www.msnbc.com By Alex Robertson Textor ARTHUR FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL

    Mar. 6 —  Amsterdam and Stockholm, with their active travel markets of globetrotting locals looking to head abroad to warmer climates throughout the year, are ideal places to shop for deals to exotic hot spots: Tunisia or the Canary Islands, Turkey or the coast of Portugal, the Greek Islands and more. You simply travel to Europe on one of the current ultra-cheap airfares, and then pay far less for a week’s vacation than you would had you booked at home. As a bonus, you spend a couple of days (or not) in one of these super-sophisticated cities and then jet off for a week in the sun. What’s more, the deals are open to any and all comers.  

       WE’LL FOCUS on the Amsterdam scene as an example of how to take advantage of this budget travel phenomenon, but we’ll also provide the vitals on doing the same in Stockholm for such deals as a week in Turkey for $150 (airfare and hotel included) or two weeks in Tunisia for $250.         WHERE THEY GO        For the most part there is uniformity of vacation destinations among the bargain vacation chains of the Netherlands and Sweden. The least expensive packages are to Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Malta, Tunisia, Spain (including the Canary Islands) and Portugal (including Madeira). Further afield, inexpensive packages from Northern Europe have recently included Brazil, the Caribbean, the Gambia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Venezuela. Some of these packages are offered directly through tour operators, others through consolidators (ticket discounters to the lay person) and yet others through individual budget travel agencies (see sidebar for full list).

