GLOBAL MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
Fair Trade Coffee Urged on Campuses 04-24-03 (Yahoo) As many as 200 schools, activists say, are responding to calls to change the way they purchase coffee so that poor farmers, mainly in Central America, get a bigger cut of the profit from the beans they grow. "You can make a difference for a child you've never met," said Cindy Megill, a junior at central Pennsylvania's Juniata College. "Or you can buy a cup of coffee with a corporate logo on it." Like students at other schools, Megill — a tea-drinker herself — is pushing Juniata to exclusively serve fair trade label coffee in campus dining halls and cafes. 
WTO Says Trade Up by 2.5 Percent in 2002 04-24-03 (Yahoo) Measured in revenue, exports of goods rose to $6.24 trillion in 2002. The report said "the largest single element in the global trade recovery of last year was North America," with a 3 percent increase in U.S. imports. U.S. exports fell by nearly 4 percent, partly because of reduced demand from trading partners with economic problems. Despite the improvement in imports in the United States, the continued economic sluggishness in many other markets led to lower inflation rates, worsening unemployment and a massive decline in international investment, which fell to $500 billion in 2002 from $1.2 trillion in 2000 
U.S. Economy Lackluster - Fed 04-24-03 (Yahoo) "The onset of the war with Iraq appeared to have some effect on sales and spending, although it is too early to ascertain the full effect on both consumer and business confidence," the Fed said in its periodic "beige book" report, an anecdotal summary of economic conditions across the nation for use by policymakers at their next meeting in early May. The report was compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland from information gathered by the regional Fed banks before April 15. Economists worried the constant drumbeat of news leading up to and during the war could shake consumer confidence. 
Scientists Say Sex the Main Source of HIV in Africa 04-24-03 (Yahoo) Globally, more people are infected with hepatitis C than HIV. However, unlike other nations, sub-Saharan African countries have a higher rate of HIV than hepatitis C. A needle tainted with hepatitis C-infected blood is six times more likely to infect a person than a needle tainted with HIV is, the authors of the new study note in the April 17th issue of Nature. And given that HIV is more common than hepatitis C in sub-Saharan Africa, the high prevalence of HIV must be due to factors besides the use of unsterile needles or contaminated blood products, they say. 
Raise the gas tax 04-24-03 (sunspot.net) These proposed changes were announced among other service reductions - and a one-way Baltimore bus, light rail and Metro fare hike from $1.35 to $1.60. State transportation officials say the cuts are targeted at underused routes and, as with the shuttles, those with low fare-recovery rates. They say the fare increase - the system's first in seven years - will help move its overall recovery rate, now down to 36.5 percent, toward the state-mandated level of 40 percent. But an 18.5 percent rise in costs for mass transit riders, many of whom are low-income, is harder to justify when Maryland has not raised its gasoline tax in 11 years. It's time for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to drop his neutral stance on doing so. 
The bottom dollar 04-23-03 (guardian.co.uk) The problem with American power is not that it's American. Most states with the resources and opportunities the US possesses would have done far worse. The problem is that one nation, effectively unchecked by any other, can, if it chooses, now determine how the rest of the world will live. Eventually, unless we stop it, it will use this power. So far, it has merely tested its new muscles. The presidential elections next year might prevent an immediate entanglement with another nation, but there is little doubt about the scope of the US government's ambitions. Already, it has begun to execute a slow but comprehensive coup against the international order, destroying or undermining the institutions that might have sought to restrain it. On these pages two weeks ago, James Woolsey, an influential hawk and formerly the director of the CIA, argued for a war lasting for decades "to extend democracy" to the entire Arab and Muslim world. 
SARS Economic Impact Is Felt Across Wide Swath Of Industries 04-23-03 (Yahoo) Computer, electronics, apparel and other firms are edgy about supply-chain troubles as their Asian partners send thousands of workers home and shut assembly lines. "There's going to be a major disruption in the movement of high-value electronic components if expat managers can't fly in to service factories or major airlines stop delivering out of Asia," said Aberdeen Group's Peter Kastner. 

 LATIN AMERICA
Colombia, Venezuela to discuss border 04-24-03 (miami.com) The blue-green mountains of the Perijá range that rise just a short distance west of this small Venezuelan town mark the official border with neighboring Colombia. But if border residents, and the Colombian government itself, are to be believed, the border these days is little more than a line on a map, left increasingly unprotected by the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez, whom they accuse of allowing Colombian leftist guerrillas to cross back and forth virtually at will. 
Brazils leaders set on reforms 04-23-03 (Financial Times) In the decades-long battle over whether to expand the practice of gambling in America, this was supposed to be a big year for pro-gambling forces. With state budget crises hitting hard, 34 states are considering whether to expand gambling and tap into the geyser of cash it provides. 
Argentines Seek Leader to End Crisis 04-23-03 (Yahoo) Argentina's crushing economic crisis put Mercuri's architect husband, Enrique, out of work a year ago. Like tens of thousands of fellow Argentines, he went to Europe and found a job. "I don't know who will make the best president," said Mercuri, 51, who can't decide among the five major candidates seen in a tight race going into Sunday's election. "But I do feel bad for my country. I cry a lot. Things are so difficult here." 
Argentina Govt Sends Bank Compensation Bill To Congress 04-23-03 (Yahoo) The bill, a copy of which was faxed to Dow Jones Newswires late Tuesday, proposes to compensate the banks in long-term bonds that will mature in 2013. The government would start paying the compensation later this year. In order to receive the compensation, the bill says, a financial institution must take steps to return its ratio of private/public sector assets back to the level it was at the end of 2001, when the country's economic crisis reached its zenith. 

