Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Posted: 1840 GMT ( 2:40 AM HKT)

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN-Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez faced a struggle on Wednesday to pass media and anti-terrorism laws in the National Assembly after an inconclusive vote revealed cracks in the leftist leader's slim majority.

In a rowdy debate in the 165-member assembly late Tuesday, lawmakers loyal to the president failed to obtain the 83 votes needed to ratify the measures approved at a controversial outdoor parliament session held in a Caracas park Friday.

Jubilant opposition deputies hailed the government's failure to impose its majority. It was the first parliamentary defeat suffered by Chavez in his more than four years of rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

"Mr. President, your majority is dying," opposition deputy Alejandro Arzola said.

Opposition deputies, who mustered 79 votes, had boycotted Friday's bizarre, one-sided parliament session in El Calvario park when procedural reforms to speed up the passage of government-sponsored draft laws were approved.

These included an anti-terrorism bill and a law to regulate radio and television that the opposition fears will be used to muzzle critics and restrict public protests.

One-time event, pro-Chavez side claims

Analysts cautioned that while the polarized parliament spelled trouble for Chavez's efforts to push through controversial laws, it did not mean he had lost his majority.

"This shows the opposition can block what they see as some excesses ... but they don't control the assembly either," Luis Vicente Leon, of local pollsters Datanalisis, told Reuters.

The government side said Tuesday's vote, in which three pro-Chavez deputies abstained, was a one-time event. They insisted they would impose their majority when another vote on the procedural reforms was taken Thursday.

Since Chavez won a landslide election in late 1998, he used a solid majority in the National Assembly to push through left-wing reforms aimed at consolidating his self-styled "revolution" in the oil-rich nation.

But desertions of parliamentary supporters have whittled away this majority amid growing opposition to policies that include nationalist reforms increasing the state role in the economy and handouts of land and credits to the poor.

Foes of Chavez, who survived a coup last year, accuse him of trying to install Cuba-style communism.

AllAfrica.com This Day (Lagos) INTERVIEW June 11, 2003 Posted to the web June 11, 2003

Recently Africans celebrated the African Day, marking the, 40th Anniversary of the African Union (formerly Organization of African Unity - OAU). T he Coordinator of the event in Nigeria, who is also the Dean of African Group in the country, Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador to Nigeria, Emile M'Lingui Keffa spoke to Kunle Aderinokun and Ify Isiekwenagbu in Abuja on the significance of the African Day, the challenges facing the Union, and the NEPAD Initiative amongst others. Excerpts:

What is the significance of the African Day?

This is the day that the Organisation of African Unity OAU was created about 40 years ago, that was May 25, 1963. About 30 African Heads of States at that time came together then to form the OAU. Since then, the organisation has been doing the task that was assigned to it until 2000 when again our Heads of State decided to move the OAU towards a more result oriented African Union (AU).

We, the African diplomatic corps in Nigeria decided that we should celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of the Union because we are Africans and because we are accredited in the most powerful African country and the country that has devoted its time, its money, its human resources for the unity and development of Africa and therefore we thought we should celebrate African Day. So I think this is a very important event for Africa as a whole and for

Nigeria, which has served as a leading country, that has considerably helped both the OAU and the young AU to achieve their set goals so far.

What informed changing the name to African Union?

Actually, I will go back in the history a little bit. Before some of our countries became independent in 1960, there was a debate in Africa and in the black world, that all Africans should get together and create one single country. That what was called Pan-Africanism and the people like Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkruma, Nnamdi Azikiwe took part in that debate that all African countries should be united and they should create federation of African states.

Each state was to stay where it is and cooperate among one another. Then there were two groups; the group of Monrovia, and the Casablanca group. Casablan-ca said, everybody should become one nation at once, while the Brazzaville group preferred the option that, we move step by step. So when they created OAU in 1963, the decision was for us to integrate gradually, each nation should be sovereign, should manage its own affair but will have to cooperate among each other. And later on, we will see whether we should form a federation or not.

So OAU has worked within that decision, that is gradual cooperation among African countries. But now, our Heads of State feel we have to integrate faster, not gradually, we have to go faster. That is why they created a new body that will help us integrate faster, that is the African Union. The philosophy of African Union is more or less the same with OAU. Just that the mandate of African Union is to integrate African countries faster than the OAU has been able to do.

How?

For instance the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) is an important aspect to integration, because through NEPAD, our Heads of State will be meeting regularly to define their priorities and looking for a way of attaining the priorities. This is the way.

