Iraqi Oil Minister to Visit Moscow To Talk Contracts--New World Media Watc

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR OCTOBER 29, 2003

1//The Moscow Times, Russia--IRAQI OIL MINISTER TO VISIT MOSCOW TO TALK CONTRACTS (Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Mohammed Bahr al-Ulum will visit Moscow for the first time since taking up his post to discuss the future of contracts between Russian oil companies and the former regime, an Iraqi official said…"We want to meet him as we are looking to understand whether all the contracts signed with the previous regime are still considered valid," an Energy Ministry official said in Moscow. "We need to discuss at least six big projects, including those of LUKoil. We still believe that these contracts have been signed with the legitimate authorities and see no reason why they should not be respected.")



2/The Daily Star, Lebanon--WILL RUSSIA CHALLENGE OPEC IN GLOBAL OIL SUPPLY? (The surprise decision recently announced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut daily production by 900,000 barrels starting November is widely expected by energy analysts to tighten the global market and also generate higher revenues for oil producers, especially those from the Gulf. But muddying the situation is what Russia which is the world’s biggest oil producer outside OPEC­ may do about increasing its exports this winter, the analysts say. Analysts ask if a confrontation between Russia and Saudi Arabia over market share is shaping up.)



3//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--TOP NK DEFECTOR ARRIVES IN WASHINGTON (Former North Korean Workers Party secretary Hwang Jang-yeop arrived at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington D.C. on Monday afternoon after a stop-over in New York…U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a regular briefing that Hwang’s visit was initiated by the Defense Forum Foundation, a non-governmental organization, and was a private visit…The conservative daily paper the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that activists in the United States and South Korea are urging Hwang to announce the establishment of a refugee government during his visit. The paper also said that some supporters expect Hwang to become the new leader of North Korea if Kim Jong Il is deposed.)



4//World Press Review, USA--A BOLDER EGYPTIAN OPPOSITION? (Opposition to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government is getting louder and bolder. Public figures are more willing to trespass beyond the unwritten boundaries of political life. The economy is in dire straits. The Egyptian pound is sliding in value against the dollar and other foreign currencies, pushing up prices in a country that relies on subsidized basic commodities and a huge annual influx of U.S. aid…Anger is also bubbling beneath the surface over signs that Mubarak might try to anoint his son Gamal as his political heir.)



5//The Independent, UK--‘PRESIDENT BUSH IS NOT AUTOMATICALLY WRONG’(Mosey says that assumptions within the BBC are "something we need to be alert about all the time", and he insists that he and all of his colleagues "recognise the need to make sure that our journalism tests all viewpoints. That includes challenging the liberal-left consensus." Mosey is responding to the persistent allegation that the corporation has an inherent left-wing bias. The charge is made most vocally in The Daily Telegraph's Beebwatch column, which was instigated by the paper's former editor Charles Moore six weeks after his proprietor, Conrad Black, wrote that a "virulent culture of bias" within the corporation had transformed it into "the greatest menace facing the country".)