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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)

news-miner.com Article Published: Sunday, May 04, 2003 - 3:00:37 AM AKST By Doug Reynolds

Now that most of the fighting is over in Iraq, the question is how will Iraq's oil industry be set up? In the U.S. we have property rights embedded in our constitution where individuals have the right to own property, including the right to own oil and gas mineral rights and exploit the minerals.

However, a number of oil producing countries, including Kazakstan, Norway, Mexico and Russia, tend toward national ownership of all oil and gas resources. This desire is so universal that Alaska itself is even trying to own a natural gas pipeline, and we already have a constitutionally embedded permanent fund derived from oil revenues.

At this point, we might sit back and think, what is the best way to maximize social welfare with Iraq's oil while still creating national pride? What Iraq really could use right now is a rallying point that will quickly create order and unify its diverse peoples. Oil can do that. If a new Iraqi court system, a new Iraqi legislative branch, and a new Iraqi leader recognize that the oil is for all people in Iraq, then those entities will defend a new constitution more diligently. And the Iraqi people will know, or at least perceive that, their oil can't be taken away by a company, another country, or another dictator.

The real question though is will the Iraqi military swear to uphold a new Iraqi constitution or not. They would be more likely to uphold it and defend it, as well as defend a court system and legislative system that counterweights a powerful executive, if they knew their constitution included some sort of national control of the oil.

Therefore, Iraq could follow a number of models, based on what other countries have done. One possibility is the Mexico model. There the constitution itself mandates that all oil or gas exploration, development and production is nationally owned, even including retail sales. While this model might create a sense of national unity if applied to Iraq, it does tend to create a lot of inefficiencies. For example, the Mexican oil company, Pemex, has more workers than necessary, and exploration and development of new reserves tends to be slow.

Another possibility is to create a national host oil company (HOC) to partner with multinational oil companies (MOC) through joint ventures or other relationships. This would work better. In fact most oil producing countries have HOCs with MOC partnerships including such diverse countries as Norway, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. However, it is still hard for the MOC to get its job done because too much time is spent negotiating profit-share agreements with the HOC. Once the MOC finally does invest in infrastructure, the host country could nationalize it. This often creates hesitancy for new investment in oil and gas infrastructure, and again exploration and development is slower than what happens in the U.S. Still, having an HOC is always a great way to create pride in one's country and pull a country together.

One last idea then is based on what we have in Alaska. Alaska has a constitutionally mandated permanent fund, although the earnings from the fund are not constitutionally mandated to be given to the people. Still, the Alaska model could be made workable for Iraq.

For example Iraq could constitutionally mandate that 5 percent of all Iraq's oil revenue (not profits but actual revenue) be divided up and given directly to the Iraqi people. If this is embedded in an Iraqi constitution, the people will feel a national pride in their oil and will want to defend their constitution. They may even eventually want to create more of a property right system in order to maximize their share of the revenues rather than have an Iraqi oil company manage their oil resources.

One plan right now for the current discussions on an Iraqi government might be to bring in oil and gas experts from Norway, Mexico, Venezuela, Kuwait or Kazakstan to help set up the best method for Iraq to control its oil and gas resources.

A constitution that gives control of resources to a government is foreign to American sensibilities, but it is the most typical model for countries around the world and certainly would be more appropriate for Iraq than a U.S. model. As Iraq and the U.S. set up the Iraqi government, maybe putting an Alaska type clause into their new constitution or as a new law might not be a bad idea.

Doug Reynolds is an associate professor of oil and energy economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He can be contacted at ffdbr@uaf.edu.