NEPAD is not going to make any miracle. It is the state members, it is the political will of different states. If Obasanjo wanted Nigeria to be working closely with other African countries and at the same time, and the other Heads of state say the same thing, then we will be going faster. If two or three countries wants to be faster and the other ones are not willing, then we will not go faster. It depends on all of us, including the people.

What is your opinion about NEPAD?

The NEPAD initiative is a very good one, because the reason why OAU was changed into AU was that the mandate of OAU was a kind of gradual approach to cooperation and integration that is, each country being sovereign.

The role of the OAU was gradually to bring the African country together, help them undertake their cooperation between them. But today, we realized that we are in a different world with globalization, etc, that our continent has to be stronger, they had to link together, they had to negotiate together to have a stronger negotiation power and this is why AU was created. But at the same time we also have to review the type of cooperation that we have with developed countries and NEPAD is that new approach to cooperation with international communities with the developed countries and I think the idea of NEPAD is very important, because today African countries are working together, far more than it was in the past.

The good thing about NEPAD is that, years back, we Africans sat here and waited until those countries, who have money decide to help us in the field that they find appropriate, but all that has changed now with NEPAD; which is a system whereby, we Africans ourselves are going to define the areas where we will like to be helped. And we will also be in the disposition to tell them how we'll like to be helped. And I think NEPAD as such is a very pertinent project.

What are the challenges facing the AU?

The challenges that the AU have ahead are numerous. These are great tasks that must be done faster. AU was created at a time when we are talking about globalization. So AU should try to bind African nations together and help them to put their strength together and work hard for the development of the continent, with a stronger negotiating power; economic and otherwise.

We have 53 countries and bringing them together is not an easy job and we are talking about 700 hundred million people speaking one thousand languages. Bringing all these countries together and harmonizing their interest is really a big challenge. The task is really a big one. To bring all these countries together, to harmonize their position, to make sure that everybody is willing to work together. This is a kind of challenge we are facing. Economically, we are the weakest, but we must bank on our strength as a strong populated continent.

What are the achievements of AU?

AU was created formally in July 2000. So up till now, the work of the secretariat has been to set up the organizational structure, so it is too early to talk of achievement because the organization has just been created three years and they are just trying to put in place the administrative structure and so on and creating institutions. However, the African Union is working through NEPAD to help our countries to achieve their development in a coordinated manner.

What's the role of AU in the war in Cote d'Ivoire and the current position there?

In Cote d'Ivoire thanks to the help of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and our international partners, the situation is progressively, gradually coming back to normal.

Practically for some time now, there has been no fighting. There was a ceasefire agreement which has been well respected, and people have started moving from one area to the other. And we have formed a government, which comprise the rebel and the regular government. The situation is getting better and we hope that it will normalize very soon.

Specifically, what role did AU play ?

The role of the AU is to try and liaise between the different factions. But there is a rule. When there is a conflict in a region, the priority is given to the regional organization. Here, in West Africa if there is any conflict the first organization that will be in the frontline will be ECOWAS. So continental organization will only help through regional bodies. AU has been doing a lot to solve the crisis. But AU has to go through a course and this is what they are doing.

Lets talk about the ECOWAS and the new ECOWAS passport that has just been introduced what's the motive behind it?

Well, as I have mentioned before the decision that was taken when OAU was created is to progressively come to the integration of African nations. But today we have realized that we are very, very far away from integration. And West Africa decided twenty five, thirty years ago that West Africans should try to integrate, before we can integrate the whole group of Africa, so the passport has been conceived as a way of making West African nations one nation that is, all of us should uniform passport like the European Union.

That is why West Africans are embracing ECOWAS passport, Nigeria decided two weeks ago that henceforth Nigerians should be holding the ECOWAS passport and this is actually the way to bring all different countries of West Africa to relate to each other as brothers and sisters from the same land.

The cooperation of West African countries is not only in the field of passport, we have a project whereby in one or two years, all the 15 countries of West Africa will have one currency. We have also projected in the field of transport, that is how to harmonize our policies in different fields, so that we don't waste our resources, such that we do not waste our efforts looking for buyers of our goods in far away places like Argentina, whereas he could sell same to a neighboring country in West Africa. We have to cooperate and to do that, we have to have good roads and so on.

What are the Major benefits of the ECOWAS passport?

Actually the benefit is that first you can move with this passport from one country in West Africa to another without any problem. And the ECOWAS passport will facilitate the transit through the borders and also, it will help those who travel out of Africa to be seen there as the people from the same land and I think this will consolidate solidarity and unity amongst our people.

How soon are we going to see the integration of the African nations in totality?

