www.kansas.com Posted on Fri, Mar. 07, 2003 H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Gasoline prices are expected to continue their upward climb and reach a record national average of $1.76 a gallon in April, according to an Energy Department forecast.

It predicted gas prices will average about $1.70 a gallon for regular brands through the summer driving season.

Gasoline prices have soared during the past month because of high crude oil costs, heavy demand for heating oil and tight inventories of crude as well as most petroleum products.

Already many parts of the country have been paying $2 or more at the pump. This week prices soared on the West Coast, where refining problems added to the price spike.

Gasoline prices increased to an average of $1.68 a gallon nationally this week, a hike of nearly 3 cents from last week and 54 cents higher than a year ago. Prices on the West Coast took the biggest jump, increasing by 8.5 cents to $1.93 a gallon, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday.

"With the driving season beginning next month, pump prices are expected to continue to rise," said the EIA in a short-term energy forecast released Thursday.

The EIA said gasoline inventories remained tight, close to the lower end of the five-year average. This "is one of the reasons current pump prices are high," said the EIA, the department's statistical agency.

The $1.76 a gallon forecast for April would be a nickel more per gallon than the record high of $1.71 set in May 2001, said the agency.

These prices would still be somewhat of a bargain compared to gasoline costs in 1981 if inflation were taken into account, the EIA noted. Using today's dollar, motorists were paying the equivalent of $2.90 a gallon in March 1981, said the EIA.

The EIA said crude oil prices in February "moved higher than expected pushed by fears of war in Iraq, lower inventories (and) slow recovery of Venezuela's exports." The price of West Texas Intermediary, a benchmark crude, averaged $36 a barrel, a level not seen since October 1990, just months before the start of the Gulf War, the agency said.

Alluding to possible fighting in Iraq, the report said that "even without additional disruptions to world (oil) supply in the near term, prices are likely to remain on the high side and subject to substantial volatility through 2003."

Cold weather and tight supplies of both natural gas and heating oil caused residential heating bills to soar this winter.

The government estimated that if normal temperatures prevail through the end of this month, residential heating bills, compared with last year's cost, will be up by 30 percent for homes using natural gas, 60 percent for homes using oil, and 25 percent for homes using propane.

The cost of heating oil climbed to $1.83 cents a gallon this week, or 68 cents higher than a year ago, the government said. Propane increased to $1.72 a gallon, 60 cents more than a year ago. Natural gas prices have receded somewhat, but remain high.

ON THE NET Energy Information Administration: www.eia.doe.gov

www.fredericksburg.com By BRIAN BAER FREDERICKSBURG.COM

Jose Dávila paces a spacious stage, shouts rhythmically into an oversized microphone and, in an instant, takes command of the 300-seat room he stands before.

At times--when the Lord overwhelms him--Dávila bounces on his toes and his stout frame leaves the ground in dramatic bursts.

"Hallelujah!" he shouts. "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"

The word, one of the few understood by many present, echoes back at him.

Dávila's deep voice thunders up the aisles, into a foyer and, quite possibly, across the Strong Tower Ministries parking lot in southern Stafford County.

And then, suddenly, Dávila is still.

He's whispering now, eyes closed, left hand lifted toward the sky.

Before him, in long rows of interlocked folding chairs, dozens of followers watch the small man in the fancy dark suit, crisp white shirt and heavy black glasses.

Many have now opened their raised arms--the better to allow Jesus Christ into their prayer.

The unity service of both English- and Spanish-speakers is a prelude to the Rev. Jose Dávila's first all-Spanish worship planned for tomorrow at 4 p.m. Strong Tower plans to continue a service in Spanish the same time every Saturday afternoon.

On this night, halfway through Dávila's message, 14 Hispanics file in the back door and take seats a few rows from stage left.

Dávila is caught up in his sermon on "unity in the body of Christ" and doesn't notice the latecomers.

But he knew they would be there.

Just as he knew that he, a 43-year-old man from Venezuela, would be there, too.

God told him so.

Jose Dávila's story is one of God and Gospel, preaching and saving, family and faith.

But to stop there would sell short the journey that has brought him to this country, to this church, to this day.

Jose Dávila and his wife, Beatriz, both earned master's degrees in Venezuela; his in human resources, hers in occupational therapy.

Married in 1985, the two lived a good life--high-powered jobs, a nice home and busy social lives.

Dávila, an HR director for a large hospital, also had a few guilty pleasures.

He bet the horses, enjoyed a few drinks and loved to dance into the night at Caracas discos.

Raised a Catholic, he had many times resisted his father-in-law's invitation to visit an evangelical church. One Sunday 13 years ago, Dávila gave in.

The decision changed his life.