               A taste of some recent non-summer package offers we found while researching: from Amsterdam, a week on Portugal’s Algarve coast can run as low as E189 ($204), or a week in Turkey can be as inexpensive as E149 ($161), including some meals. Also from Amsterdam, two weeks in north Tunisia can be had for an amazing E245 ($265).        From Stockholm for 1895 SKr ($225) you can jet off to the Canary Islands for a week, or two weeks in the Canary Islands can run as low as 2798 SKr ($332). An “actual” last minute deal turned up a week in Egypt from Stockholm for 1298 SKr ($154). All of these costs are per person based on double occupancy and include airfare and accommodation.        Most of the cheapest deals are not meal-inclusive, which means that you’ll need to find your own food, but many of these packages will place you in three-star (or better) hotels. Others will land you and your traveling companion in small studios with basic kitchen facilities. Many of these packages offer various opportunities for local tours but will very seldom lock you into any sort of program. In other words, you’ll be free to branch out and get away from your package vacation-mates.                Most deals are advertised online but require telephone or in-store purchase, either through a clearinghouse or through the individual operator. Once you have an idea of which deal you’d like, you can either book it before you leave the U.S. (if you feel more comfortable), but better yet, wait until you’re in Amsterdam or Stockholm and clinch the deal in person. This is not only for ease of booking, but also for the possibility of finding an even better, last-minute deal once you’re there. How to book deals in person in Amsterdam is detailed below.        Obviously, you need to have some flexibility in your travel plans to secure these on-the-spot deals. You’ll do well if the specifics of your departure are negotiable, and you’ll do even better if you’re open to several different potential destinations. Same day travel and group travel may further lower travel costs.          Author Gretchen Kelly answers your questions on business travel. Submit questions now!         GOING DUTCH        Once you get to Amsterdam, it won’t be hard to find one of these dirt-cheap travel companies. A budget travel company called D-Reizen has ten travel stores dispersed throughout Amsterdam. One D-Reizen office, at Beethovenstraat 21 in the south of Amsterdam, conveniently offers another wholesale travel company Rottink Reisburo, right next door.        D-Reizen’s other stores in Amsterdam are located just outside of the tourist zone. Two (at Ferdinand Bolstraat 58-60 and van Woustraat 207) are in Amsterdam’s De Pijp neighborhood. The Amstelveenseweg 210 location sits on the Western edge of the Vondelpark. Also in Amsterdam, Fast Minute Travel is located just a stone’s throw from Amsterdam’s Centraal Station. Fast Minute prefers to make reservations online or by phone, but will gladly direct you to their call center-cum-informal office.        Many other companies are oriented toward online transactions. These include Holidayspot, Travelbrokers, Superlastminutes and Vakantie Discounter. All but Travelbrokers have telephone contact information listed below. If American tourists do not want to make reservations by telephone, they can contact these companies to determine if there is a way to buy tickets in person. Fast Minute in Amsterdam offers in-person purchase, and they are happy to give their office location to prospective customers contacting them by telephone or email.        (The telephone numbers listed below are written for dialing from within the Netherlands. When dialing from North America, use the prefix 011-31, then drop the first zero from all the numbers listed below.)         Aloha Travel. (www.aloha-travel.nl) 010-436-57-57, Eendrachtsplein 1a, 3015 LA Rotterdam. Aloha specializes in packages to Brazil and Venezuela. D-Reizen. (www.d-reizen.nl) With more than 150 sales offices in the Netherlands, D-Reizen is a discount (and regular fare) vacation package consolidator leader. Fast Minute. (www.fastminute.nl) 020-427-91-92. Favors online and telephone reservations, though also sells through its call center located near Amsterdam’s Centraal Station. Holidayspot. (www.holidayspot.nl) 0900-345-66-54 (E0.20/minute) email contact information via English language version of website. Good range of worldwide destinations. Lastminute.com (www.nl.lastminute.com) 0900-405-06-07 (E.15/minute). The Dutch version of lastminute.com. Rottink Reisburo. (www.rottinkreisburo.nl) sales offices throughout the Netherlands. Like D-Reizen, a major vacation package chain. Suntrex. (www.suntrex.nl) 030-275-30-35, Biltstraat 190, 3572 BR Utrecht. Suntrex specializes in packages to Greece, Portugal and Turkey. Sunweb. (www.sunweb.nl) 010-280-21-30. Great selections to the Canary Islands, Egypt, Portugal and Turkey. Superlastminutes. (www.superlastminutes.com) 053-480-77-33; info@superlastminutes.com. Canary Islands and Portugal are especially well represented here. Travelbrokers. (www.travelbrokers.nl) info@travelbrokers.nl. Good offerings to Greece, Turkey, Spain, Malta and Portugal, with further great values to North Africa. Vakantie Discounter. (www.vakantiediscounter.nl) 026-351-51-20; infoEvakantiediscounter.nl. Cheap options to Turkey, Malta, Canary Islands, Portugal and mainland Spain.          Like this story? Have the travel news delivered to your inbox every morning. Click here to sign up for our free e-mail newsletter!         THOSE SAVINGS-SAVVY SWEDES        (Again, the telephone numbers listed here are written for dialing from within the Sweden. When dialing from North America, use the prefix 001-46 for Sweden, and then drop the first zero from all the numbers        listed below in all cases but that of Flygtorget. When dialing Flygtorget from North America, simply dial 011 before the listed international number.)         Always. (www.always.se) 0771-340-350. Offers many last minute packages from Stockholm. Recent cheap offerings included Egypt and the Canary Islands. Apollo. (www.apollo.se) 0771-37-37-37. Nine sales offices in Sweden; two in Stockholm. Apollo’s “actual” last minute package fares are often shockingly inexpensive. Highly recommended. Detur. (www.detur.se) info@detur.se. Detur focuses on destinations in Turkey and Tunisia. Flygtorget. (www.flygtorget.se/resor) 0200-21-57-00 (outside of Sweden 46-8-505-504-30). Good consolidation site, with extensive listings. Fritidsresor. (www.fritidsresor.se) 0771-84-01-00, 12 sales offices in Sweden. Good standard Mediterranean and Asia offerings. My Travel. www.mytravel.se) 0771-230-230. My Travel offers last minute deals and vacation auctions, some of which can be quite inexpensive. Resfeber. (www.resfeber.se) bokningen@resfeber.se. Another great consolidator service. Ticket. (www.ticket.se) 0771-456-789. Yet another handy consolidator. Travelstart. (www.travelstart.se) 0200-110-255. A great consolidator. Ving. (www.ving.se) 0771-995-995. Part of the My Travel group.         CROSSING THE POND        Getting to Amsterdam or Stockholm is a breeze with flexible and wallet-friendly deals from purveyors like Go-Today.com        (www.go-today.com) and Europe Express (www.europeexpress.com) which regularly offer multi-night air and hotel packages to either city starting in the $399 to $599 range. They’ll easily extend the date of your return flight to your specifications, allowing you ample time to enjoy your vacation deal.                {Editor’s Note: Have you used a bucket shop in Europe? Do you have an instructive anecdote, tip or horror story to share? We’d love to hear it and possibly reprint it in our letters to the editor column. Simply click here to send a letter to our editors.}                Copyright © 2003 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc.        

www.milforddailynews.com Associated Press Thursday, March 6, 2003

WASHINGTON -- President Bush ordered a rush of oil into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the Energy Department stopped its practice of holding off shipments to the reserve when prices got high or supplies got tight.

A report by Senate Democrats yesterday maintained the decision, which diverted 40 million barrels of crude from the markets into the government-owned reserve last year, helped drive up gasoline and other energy prices.

With markets tight and oil prices high, refiners dipped into their inventories to replace the oil going into the government reserve, said the report produced by the Democratic staff of the Senate Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee.

"We're confident this had a significant impact on the price of oil in 2002," Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee and its chairman last year.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham rejected the notion that the government's decision significantly affected energy prices. He said the amount was too small to have an impact.