I think to integrate the whole of Africa you have to start region by region. Here in West Africa we have started. In Southern African have their own organization, so they are trying to integrate their economy and their population etc. The creation of Africa Union two years ago was decided because there is a need by the whole of Africa to integrate very fast. Like I said, the programme of NEPAD was conceived because Africans have to start to speak with the same voice. Africa has to learn to co-ordinate their effort to be stronger because we are in the period of globalization. If our countries go individually they will not be able to achieve anything. They will be weak, they will be divided and they will be manipulated. But they have to go together to be strong and this is what NEPAD and African Union is all about. And ECOWAS has shown the way, that it is the body within which West Africans can come together.

For instance in the gas project, since Nigeria produce gas than any other West African country the project has gone a long way in seeing how Nigeria can be the major gas supplier to the other West African countries that are in need of it. For instance, for Cote d'Ivoire to go and buy its gas or oil in Venezuela is nonsense when a brotherly country a few miles away is producing very good quality and quantity of the same product.

So this project, which for the time being includes Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana, was conceived originally for these countries, has actually been projected to normally cover all of West Africa and this is a step towards integration and an important one at that.

Is there any plans to integrate all the regions very soon and the target date?

Well you know our hope as a representative of the government. Our hope is that our countries integrate as fast as possible but things like this take time. You know when Europeans started in 1957, they started with a small group of countries that decided at that time to work together to cooperate in a specific sector.

As time went on, the number of countries increased and today we have the European Union with 15 members and they are going to be twenty-five very soon. They have started from 1957 to date. For we also, I think it might take us a little bit of time but I don't think we are going to wait for fifty years. We have to do it faster because Africa is a weak continent and therefore we have to put be together to be strong.

Posted on Wed, Jun. 11, 2003 BRAD FOSS Associated Press

Oil prices surged above $32 a barrel for the first time since mid-March on Wednesday, as traders fretted about scant supplies, the rising price of natural gas and a signal from OPEC that production cuts might be on the horizon.

The weak dollar is also making it more expensive to buy oil, analysts said.

Crude for July delivery finished up 63 cents to $32.36 on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday.

The last time Nymex oil futures closed higher than $32 a barrel was March 17, a few days before the start of the war in Iraq.

Prices then fell sharply after U.S.-led forces quickly secured Iraq's most abundant oil fields and analysts speculated that the country's supply would make up for lost production elsewhere.

As the military conflict wound down, crude futures dropped as low as $25.24 on April 29. But prices have risen steadily since then as it became clear that Iraq's oil industry was in bad shape and that the country's crude would not flood the global market anytime soon.

"The market is starting to wake up to the fact that while Iraq is going to be a big deal down the road, near-term it isn't going to be much" of a contributor to world supplies, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. Iraq, which pumped around 2.1 million barrels a day before the war, is now producing below 1 million barrels a day.

On the domestic front, the Energy Department reported Wednesday that commercial inventories of crude fell last week by 4.6 million barrels to 284.4 million barrels, or 12 percent below year ago levels.

Refiners are drawing down crude inventories in order to meet the nation's gasoline needs at the start of the busy summer driving season. Supplies were already low because of a two-month strike that paralyzed oil production in Venezuela, the world's fifth largest petroleum exporter.

Flynn also cited the rising price of natural gas, a problem that was highlighted before Congress on Tuesday by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan warned that high natural gas prices could be a drag on the economy, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

With natural gas futures trading higher than $6 per 1,000 cubic feet, or roughly double what they were a year ago, manufacturers are choosing to run their plants on crude-derived fuels instead of natural gas and that, too, is driving the price of oil higher.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries offered little relief to the market on Wednesday, when ministers meeting in Doha, Qatar, decided to keep production levels steady through July. The oil cartel left open the possibility of a production cut at its next meeting on July 31.

Fahnestock & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit said that while OPEC ministers publicly expressed fears about the potential for an oil glut once Iraqi production reaches pre-war levels, privately they are "laughing all the way to the bank."

Still, he said speculation by U.S. traders is driving prices higher more than anything else. "It's not because there is a physical shortage," he said. "It's all psychology."

In other Nymex trading, July gasoline futures ended 1.7 cent higher at 93.41 cents per gallon and heating oil futures were basically unchanged at 79.10 cents per gallon. Natural gas for July delivery closed at $6.214 per 1,000 cubic feet.

On London's International Petroleum Exchange, Brent crude from the North Sea finished 31 cents higher at $28.39 per barrel.

