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Caracas, Venezuela-AP -- Venezuela's government is proposing a way out of the crisis that has gripped the nation for two months. It has rejected an opposition plan to cut President Hugo Chavez's (OO'-goh CHAH'-vezihz) term short. But it is proposing a referendum on his role later this year.

The opposition called a general strike in early December as a way of forcing Chavez out of office. The strike largely broke down this week.

The government proposal says opponents can start collecting signatures for a recall referendum in August -- which would be halfway through Chavez's term.

Chavez has repeatedly said a recall vote could actually be held in August.

The opposition says it has already collected more than four (m) million signatures for a constitutional amendment ending Chavez's term this year.

www.gazettenet.com By CHERYL B. WILSON, Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 4, 2003 -- AMHERST - Teaching and research will occupy center stage during the University of Massachusetts' inaugural festivities for Chancellor John V. Lombardi Thursday and Friday.

Lombardi, 60, a scholar of Latin America whose research focuses on Venezuela, also developed expertise in the management and evaluation of higher education when he was president of the University of Florida at Gainesville from 1990 to 1999. He has continued to teach throughout his administrative career.

Inauguration activities titled "The Academic Imperative" begin Thursday with symposia featuring nationally known UMass professors and researchers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. A concurrent series of panel discussions and lectures on teaching, research and learning begins at 9:30 a.m. on the lower concourse of the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center and continues until 5 p.m. All symposia are open to the public free of charge.

"I think it's terrific," said Barbara Osborne, professor of veterinary and animal sciences. She will discuss her research on white blood cells at 11:15 a.m., along with Derek Lovley, distinguished professor of microbiology, who will talk about his work with microbes that can generate electricity and restore polluted environments.

Osborne said, "It's a great way to showcase not just the faculty but the students, and what goes on around campus on all levels. To my recollection we have never had an event like this."

Gala dinner for 800

Symposia speakers are among more than 800 guests invited to a gala dinner in the Mullins Center beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday. Invitations were issued to major donors, significant volunteers, prominent alumni, government and community officials, deans and senior administrators, faculty involved with inaugural planning, student government leaders and Lombardi family and friends, said university news director Barbara Pitoniak.

The UMass Studio Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Holmes, will perform at the dinner. The group of 41 musicians recently was among 12 collegiate orchestras chosen from hundreds of applicants to perform in Toronto, Canada, for the conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators.

Speakers at the dinner include UMass President William Bulger, Alumni Association president Jess Kane, former IBM executive John Armstrong of Amherst, who is a longtime donor to UMass, and student trustee William Powers. Lombardi will also speak.

The dinner and all other inaugural expenses are financed by private contributions. UMass has raised more than $268,000 for the events, including $35,000 seed money for a new Chancellor's Merit Scholarship program. Lombardi is expected to announce details of the new student financial program soon.

The inaugural ceremonies

The inaugural ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. in the Mullins Center Friday. More than 3,000 people are expected to attend. The event is open to the public.

Chancellor Lombardi will deliver his inaugural address after being installed by Bulger and Grace K. Fey, trustee chairwoman.

John W. Ryan, president emeritus of Indiana University, where Lombardi taught and served in the administration for 20 years, also will speak.

"He is a leader in international education among many other things, and has been a driving force in the development of a number of international consortia and international institution building projects," Lombardi said. "I met John Ryan when I joined Indiana University in 1967, and he has served as friend and mentor for me ever since."

Ryan is a former UMass Boston chancellor and also worked on the Amherst campus, Lombardi said.

Another speaker is long-time Lombardi friend, German Carrera Damas, former ambassador to Mexico, Colombia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. "He is a very well known historian from Venezuela with a stellar international presence," Lombardi said, describing Carrera Damas as one of Latin America's premier intellectuals. He currently teaches at Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Provost Charlena Seymour will preside at the ceremonies and representatives of the faculty, staff and students will bring greetings as part of the program.

A reception will follow the ceremony in the Mullins Center concourse.

Lombardi became UMass Amherst chancellor on July 1, 2002. After serving as University of Florida president for nine years, he became director of the Center for Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences on the Gainesville campus. Prior to his work in Florida, Lombardi was provost at Johns Hopkins University.

Cheryl B. Wilson can be reached at cwilson@gazettenet.com.

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

Venezuela's government rejected an opposition proposal to cut President Hugo Chavez's term and instead suggested a referendum on his rule later this year as a way out of the country's political crisis, a negotiator said Tuesday.

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.

Chavez is a former army paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt 11 years ago Tuesday. Jailed for two years, he 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 a 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.

