Posted on Fri, Jun. 06, 2003 ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Meeting in a downtown park to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would tighten restrictions on the media.

The lawmakers, gathering in tents in a poor neighborhood of hard-core Chavez supporters, adopted new debate rules intended to make it more difficult to block legislation supported by the president. Opposition members of Congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

The bickering boded more turmoil for Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States convulsed by a brief coup in 2002 and a ruinous general strike earlier this year. It threatened to further delay efforts in Congress to choose election officials who would run a possible referendum on Chavez's presidency.

Under a recent pact brokered by the Organization of American States, Venezuela's opposition may seek to hold a referendum later this year on Chavez's mandate, which runs to 2007.

The president's supporters hold a slim majority in the 165-seat Congress, but they wanted to cut the opposition out of the debate by meeting Friday in a hostile neighborhood. They argued they were forced to do so after a shoving match with opposition lawmakers disrupted a session at the legislative palace Wednesday.

"I ask Venezuelans to applaud these legislators who have assumed their responsibility with courage and continued legislating," Chavez said of Friday's unusual outdoor assembly.

Opposition lawmakers called the session illegal and said it was a Chavez-sponsored attempt to undercut Congress. They tried to convene a separate session at the legislative palace, but the president's supporters ordered the doors locked.

"If the government persists in the progressive dissolution of the legislature, there will be no path left except popular rebellion," said opposition lawmaker Leopoldo Puchi.

The new parliamentary procedure would make it easier to move legislation through a key 21-member committee in Congress that is dominated by the opposition. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition has used this committee to block legislation.

The opposition plans to ask the Supreme Court to declare Friday's vote illegal.

The new media law would ban "rude" or "vulgar" language, prohibit depiction of sex or alcohol or drug use, and ban violence during daytime.

It would also require that 60 percent of programming be produced within Venezuela, half of which would have to be created by "independent producers" approved by the government.

Broadcasters, who tend to oppose the president, say the law will give too much influence to censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media.

Nzoom-OneBusiness International

US blue-chip stocks eked out slight gains on Friday amid renewed hopes for an economic recovery, while bond prices inched lower after US employment figures hinted at mild improvement in the troubled US labour market.

The dollar vaulted higher, lifted in part by a May US jobs report was not as dire as expected and sparked hope that the economy is on the mend.

But the greenback's rise sent gold prices lower.

In New York, oil prices hit 11-week highs above $US31 a barrel as Opec producers Saudi Arabia and Venezuela sought assurances that nonmember Mexico would follow the cartel in any move to tighten supply.

The Nasdaq Composite index finished lower on near-record volume as investors booked profits from a rally on news of Oracle's proposed takeover of software rival PeopleSoft.

The broad Standard and Poor's 500 index also ended Friday's session slightly lower. But all three major stock indexes still managed to end the week higher, marking a second consecutive week of gains.

"The most critical piece of news ... is Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft," said Keith Keenan, vice president of institutional trading at brokerage Wall Street Access. "That means Oracle is confident about the economy going forward, and they think earnings are going to hold up."

A government report showing US payrolls shrank by only 17,000 jobs in May, a much smaller decline than expected, helped investors' sentiment as the data hinted of improving conditions in the weak labor market. The same report, though, showed the US.unemployment rate rose in May to 6.1%, the highest since July 1994, from April's 6%. But this was in line with Wall Street's expectations.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose 21.49 points or 0.24% to finish at 9,062.79, after hitting a session high of 9,215.88.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 2.38 points, or 0.24%, to 987.76, after earlier rising above 1,000 for the first time in about a year.

The tech-driven Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 18.59 points, or 1.13%, at 1,627.42.

Currency and commodities

The euro slumped to a session low of $US1.1686, a loss of more than 1 percent, before climbing back to $US1.1701 at the close of US currency trading. That was below the euro's late Thursday level of $US1.1841 in New York.

The dollar surged to a session high of 118.92 against the Japanese yen, up more than 1 percent, before easing back to 118.69 yen at the close. That was above the dollar's late Thursday level of 117.63 yen in U.S. trading.

Gold's tight correlation with the volatile euro has been reliable for days. On the Commodity Exchange in New York, gold for August delivery fell $5 to end at $US364.50 an ounce.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July crude oil jumped 54 cents to settle at $US31.28 a barrel, hitting its highest price since March 19.

Overseas, the FTSE Eurotop 300 index of pan-European blue-chip shares closed up 2.24% at 856.24. The Nikkei average ended 1.49% up at 8,785.87, its highest close since January 23.

