the contents have been diluted so what you buy is more water. Restaurants fill your glass with ice before putting in the juice so what you buy is mostly frozen water.

Can you be surprised therefore that there are people who want to read the small print to discover what is really going on?

I urge you to take nothing on face value, not even the bible whose writers and editors were as human as you and I, and who had axes to grind and their own failings to cover up, and their own agenda to put forward under the guise of something else. All our scriptures have been edited and re-edited and rewritten, and then changed altered as circumstances in the world and in the church altered and demanded different answers. It wasn't that they were trying to deceive us in a nasty way, or that they had seriously ulterior motives to misinform us, but that is sometimes the result, and we need to be aware of it, if we are to discover the truth for ourselves.

There is a part of the church that wishes to believe that there is nothing to question at all. That the truth has been preserved for all time, and for every generation, and that we can rely on the face value transcripts that the bible offers us. I have great sympathy for such a view because it makes life so much simpler ... but it isn't true if you read the bible with any kind of discrimination.

What version are we to rely on, and what, of the hundreds of options available, did the translators choose and why?

There are judges and juries in courts that want to take the state's prosecution evidence as always being truthful, dependable and trustworthy. Perhaps it should be like this, but history shows us, time and again, that reality is not so pure. If you were writing an account of the life of Jesus a hundred years after the event, with not much in the way of written evidence, you might be excused if you got some things wrong.

So should we look again at John's gospel in a different way, a more critical way, before taking all that it says so literally?

Can we rely on Matthew and Luke who are writing fifty years at least after the events?

What we need to aware of is that there may be a discrepancy between what actually happened, and what is theologically true. It may not matter if what the writers tell us did not happen, or that it happened in a different way, as long as what they say gives us an accurate theological truth.

If the truth, that the evangelists want to impart, is that God gave Jesus a new life after the crucifixion so that the force and power of his person lives on and that we, his followers and admirers can in some way, tap into that resource and so gain the same new life, then I believe that the details of exactly how it was done are of less significance.

However, if the evangelists are more interested in maintaining the structure of the church, and have created stories to enable it to maintain a coherent organization, then we might have some significant reservations about its truthfulness, and wonder if it is worth preserving, because now the theological truths are also being called into question.

If we take Luke at chapter 36 verse 39 it has Jesus say, "Look at my hands and feet, see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

This raises all kinds of problems, not least that a bodily resurrection is presumably the body he had before, if it has the marks of the crucifixion still on it. The death process either was not completed and he didn't die, or that it was reversed, which goes against God's own rules and procedures. It also means that this body also has, at some point, to die and yet we have no account of an alleged second dying of Jesus. The ascension with bodies floating up into the sky is not a reasonable alternative.

It looks to me as though Luke was trying to answer problems of his day but did, in fact, only compound the problem for later generations. What the resurrection appearances do tell us, even though in these appearances some are in a body and others appear to have no body, or Jesus is in the bodies of other people, is that there were a number of people who were totally convinced that Jesus was and is alive. This group of people moved to Jerusalem and waited for Jesus to arrive in the Temple to lead a new kingdom in which God was the only ruler.

This is, for me, a much more convincing proof than stories of eating fish and walking through walls.

In the world of faith, what we may have to rely on are theological truths, but first make sure that the stories of physical events are not setting us up to believe for reasons that are not of the highest ideals and truthfulness.