Julio Brazon, president of the Consecomercio business chamber, which represents about 450,000 businesses, said the strike was a "resounding success" because "an electoral solution to the crisis is in march."

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?"

The United States and five other countries have joined the OAS in mediating talks and seeking early elections.

Chavez claims his "revolutionary" government would crush the opposition at the ballot box. He said Sunday that he will prosecute strike leaders for sabotaging the economy.

www.zwire.com By HANK SCHALLER , Of The Oakland Press 02/04/2003 February 4, 2003

Fears of a war with Iraq and a continuing strike in Venezuela that has cut oil production there have caused gas prices in Oakland County to soar by more than a dime a gallon in the past two weeks. Motorists in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties were paying nearly 4 cents more a gallon at the pump Monday than the national average price of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline, according to AAA Michigan.

"The possible war with Iraq and the Venezuelan strike are the biggest factors that we hear about," said Nancy Cain, spokeswoman for AAA Michigan, which does a weekly survey of gas prices throughout Michigan and in the Detroit area.

That view was shared by Ed Weglarz, executive director of the Lansing-based Service Station Dealers of Michigan, a lobbying group for independent service station owners.

"Venezuela and a possible war in Iraq are the two prime factors," Weglarz said Monday. "That strike in Venezuela represents about 10 percent of all the imported oil the United States gets.

"The oil market is almost like the stock market. It doesn't like uncertainty so when there is any doubt, the price of crude oil goes up."

The increasing wholesale price of gas paid by service station owners has led to a situation where the profit margins seldom rise above three cents or four cents a gallon and some dealers, because of local competition, have to sell gas at cost, Weglarz said.

"Wholesale prices are changing as much as three times a week, with the largest price increases in January coming on Jan. 8 when wholesale prices rose nine cents and Jan. 21 when wholesale prices rose 11 cents a gallon," he said.

A survey of 100 service stations in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties conducted Monday found the average price of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline was $1.553 a gallon, up 7.5 cents over the past week and up 10.4 cents a gallon since Jan. 21.

Gas was selling for as little as $1.459 a gallon at some stations surveyed. Locally, the average price of gasoline is 33.1 cents a gallon higher than it was a year ago.

Meanwhile, a survey of 300 service stations throughout Michigan found the statewide average price of gasoline was $1.579 a gallon, up 4.4 cents over the past week and up 8.7 cents a gallon since Jan. 21. The statewide average price was up 41.4 cents a gallon from a year ago.

A nationwide survey of gas prices conducted by AAA Monday found that the nationwide average price of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline was $1.504 a gallon, up 2.7 cents a gallon over the past month.

Pressure on gas prices could continue to build Wednesday when Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to offer evidence to the U.N. Security Council in support of claims by the United States that Iraq possesses banned weapons.

On Feb. 14, Chief U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei will deliver a second progress report on weapon inspections, which could also help swing the diplomatic balance on military action against Iraq.

Although banks, shopping malls, factories and schools in Venezuela reopened Monday as a 64-day-old nationwide strike designed to topple President Hugo Chavez eased, a walkout continued in the oil industry.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have signed petitions demanding that Chavez resign.

Chavez said crude oil production in Venezuela is about 1.8 million barrels a day, down from 3 million barrels a day in November and as low as 150,000 barrels a day at the height of the strike. Striking workers say output is now slightly more than 1 million barrels a day.

Oil provides half of Venezuela's government income and over 70 percent of foreign exchange. The oil strike has cost more than $4 billion, the government estimates.

Gas prices up 10 cents Here's how the average price of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline has increased in the past two weeks in Oakland County:

• Jan. 21 - $1.449 a gallon
• Jan. 27 - $1.478
• Feb. 3 - $1.553

www.guardian.co.uk Tuesday February 4, 2003 4:30 PM

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's government rejected an opposition proposal to cut President Hugo Chavez's term and instead suggested a referendum on his rule later this year as a way out of the country's political crisis, a negotiator said Tuesday.

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.

Chavez is a former army paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt 11 years ago Tuesday. Jailed for two years, he 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 a 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.

Julio Brazon, president of the Consecomercio business chamber, which represents about 450,000 businesses, said the strike was a resounding success'' because an electoral solution to the crisis is in march.''

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?''

The United States and five other countries have joined the OAS in mediating talks and seeking early elections.

Chavez claims his ``revolutionary'' government would crush the opposition at the ballot box. He said Sunday that he will prosecute strike leaders for sabotaging the economy.