There was a man who had worked all his life and had saved all his money and was a real miser.

He loved money more than anything, and just before he died, he said to his wife, "Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me."

And so he got his wife to promise him with all of her heart that when he died, she would put all of the money in the casket with him.

Well, he died.

He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black,and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said, Wait just a minute! She had a box with her, she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down,and they rolled it away.

So her friend said, "Girl, I know you weren't fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband."

She said, "Listen, I'm a God-fearing woman and can't go back on my word. I promised him that I was gonna put that money in that casket with him."

"You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him!"

"I sure did," said the wife. "I wrote him a check."

Never underestimate the intelligence of a woman.

abcnews.go.com The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela Feb. 4 —

President Hugo Chavez celebrated Tuesday's anniversary of a 1992 coup attempt that launched his political career while opposition leaders trying to oust him mourned those killed in the botched putsch.

Under international pressure to end Venezuela's political crisis, Chavez's government rejected an opposition proposal to shorten his presidential term and instead suggested a referendum on his rule though it would take place far later than the opposition wants.

About 20 Chavez supporters briefly attacked the offices of Caracas' opposition mayor with gunfire, rocks and slingshots after a ceremony marking the Feb. 4, 1992, coup bid against President Carlos Andres Perez.

Five people were hurt by rocks and marbles flung by slingshots, said Ramon Muchacho, head of security for Mayor Alfredo Pena. National guard troops dispersed the "chavistas" with tear gas.

"How long is the government going to call for peace while it promotes this violence?" said Muchacho.

Chavez has declared Feb. 4 a day of "national jubilee," but few observed it as millions returned to work at the end of a 66-day-old strike that failed to force Chavez's ouster.

According to Provea, an independent human rights group, 17 soldiers and more than 80 civilians were killed during the 1992 coup led by Chavez, then an army paratroop commander. Fifty-one troops were wounded.

Chavez was jailed for two years, then embarked on a quest that led him to the presidency in 1998 on an anti-poverty platform. He was re-elected to a six-year term in 2000.

"February 4th wasn't a coup," Chavez said Tuesday, wearing a red beret similar to one he wore when he was captured in 1992. "It was a volcano that erupted from the moral depths of the military youth who rebelled against a military elite submissive to corrupt governments."

Anti-Chavez protesters mourned the 1992 dead. "Those deaths went unpunished," said opposition leader Jesus Torrealba.

Opposition TV stations and newspaper advertisements urged citizens to wear black clothing, turn their house lights off for a half-hour late Tuesday and fly Venezuelan flags at half staff.

The anniversary came at the end of an opposition strike that didn't oust Chavez but did hobble Venezuela's oil industry, the fifth-largest exporter in the world. The strike also managed to bring international pressure on Chavez and opposition leaders to find an electoral solution to Venezuela's political crisis.

Ronald Blanco la Cruz, a government negotiator at talks mediated by the Organization of American States, said the only acceptable proposal was a binding referendum on Chavez's presidency.

While Chavez has said the vote could be held in August, Blanco de la Cruz said efforts to organize the vote could only begin in August.

"This doesn't bring us any closer to a peaceful electoral solution," said Alfonzo Marquina, a member of the opposition Democratic Action party. "It could push the solution back as far as next year."

Blanco la Cruz rejected an opposition proposal to hold a referendum that could change the constitution, shorten Chavez's term to four years, and hold early general elections.

"Otherwise, people would start collecting signatures as soon as a president is elected," Blanco la Cruz told the state-run Venezolana de Television.

Chavez scoffed at opposition claims to have collected 4 million signatures for a referendum in a nationwide drive on Sunday.

"To hide the huge defeat we dealt them, they're saying they collected 4 million signatures in one day," Chavez said. "Well, let them believe their stories. Let them believe their lies."

Before any vote can be organized, the Chavez-controlled National Assembly must appoint a new National Electoral Council.

Shopping malls, fast food restaurants and factories reopened Tuesday, but the walkout continued at the state-owned oil monopoly. Chavez's government has raised oil production to more than 1 million barrels a day about a third of pre-strike production.

www.nzherald.co.nz 05.02.2003 8.30 am

LONDON - Oil prices rose on Tuesday as differences of opinion between France and Britain over Iraq unnerved traders already edgy ahead of a US presentation to the UN that could press the case for war against Baghdad. Benchmark Brent crude was up 65 cents by 1730 GMT (6.30am NZDT) at US$30.90 a barrel while New York light crude was 62 cents higher at US$33.86.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's closest ally in the Iraq crisis, on Tuesday failed to coax French President Jacques Chirac into softening his opposition to swift military action against Iraq.