Dávila said God called out to him that morning, and he responded by accepting Jesus on the spot--in front of 3,000 parishioners.

Dávila dove into his new faith, completing three years of evangelical training in Venezuela.

In 1993, Dávila said God spoke to him again.

Go to America, he said the voice told him, and preach the Gospel to Hispanics in that country.

Two years later, an American company visited Venezuela in search of occupational therapists to work in the United States.

Beatriz Dávila was offered a job, her husband a new life.

Both quickly accepted.

"This is the answer," Jose Dávila thought.

The family--the Dávilas now had an 8-year-old daughter, Joysbeth--arrived in Miami where federal agents went so far as to pull apart the child's baby dolls looking for drugs.

Welcome to America, the family thought.

The Dávilas landed in Washington a few hours later, and the late-November cold drove Jose Dávila back into the National Airport terminal. His wife had to coax him back outside.

While Beatriz Dávila moved on to her job, her husband had nowhere to go. Unlike his wife, he had no work visa, spoke little English and knew no one.

Just months earlier, he was an executive, a corporate problem-solver with his own office.

Now a Burger King clerk was snapping at Dávila because he couldn't explain what kind of burger he wanted.

Dávila passed the time at home washing clothes, cooking meals and watching after his young daughter.

He picked up part-time work throwing Mary Kay makeup parties in the family's apartment. His wife translated his sales pitch.

He sold Oriental rugs and worked in a plant nursery, watering, spraying and moving greenery.

At one point, he collected glass bottles outside a high-school football stadium.

"God was humbling me," he said.

Today, Dávila drives a forklift for McLane Mid-Atlantic, a grocery distributor in Stafford County. He's often on his feet more than eight hours a day, pushing bottled water, Gatorade and other goods around a warehouse.

But he's found a sense of belonging.

He's earned a reputation as a champion pingpong player and will test his skills in a company tournament later this month.

For years, the family moved from one apartment to the next. They now live comfortably in an upper-middle class home in Stafford Lakes with their poodle, Spunky, and their new bird, Elvis.

After eight years, America has become a part of them.

Joysbeth, now a junior at Stafford High, makes fun of her dad's passion for Harrison Ford movies, especially "Air Force One."

Dávila also confesses a weakness for Macy's at the Pentagon City Mall and has a soft spot for country music star George Strait.

For her part, Joysbeth prefers rappers DMX and Ja Rule.

Although his English is still limited, Dávila now moves easily among local restaurants.

His favorites include the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Formosa, the Golden Corral and, a new find, the Paradise Diner on U.S. 17 in Falmouth.

The family still visits Venezuela for holidays and other special occasions, but Dávila no longer has the urge to stay there.

In an interview in his living room, he said, "This is home now."

The Dávilas have attended nine churches in America and have settled into this one.

Beatriz and Jose Dávila's sister, Joise Salgado, spotted Strong Tower Ministries when it was still a storefront church in the Lee's Plaza Shopping Center next to Hard Times Cafe.

They stopped in for a couple of services, and the family quickly found comfort.

Strong Tower now occupies a cavernous new building off Ferry Road, complete with a praise rock band, state-of-the-art sound system and huge screens for worship services.

A couple of parishioners work a sound board in the back of the sanctuary.

The computers are broken on this Sunday night, so the Spanish Jose Dávila speaks doesn't show up for people to sing or follow along with.

But Salgado, his sister, is on stage translating his message for the dozens of English-speakers who also have turned out for this unity service. The Rev. Kevin Mihlfeld, pastor of the church, calls it Torre Fuerte, which means Strong Tower in Spanish.

Along with the 14 Hispanics who arrive late, about 20 others are scattered about the room. Before the night ends, Dávila will hug each one.

But for now, he is talking, preaching, singing.

The title for his first praise song, "This is the Day," says as much as the lyrics.

The sanctuary is filled with applause, "Hallelujahs" and Hispanics rejoicing in the message of a Venezuelan man who gave up everything for this very moment.

For more information on services in Spanish at Strong Tower Ministries, call 374-1588 or on the Web at strongtowerministries .com/torrefuerte.html.

Date published: 3/7/2003

icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk Mar 7 2003 By Laura Davis Daily Post Staff   THE warship set to star in a naval version of hit television series Soldier Soldier docked in Liverpool yesterday.

HMS Grafton will provide the setting for the new drama Making Waves as the fictional frigate HMS Suffolk.

Officers and other personnel, many of whom are from Merseyside, may become extras in the six-part series which will mostly be filmed at sea.

Ship's captain Commander Richard Thomas, from Crosby, said: "It's absolutely marvellous. The ship's company is keyed up about being involved.