"The principal issue here is national security, and we believe and continue to believe that enlarging the amount of emergency reserves we have in the strategic reserve is very important to America's energy and national security," said Abraham.

A department spokesman, Joe Davis, added that the reason inventories dropped was OPEC's decision to cut production in early 2002, a decline in Iraqi oil exports and losses of oil from Venezuela last December. As for oil that went to the SPR, "we're talking about a drop in the bucket," said Davis.

Some critics also have said taxpayers have lost million of dollars because of oil acquisitions for the reserve during periods of high prices. While the government does not technically buy oil, it accepts oil in lieu of royalty payments on oil pumped from federal land.

At 100,000 barrels a day, filling the reserve when crude was selling at $30 a barrel rather than $20 a barrel cost taxpayers $1 million a day in lost royalties, the Levin report said.

During 2002, when oil was diverted steadily into the strategic reserve, oil prices climbed steadily from the low $20s early in the year to over $30 a barrel by September. After easing a bit, prices soared again toward the end of 2002, remaining largely above $30 a barrel as crude inventories tightened. War jitters have caused prices to continue their climb this year, recently passing $37 a barrel before retreating modestly.

The department reversed course on filling the reserve last December, with Venezuelan oil production halted and commercial inventories extremely low, and suspended delivery of oil to the SPR from December through March. On Tuesday, it said April deliveries also would be deferred.

Levin said such a decision should have been made a year ago, arguing that the reserve already has plenty of oil to meet emergency needs. Currently there are 600 million barrels of crude -- equivalent to four months of oil imports from the Middle East -- stored in salt caverns on the Gulf Coast.

Before December, oil company requests for deferrals of deliveries to SPR were routinely denied, the report said.

Internal DOE documents indicated that career officials involved in the SPR program cautioned that private oil inventories could suffer, leading to higher prices.

"Commercial petroleum inventories are low, retail product prices are high and economic growth is slow," said one memo from a senior SPR official in late May of 2002. "The government should avoid acquiring oil for the reserve under these circumstance." Such purchases "would be difficult to defend," he continued.

A reduction in private oil inventories equal to amounts put into the SPR "could have a substantial price impact," said another memo, obtained by Levin's subcommittee.

John Shages, a director of policy for the SPR program, expressed his concern last June that filling the reserve could significancy impact private crude stocks and force up prices.

He characterized the SPR diversions as potentially "a powerful 30 million barrel reduction of private inventory over 10 months" if the oil is not replaced by OPEC or other producers. "Come December ... we will have higher prices, nervous traders, a more confident OPEC..."

Commercial crude inventories declined from 310 million barrels to 280 million barrels during 2002 and another 10 million barrels early this year. Energy economists have cited the low inventories as a key reason for the sharp price increases of crude as well as gasoline and heating oil.

In April 2002, a BP executive repeatedly sought to have a scheduled delivery to the SPR postponed, according to e-mails obtained by the Senate investigators.

"Oil prices keep rising," wrote James Dyer to Michael Waggoner at the SPR office. "As of this morning we calculate a year's deferral would be worth an extra 750,000 to you," Dyer wrote, referring to the premium in barrels that BP would agree to pay for later delivery.

But the department said no.

In October, Marathon Ashland Petroleum asked to defer its scheduled shipment to the SPR because a hurricane had kept oil from getting to its Louisiana refinery and it needed all the crude it could get. The refinery had "nearly depleted all its crude oil working inventory," wrote Marathon Ashland's Daniel Pears to Waggoner.

His request was also denied.

www.timesdaily.com By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press Writer March 06. 2003 1:44AM