The Jamaica Observer Rickey Singh Saturday, June 07, 2003

Most wanted among three killed by Guyana police

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Three more armed men, among them a prison escapee on the police 'most wanted' list, have been killed in Guyana in a shoot-out with cops in a house in Georgetown.

Police identified the three as Shawn Browne, who was wanted for murder and armed robberies; Dillon George, Browne's brother-in-law; and Wendell Robin, also known as Tony Singh.

Two cops and a 19 year-old girl were also injured during the shoot-out, as reported by the police, and a woman and two teenaged girls are being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department.

The Thursday night shooting followed the killings of eight men 36 hours earlier in the Buxton-Friendship area on the East Coast in a joint anti-crime police/army operation.

Just two days earlier, a United States District Court judge had issued an arrest warrant for Browne in connection with the kidnapping in April of US embassy official Stephen Lesniak, who was released unharmed following a controversial private ransom payment.

The police confirmed that they have located two more bodies in Buxton after the early morning shoot-out.

Manning warns of illegal guns from Venezuela

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Prime Minister Patrick Manning has expressed deep concern over the increasing number of illegal guns in Trinidad and Tobago which, he said, are coming from Venezuela.

Manning said that the illegal guns were appearing in the country following unsuccessful attempts to overthrow the government of President Hugo Chavez when a lot of weapons found their way onto the streets in that neighbouring state.

Drug lords operating out of Colombia, he said, with business connections in Venezuela and the drug trafficking trade in Trinidad and Tobago, were among those involved in the movement of illegal arms and ammunition.

The prime minister was commenting on Wednesday night's drive-by shooting death of a woman in the Movie Town compound at Invaders Bay in an ambush that left two others wounded, including a member of the controversial Jamaat-al-Muslimeen.

Police identified the dead woman as Julian Bowen, 31, a mother of two. Those wounded and in hospital are her common-law husband, Addell Ghani, known as Clive Louis, and former Muslimeen disciple, Salim Rasheed, 32, known as "Small Slim", who was expelled from the Jamaat just three weeks ago.

Rasheed was shot at two weeks ago following his expulsion from the Jamaat, whose leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, has denied any involvement of his organisation in Wednesday night's shooting.

Rasheed, who received multiple gunshot wounds, was yesterday in critical condition in hospital under police guard.

The trio had just taken their exit from the Movie Town building and were seated on a nearby bench when a heavily-tinted white B14 Sentra car pulled alongside them and one of the occupants emerged, dressed in Muslim garb, and opened fire at close range.

Educating Haitians on CCJ

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti -- The Caribbean Community Secretariat, in co-operation with the Organisation of American States has completed the initial phase of an educational programme for Haitians on the proposed Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which is scheduled to become operational during the final quarter of this year.

The recently completed two-day programme for Haiti, which was aimed primarily at the judiciary, is to be extended to expose other segments of the Haitian society on the functioning and powers of the CCJ.

It is part of a region-wide educational thrust by the Caribbean Community Secretariat and constituted the first round for Haitian judges.

Involved in the educational exercise was a seven-member team of legal specialists, consultants and community officials dealing with the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and media communication.

The team collaborated with officials of the OAS, Haiti's Ministry of Justice, Supreme Court judges and magistrates and the Haitian Bar Association.

David Gollust State Department 06 Jun 2003, 22:37 UTC <a href=www.voanews.com>VOANews.com-AP

Colin PowellSecretary of State Colin Powell begins a three-day Latin American trip Sunday. He flies to the Chilean capital, Santiago, to attend a meeting of Organization of American States foreign ministers, and he visits Buenos Aires for talks Tuesday with Argentine officials, including newly-inaugurated President Nestor Kirchner.

Officials here insist the Bush administration has not been neglecting Latin America, despite its recent preoccupation with Iraq and the Middle East dispute.

But they nonetheless say the Powell trip begins an "intensified U.S. focus" on the region that also included Friday's conclusion in Miami of the long-awaited U.S.-Chilean free trade agreement.

The deal, the product of 11 years of negotiations, is seen as a prelude to an envisaged hemispheric free-trade regime, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it sets the tone for the Powell mission and the annual OAS General Assembly in Santiago.

"It's good for both the U.S. and Chile, but it's also good for the hemisphere," he said. "So, as we go to these meetings down there, I'm sure we'll talk about relations between our governments, issues of democracy, issues of free trade, issues of progress in the hemisphere."