<a href=www.hispanicbusiness.com>hispanicbusiness.com, June 11, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO -- Until last week, Osberto and Connie Juarez, natives of Guatemala, had not seen their kids in four years, not since they left their Central American home to work in the United States. Now, they are "virtually" inseparable -- literally. Last week, the whole family was re-united for Blanca Estela's birthday party at the offices of AmigoLatino, a new business aimed at uniting South, Central and North America via low-cost video-conferencing and other services. "Most of our clients cannot afford to travel," says Gabriel Biguria, founder of the San Francisco-based AmigoLatino. "And, even if they could, the current political situation in the world and in their home countries makes it untenable. What we provide them is a real time, real-interaction with their families that they can really afford." According to Biguria, AmigoLatino's initial line of services -- videoconferencing and video-messaging -- are already changing the way Hispanics in the U.S. interact and communicate with their families, friends and communities in Latin America. "Of course videoconferencing solutions have been around for some time now," says Biguria. "However, they have been mainly accessible to executives of large corporations and formal institutions. With AmigoLatino, we are expanding the access of those services to the people that need them the most, the many Hispanic families that have become separated as a result of the migration of one or more family members into the United States." Moreover, with the increasingly tough economic and political conditions faced by many Latin Americans, the number of broken families due to migration of a member into the U.S. is expected to increase according to Biguria. Currently, the Latino / Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the United States. Amigo Latino provides "virtual" link between Latin American families. Launched just last October with a link between their San Francisco offices and a site in Guatemala City, AmigoLatino has since added outlets in Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Spain, Japan and several U.S. cities. "It really is a powerful tool for uniting families," said Erika Pineda Sharron, Consul General of Guatemala, whose offices are located on the same floor as those of AmigoLatino. "It's such a wonderful service. I heartily endorse it." Hugo Herrera, Consul General of El Salvador voiced similar sentiments. "The implementation of these technological services represents a very important contribution that helps promote the union of families, businesses and community activities between Hispanics in the U.S. and Latin America." Although not affiliated with any consulate, AmigoLatino's location is no accident: San Francisco's historic landmark Flood Building. With eight Spanish-speaking consulates on the premises -- Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras, Panama -- San Francisco's 870 Market Street is in a very real way a "Latin American crossroads" for the Bay Area. "We knew this was the location for us," says Biguria. "And we try to make our office a little bit of Latin America, a little bit of home for our clients. Our goal is to be a bridge between modern technology and old-fashioned family ties, which is so important in the Latin American culture." Also, Biguria feels that AmigoLatino provides a service appropriate to the current times. "Due to the challenges we are experiencing nowadays, including the war in Iraq, many people have postponed business and family trips to other countries and U.S. cities," he says. "Through our videoconferencing services at very accessible rates and our wide network of US/International offices, we are well positioned to address the needs of small to large organizations and businesses across the world. Amigo Latino's videoconferencing services are scheduled in 30 minute increments and priced at $30-$40 per half hour; $40-$80 for one hour depending on the international location selected. Prices include the use of private meeting rooms between two countries and all international connection fees. AmigoLatino accepts most major credit cards, cash and money order. AmigoLatino is located in downtown San Francisco in the historic landmark Flood Building, 870 Market Street, Suite 662. Access information online in English and Spanish at www.amigolatino.com.

ABU DHABI, June 11 (<a href=www.arabtimesonline.com>AFP) - The OPEC Fund agreed to lend a fresh 250 million dollars to the private sector in poor and developing countries at a meeting in Abu Dhabi Wednesday, the fund's director general told AFP. This will take to 500 million dollars the total of loans extended to the private sector in these countries, Y. Seyid Abdulai said. Finance ministers from the member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries held the annual meeting of the OPEC Fund in the absence of member Iraq, and Abdulai said they had not discussed extending reconstruction assistance to the war-torn country. He had told reporters on Tuesday that aid to Iraq might come up during the meeting. Although the OPEC Fund does not provide assistance to its member countries, "Iraq is a special case. The ministers can discuss whatever they want and whom to fund," Abdulai said. The ministers from Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela were told that lower oil production had impacted economic growth in OPEC member states but steady oil prices would see better growth this year. "In our own member states, average growth moderated to 1.8 percent in 2002 from 2.6 percent in 2001, mainly reflecting oil production cutbacks," said Saleh al-Omair, chairman of the fund's governing board. "But growth in our member countries should gather pace, supported by continued firm oil prices and fiscal stimuli," he added. OPEC announced at the end of an extraordinary meeting in Qatar Wednesday that it would maintain its current production ceiling of 25.4 million barrels per day (bpd) at least until July 31 when it meets in Vienna to discuss Iraq's return to the market, but urged members to comply strictly with quotas. With a capital of 3.435 billion dollars, the OPEC Fund committed to loans totaling 6.6 billion dollars until April this year, with actual disbursements reaching 4.43 billion dollars.