Both leaders said differences remained over how to ensure Iraq does not possess weapons of mass destruction, but they agreed disarmament should take place through the UN Security Council.

"As far as Iraq is concerned, we have different approaches but first and foremost we have two convictions which are fundamental and are shared," Chirac told a news conference after talks with Blair.

"The first is that we have to disarm Iraq, and the second conviction that we share is that this has to be undertaken within the Security Council of the United Nations. Regarding that, we are entirely in agreement," he said.

But Chirac went on to say that war was the worst possible solution.

"(The price rise) is all from the Blair-Chirac talks," said analyst Mark Head of brokers Fimat Banque in London. "The market wants to make something bullish out of it, that's what it boils down to."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said he would provide "sober and compelling proof" that Baghdad is hiding banned weapons from UN arms inspectors when he addresses a session of the UN Security Council beginning at 4.30am Thursday (NZDT).

The US has vowed to disarm Iraq, by force if necessary, action which traders say could disrupt supplies not only from Iraq but also from other producers in the oil-rich Middle East.

Nervousness over Iraq outweighed the effect of rising crude output from oil exporter Venezuela as the protracted strike there starts to unravel.

Opec officials are now starting to fret over a possible oil surplus in the second quarter.

Cartel President Abdullah al-Attiyah said today a recovery in exports from strike-bound Venezuela meant the cartel might need to cut supplies in the second quarter, despite the threat of war in Iraq.

"Given the scenario as it is today, we could have a three-million barrel-per-day glut," Attiyah said, adding that demand usually declines by two million bpd in the second quarter on the 77 million bpd world market.

Opec ministers meet in Vienna on March 11.

Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Opec faced two choices at its March meeting, to maintain its official production ceiling or cut output.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said at the weekend Venezuela was pumping close to 1.8 million bpd, up from a low of 150,000 bpd after the strike began in December and more than half of the 3.1 million bpd pumped in November.

Strikers said today that crude output was running at 1.2 million bpd.

Data from shipping agents indicated Venezuela's oil exports rose to 890,000 bpd in the week to February 1 from 550,000 bpd the previous week.

www.bayarea.com Posted on Tue, Feb. 04, 2003

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Supporters of President Hugo Chavez opened fire today on the offices of Caracas' opposition mayor today, injuring four people in an attack that marred the government's commemoration of the 11th anniversary of a failed coup led by Chavez.

The brief assault on the offices of Mayor Alfredo Pena began after government officials, including Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, honored the coup anniversary at a nearby plaza.

When Rangel and the other officials left the area, about 20 Chavez supporters fired handguns and threw rocks at city hall.

Three police officers and a civilian were injured, said the head of the mayor's security office, Ramon Muchacho. A fire official said the injuries were caused by rocks and sticks and that nobody was hit by the gunfire.

National guardsmen fired tear gas to disperse the rioters and arrested several. The mayor was not at city hall at the time of the attack.

The incident raised tensions as a 66-day-old opposition strike against Chavez was winding down. Six people have died in political violence since the strike began Dec. 2.

Earlier today, a government official rejected an opposition proposal to cut Chavez's term and instead suggested a referendum on Chavez's rule later this year to end the country's political crisis.

Ronald Blanco la Cruz, a government negotiator at talks mediated by the Organization of American States, said that under the government's proposal, opponents can start collecting signatures for a so-called recall referendum in August, halfway into Chavez's six-year term.

That was sure to infuriate the opposition, which says it already has collected more than 4 million signatures for a constitutional amendment ending Chavez's term this year and calling new elections.

Chavez repeatedly has pledged that a recall vote can be held in August -- not just that it can start to be organized, as indicated by Blanco la Cruz.

Blanco la Cruz, governor of Tachira state, also said the government has rejected the opposition's proposals to amend the constitution.

``Otherwise, people would start collecting signatures as soon as a president is elected,'' he told the government's Venezolana de Television.

Venezuela's constitution requires signatures from 20 percent of 11 million registered voters -- roughly 2.2 million people -- to demand a recall vote.

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria has been mediating talks since November to try to end Venezuela's political deadlock.

He received a boost when former President Jimmy Carter laid out two options for Venezuela: a recall vote in August, or a constitutional amendment shortening Chavez's term to four years with an early election.