Chile and Mexico opposed the use of force against Iraq in the U.N. Security Council in March. But a senior U-S official said Mr. Powell does not intend to revive disagreements over the Iraq war, saying there will be a constructive agenda on other issues.

The senior official said the Santiago meeting will have a largely-economic focus, with a hope that severe recessions in key member countries, including Argentina and Peru, have begun to "bottom out."

The ministers are expected to approve a plan for a special OAS summit in Mexico late this year, aimed at promoting economic growth and wider distribution of wealth through good governance and open markets.

The official said the talks will include the political crises in Venezuela and Haiti, and that a joint appeal to Haitian authorities is likely, calling on them to heed an OAS resolution last year, and lay groundwork for free and fair elections.

The United States has been bitterly critical of Cuba's recent crackdown on dissidents. But it will not raise the issue formally at the Santiago meeting, in deference to Caribbean OAS members, who say it should not be on the agenda, as long as Cuba's four-decade-long suspension from the organization continues.

Mr. Powell will have a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the OAS assembly. And he stops in Buenos Aires Tuesday, before his return home, for the Bush administration's first senior-level meeting with Argentina's new populist president, Nestor Kirchner, who was sworn into office May 25.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: David Coleman

In an exotic twist to democratic reform, Venezuela's Congress has moved out to the El Calvario steps just a few blocks away from the Capitolio after opposition legislators began to throw papers and fought with each other in the body of parliament.  Bemused Venezuelan TV viewers saw how politicians lost their cool and any assumption of respectability in brawls featured on live television as National Assembly (AN) officers tried in vain to quell the unruly behavior.

A majority vote concluded that proceedings should be removed to the park after opposition thugs tried to prevent the passage of parliamentary reform proposals.  The Legislature moved to convene parliamentary proceedings under a hastily erected marquee after filibustering opposition deputies refused to allow a democratic vote to take place on which committee decides which laws should reach the floor.

National Assembly (AN) president Francisco Ameliach opened lawful sessions of the El Calvario Congress, broadcast live on TV, saying "if we have to, we'll have congress wherever, whenever.''   As fuming opposition deputies held sway without a quorum in the capitol building, Congressman Juan Barreto viewed the establishment of a legislative quorum on the El Calvario steps and said "we were forced to move out to the people ... the coup-mongering and fascist opposition tried to provoke violence.''

The right royal rout will probably delay approval of a new National Electoral College (CNE) board of directors, a preliminary step towards hold a revocatory referendum later this year. Although the government and opposition leaders had signed an OAS-brokered peace agreement last week, the opposition seems intent on disrupting the Constitutionally mandated process which will kick-off only after August 19 when President Hugo Chavez Frias' governing mandate reaches it's halfway point.

At that stage (after August 19) a signature campaign is required to get a referendum proposal off the ground ... and the CNE must first update its register of voters to get rid of thousands of fraudulent registrations, some including voters who are long-since dead.

International monitors must then be appointed to review the signature-gathering process which, if a similar venture in February is anything to go by, will be riddled with forgeries and falsifications as both sides of the political barricades in Venezuelan politics seek advantage.

Vitali Meschoulam, a Eurasia Group analyst quoted by Bloomberg in New York, opines "it's quite clear that Chavez is intent on gaining power at all costs in all aspects of Venezuelan life ... he has control of international reserves ... he has control of PDVSA ... he's basically shut the opposition down by signing an agreement that says let's do what's in the Constitution.''

Commentators in Caracas are still trying to puzzle out what Meschoulam could mean as being negative about the President signing an OAS-brokered agreement which stipulates that government must be conducted according to the Constitution...

Meanwhile. Chavez Frias supporters are claiming that the opposition is trying illegally to change procedural rules.  The President agrees saying "the desperate and irresponsible opposition tried to sabotage congress ... patriotic deputies are trying to approve laws necessary for the country.''

Chavez opponents are attempting to hammer home a Goebbelesque proposal that the revocatory referendum must be held in August without reference to Constitutional  or parliamentary procedures ... essentially they want the same as rebel business executive Pedro Carmona Estanga demanded at the start of his military-civilian dictatorship after the April 11, 2002 coup d'etat.  That time, the opposition was kicked out of the Presidential Palace by the Venezuelan masses after Carmona Estanga moved immediately to dissolve Congress, the Supreme Court and the Constitution in one fell swoop.