"There will be actors playing the principal roles but hopefully some of the crew will be extras."

Producers Carlton TV are currently casting for the series about the lives of Royal Navy officers and their families, which will start filming at the end of the month.

It is due to be shown on ITV1 later this year.

The visit to Liverpool this week is the first trip home for some of the crew since returning from from a drugsbusting mission in the Caribbean before Christmas.

During the six-month operation, they seized £100m of cocaine in a single bust and confiscated more than £11m of marijuana following high-speed chases.

The cocaine was found hidden in a secret compartment on board a small fishing boat, said Commander Thomas, who attended Merchant Taylors School for Boys, in Crosby.

"We were queued on to a vessel which had left Venezuela and was taking the drugs to the southern states of America.

"We followed it for 48 hours and covered 450 miles before we found the cocaine hidden in a compartment between the engine room and the crew's quarters," he said.

Realising the drugs had been discovered, the fishermen tried to sink their boat to destroy the evidence.

However, the HMS Grafton's crew managed to arrest them and hand the fishermen and the cocaine over to the Venezuelan authorities.

While on board, the ship's company sleeps in cramped cabins usually shared between two or three. There are only three officers permitted to navigate the ship, including Sub Lieutenant Simon Dixon, from Bootle, who studied at Hugh Baird College before joining the Royal Navy at 18.

Whilst in the Caribbean he worked an eight hour shift each day navigating from the ship's bridge.

He said: "It's quite an experience to come in to your own port on your own ship. I was bouncing off the walls with excitement when we sailed in.

"It's really a great life on board. I've already been to two continents and seen an awful lot of different places."

As well as filming, the following year will be spent on training the crew and carrying out maintenance work on the ship.

She and her crew are not lined up to take part in military action in the Gulf.

Sub Lieutenant Dixon, 22, said the company has mixed thoughts on the prospect of going to war.

He said: "It's never something you would hope for. We tend to think of ourselves as a peace keeping force.

"But it is something we've been trained to do and is just one of those things we have to accept."

www.canoe.ca By AP

CARACAS -- Venezuela's state oil monopoly is no longer in an emergency situation and is now able to fulfil its business contracts after output reached 2.6-million barrels a day yesterday, said President Hugo Chavez. Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. declared a "force majeure" in December, meaning a force out of the company's control made it impossible to fulfil contracts to supply oil. The force majeure had been in place since Dec. 5, three days after thousands of oil workers joined a failed general strike to demand early elections. The strike ended last month and Venezuela began gradually restoring production. Last month, PDVSA lifted a force majeure of on three types of crude oil produced in eastern Venezuela. Chavez said the force majeure on the rest of the types had been lifted yesterday. The South American country was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter before the strike, producing 3.2-million barrels a day. Output plunged to 200,000 barrels a day at the height of the walkout, depriving the country of the source of one-half of the government's income and 80% of export revenue.

www.unionleader.com The Associated Press

JOHN KERRYHAMPTON - Calling the Bush administration "frozen in the ice of indifference," Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said the president's failure to tap home heating oil reserves puts New Hampshire jobs in jeopardy.

In a speech prepared for delivery Friday, the presidential hopeful said the state faces a similar scenario to 1991, when a spike in energy prices before the Gulf War helped push the region into a severe recession.

"What's happening today sounds all too familiar. It's like the movie 'Groundhog Day,'" Kerry said in remarks prepared for the Hampton Democratic Committee's Jefferson-Jackson dinner. "But New Hampshire can't afford six more weeks of a snowy winter if the Bush Administration is frozen in the ice of indifference."

In a letter being sent to Bush on Friday, Kerry urged the president to release oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to cope with increasing oil prices in New England.

He said anecdotal evidence suggests that high oil prices have drained more than half a billion dollars from New England's already sluggish economy. The prospect of war with Iraq, decreased production in Venezuela and low stocks have led to prices 52 percent higher than last year, he said.

"I'm greatly concerned over how higher oil prices, and especially the rise in heating oil prices, may harm the overall economy, small and large businesses and family budgets in New England," he wrote.

Kerry was among a bipartisan group of senators who sent a similar letter to Bush last month. In that letter, the group noted that about 69 percent of the nation's 7.7 million households using heating oil are in the Northeast, and that the reserve was created to help families through such rough times.

New Hampshire Republicans Sen. Judd Gregg and U.S. Rep. Charles Bass have been among those urging Bush to release the oil reserve.

Last week, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham dismissed a request by a group of New England heating oil companies that the government make available some of the 2 million barrels of heating oil from the Northeast reserve.

He told senators that emergency oil stocks will not be used to dampen soaring energy prices unless severe supply shortages arise.