 RUSSIA
Russian Merger Creates a New Oil Giant 04-24-03 (Washington Post) Russia's biggest oil company, Yukos, today announced a deal to buy another major Russian oil firm, Sibneft, a move they said would create the fourth-largest private oil producer in the world. Yukos said the new company would produce 2.3 million barrels of crude oil a day, an amount surpassed only by British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group. If measured by the volume of proven oil reserves it controls in the ground, the new company would rank higher than any other private oil company 
New Russian bear enters oil market 04-23-03 (BBC) Sibneft, which leapt up the rankings last year when it snapped up Russia's last major state-owned oil concern Slavneft, is being bought by Russian number two Yukos. The new concern will control reserves totalling 20 billion barrels - not including Slavneft's - which outstrips the UK's entire North Sea reserves or the Prudhoe Bay fields in Alaska, the pair said in a statement. 

 ASIA
50 people quarantined in Philippines after contact with SARS fatality 04-23-03 (Yahoo) The government has tracked down another 200 people who had casual contact with the nursing assistant who died of suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) on April 14 following her return from Canada. She is believed to have contracted SARS from her roommate's mother in Canada, health workers here said Wednesday. Troy Gepte, a member of the Philippine government's anti-SARS task force, said 50 people in Alcala town, 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Manila, have been confined to their homes and were being monitored. 
Philippines suffers second suspected SARS death 04-23-03 (Yahoo) The health department said the man had been suffering from cancer but could not rule out Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as the cause of death. The unidentified patient's body will remain in quarantine in the state-run Research Institute for Tropical Medicine until later this month, a health department statement said. The man's daughter, a 46-year-old nursing assistant, died last week in what the government said was the first probable SARS fatality here. The woman died on April 14 shortly after returning to Manila from Canada where she had worked at a nursing home in Toronto. 

 AFRICA
Africa wakes up to Sars 04-24-03 (BBC) African countries are stepping up measures at ports and airports to detect travellers who might be carrying the Sars virus. Many Beijing residents are anxious to leave This follows warnings that the pneumonia-like disease poses a particular threat to people whose immune systems have been weakened by Aids. So far the continent has not been affected by Sars, although one suspected case is being investigated in South Africa. 

 OIL PRICES
OPEC to cut production to avert price slump: ministers 04-24-03 (Yahoo) "Tomorrow we will make sure we keep the market where it is in the band," Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Nuaimi told journalists in Vienna, a day ahead of a meeting in the Austrian capital of the 11-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, without the participation of Iraq. "We are concerned if we don't take some steps that an oil glut may form in two, three months," Al-Nuaimi said, with the possibility of Iraq resuming crude oil exports in the near future. Qatar Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, who is the OPEC president, said he thought there was a surplus on the world market of more than two million barrels per day (bpd). 
Oil From Iraq Fields Start Flowing Again 04-24-03 (Yahoo) U.S. Brig. Gen. Robert Crear turned the tap at a storage facility outside the southern city of Basra and watched as slick black crude dribbled from the spigot and oozed between his fingers. "Now we're in the oil business," Crear said, laughing. The oil will be used for domestic production, not for export. And the meager flow sprang from only four of hundreds of wells in Iraq's southern oil heartland. 
OPEC to Curb Oil Supply After Iraq War 04-24-03 (Yahoo) UAE Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri said OPEC should rein in excess supply over its official quotas, which ballooned to 1.8 million barrels per day last month. "I think we have to tackle first compliance," Nasseri told reporters ahead of the emergency session on Thursday. "Then we shall see if there is a need to cut and then we shall cut." 
Refining OPECs Quotas 04-24-03 (Washington Post) Before the war in Iraq, the world's key oil-producing countries boosted their daily production, fearing that conflict in the Persian Gulf might lead to shortages and soaring prices that could hurt the economies of their best customers. Now that the fighting has ended with little damage to Iraq's oil wells, ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will confront not a shortage but the possibility of an oversupply -- and falling prices -- when they meet Thursday at the group's headquarters in Vienna. Some of the 11 members, including Iran, Nigeria and Algeria, have called for production cuts of 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day from the current level of about 27 million barrels a day.