Jailed for two years after the failed coup attempt, Chavez was elected president in 1998 on an anti-poverty platform and re-elected in 2000. His current term ends in January 2007.

Citing economic and political turmoil, Venezuela's opposition launched the general strike Dec. 2 to seek his ouster.

The strike crumbled this week as workers in all industries except oil returned to their jobs. The government, meanwhile, raised oil production to 1.2 million barrels a day, up from 1.1 million barrels over the weekend, according to dissident staff at the state oil company.

Venezuela produced 3.2 million barrels a day before the strike. It is a major supplier of crude to the United States and the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.

Venezuela was expected to add 200,000 more barrels per day in the coming weeks, staff at Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. said.

Fear of bankruptcy and shortages of gasoline and other essentials prompted leaders to end the strike. But they proclaimed victory, saying the strike had drawn pressure from the international community on Chavez to resolve the stalemate.

Some analysts disagreed.

The strike reflected the disorganization of the opposition,'' said Riordan Roett, director of Western Hemisphere studies at Johns Hopkins University. It was anti-Chavez but never pro-anything. What were they going to replace Chavez with?''

ogj.pennnet.com By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Feb. 4 -- Forecasts of colder weather pushed natural gas prices toward a new 2-year high in the New York market Monday, while oil prices retreated as traders accepted claims by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that Venezuela's oil production has rebounded to at least 1.5 million b/d.

There were even indications of market fears of an oversupply of oil if Venezuela's production returns to its prestrike level of 3 million b/d during a seasonal decline in world demand for oil during the second quarter of this year. An agreement this week among Chávez's opponents to end the nonoil segment of a general strike aimed at forcing him from power apparently convinced traders that the 65-day crisis will not last much longer.

However, some industry analysts and political experts have predicted that it will take from 4 months to 2 years for Venezuela to return its oil production to prestrike levels (OGJ Online, Jan. 27, 2003). Some project that 400,000 b/d or more of Venezuela's production may have been permanently lost because of damage to wells and formations while production was shut in (OGJ Online, Feb. 3, 2003).

Meanwhile, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Qatar's minister of energy and conference president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said OPEC ministers have no plans to meet prior to their scheduled Mar. 11 gathering in Vienna. "Only at OPEC's March meeting will we discuss all options and how to react to the market situation then," he told Gulf News at the 2003 Environment and Energy Exhibition and Conference that opened Sunday in Abu Dhabi.

The March contract for benchmark US sweet, light crudes lost 75¢ to $32.76/bbl Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April position declined 58¢ to $32.16/bbl. Heating oil for March delivery fell 1.45¢ to 91.81¢/gal. Unleaded gasoline for the same month was down 0.92¢ to 95.68¢/gal.

However, the March natural gas contract jumped by 16.1¢ to $5.77/Mcf on NYMEX. "The market opened substantially lower around $5.50(/Mcf) but quickly rallied to about $5.70(/Mcf) by mid-morning and above $5.80(/Mcf) shortly after noon. Prices in the afternoon settled back somewhat, but with a steady close. Heavy fund and technical buying pushed the market through buy-stops at $5.61 and $5.75(/Mcf)," said analysts at Enerfax Daily.

They said a rupture Sunday night of a 24-in. segment of El Paso Corp.'s ANR Pipeline near Viola, Ill., helped boost gas futures and cash prices Monday. El Paso officials reported the rupture is being repaired and is under investigation (OGJ Online, Feb. 3, 2003). No breach of service was reported.

Meanwhile, colder-than-normal weather last week is expected to lead to an Energy Information Administration report Thursday of another large withdrawal from US underground storage, analysts said. "Look for a draw of about 200-210 bcf, compared with a withdrawal of only 78 bcf a year ago, and a 5-year average draw of 120 bcf," Enerfax analysts said. "According to Lehman Brothers, weather-normalized draws averaged 6 bcfd, or 42 bcf/week, more than the 5-year average. But a lot of additional volumes are also flowing out of storage to take advantage of the high prices. Futures volume (Monday) was about 85,000 contracts, with 35,000 spreads. Volume on Friday was 77,778 contracts."

In London, the March contract for North Sea Brent oil lost 85¢ to $30.25/bbl Monday on the International Petroleum Exchange. The March natural gas contract retreated 2.8¢ to the equivalent of $2.77/Mcf on IPE.

The average price for OPEC's basket of seven benchmark crudes lost 42¢ to $30.29/bbl Monday.