After falling two stories and breaking his leg, construction worker Carlos Bolivar waited in a hospital for more than 24 hours, without painkillers, for doctors to set his femur in a cast. "My family had to get a loan to pay for my medicine and other things needed for the cast," said Bolivar, 22, sprawled on a metal stretcher in the Perez de Leon public hospital in Caracas. "That's why it took so long." Supply shortages in public hospitals - a problem in this impoverished country for years - have sharpened since President Hugo Chavez imposed strict controls on foreign exchange in January. The controls are meant to protect the bolivar currency, which lost 25 percent of its value during a failed two-month strike to force early elections. The strike began Dec. 2 and fizzled last month. Chavez said he would use the controls to punish big businesses that participated in the strike, while giving priority to importers of staples such as food and medicine. Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, gets almost all of its medicine and 60 percent of its raw materials abroad. For two months, however, no one has gotten dollars. In January, the government suspended dollar sales, saying it needed time to implement the controls. The suspension ended last month, but the government has yet to put the new rules in practice or sell any dollars. On Wednesday, the government promised to provide $645 million this month to staples importers. The flow of dollars will come none too soon at the Perez de Leon hospital, where shelves in stockrooms are nearly empty. Tucked in Petare, one of Caracas' poorest districts, the hospital is flooded with patients from the surrounding shantytowns. After taking their loved ones to the hospital, relatives are often sent by doctors and nurses to buy syringes, antibiotics, painkillers and gauze bandages at nearby pharmacies. "Unfortunately, patients have to bring almost everything," said Dr. Luis Azpura, project coordinator at the hospital. "Sometimes the availability of supplies means the difference between life and death." The new controls scheme is affecting all Venezuelans. It includes limits on the number of trips businessmen can make overseas. Venezuelans cannot use credit cards abroad and are limited in the amount of foreign currency they can take overseas. The government pegged the bolivar at 1,598 to the dollar, but it's trading as high as 2,800 on the black market. The government is drafting legislation that would punish those who deal on the black market with up to 14 years in prison. Fedecamaras, Venezuela's largest business chamber, warned that 25 percent of import-reliant business risk bankruptcy while waiting in line for dollars behind medicine and food importers. But price controls accompanying the new exchange system have temporarily succeeded in keeping the cost of food down, the Venezuela-American Chamber of Commerce acknowledged in a report Wednesday.

www.stltoday.com By Patrick L. Thimangu Of the Post-Dispatch updated: 03/06/2003 06:47 PM

The average price of gasoline in St. Louis jumped more than 8 percent Wednesday, in sync with the volatility that has rocked U.S. energy markets for the last month.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve unleaded regular in the metro area rose to $1.68, from $1.55 on Tuesday, according to AAA Missouri.

Gasoline prices have been rising in the last year nationwide, but they shot up last month when crude-oil prices came close to $40 a barrel. The run-up was sparked by worries about war in Iraq and low production in Venezuela, a major oil exporter that has had labor and political problems.

Demand for energy to heat houses and businesses also has been high, because of the cold winter.

The spike in crude-oil prices also showed up at gasoline pumps in St. Louis, where a gallon of regular unleaded rose to $1.72 on Feb. 13. Gasoline had never been that expensive in the region at this time of the year, said Mike Right, who compiles a regular survey of prices at gas stations in south and west St. Louis County for AAA.

Area gasoline prices reached the record high, $1.77 a gallon, on May 17, 2001, he said.

In some parts of the nation, gasoline prices passed $2 a gallon last week. On Wednesday, a gallon of gasoline was selling for an average of $1.97 in California and $1.50 in Georgia, according to GasBuddy Organization Inc., a nonprofit group that tracks gasoline price trends across the United States and Canada.

Jason Toews, co-founder of GasBuddy, said prices in St. Louis have mirrored trends in other U.S. cities in the last few weeks.

He said crude-oil prices are falling - crude oil for April delivery closed at $36.69 Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange - but that doesn't mean prices at the pump will drop immediately.

In fact, the increase in retail prices now could be the result of last week's futures run-up, Toews said.

"We are seeing prices go up all over the country," he said.

Toews said gasoline prices are likely to remain volatile in coming weeks because many refineries have started switching to summer blends. The change temporarily squeezes the gas supply.

While gasoline prices may seem high in the St. Louis region and the rest of the nation, they are cheaper than two decades ago if inflation is taken into account. Gasoline also is more affordable than in Europe.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, average gasoline prices in the United States are 39 percent lower than the 1981 inflation-adjusted high of $2.70 a gallon. The institute estimates the real cost of gasoline to consumers has fallen $1.05 a gallon in the last two decades.

The Energy Information Administration, the data-collection arm of the Energy Department, said the average price of premium gasoline in the Netherlands was $4.92 a gallon, $4.47 in Germany and $4.43 in Belgium during the week ended Feb. 24.

The average price for premium gasoline in the United States that week was $1.84.

Reporter Patrick L. Thimangu: E-mail: pthimangu@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-340-8320

washingtontimes.com EDITORIAL • March 6, 2003

     During a visit to The Washington Times last week, journalists from Venezuela detailed the physical dangers they are facing. And to the extent that the freedom of the press gauges the health of a country's democracy, the intimidation and harassment of the media in Venezuela signals a wider problem for the society and, if instability spreads, for the region.      Luis Alfonso Fernandez is probably Venezuela's most famous reporter. He and his cameramen covered, from the rooftop of a building in Caracas, snipers opening fire at protesters during the infamous demonstration against President Hugo Chavez on April 11 that killed 17 persons. Later, on April 13, as supporters of Mr. Chavez protested a short-lived coup, 23 protesters, probably supporters of the president, were killed.      Mr. Fernandez, a television reporter for Venevision, won a prestigious award from the king of Spain for his April 11 coverage, which documented a member of Mr. Chavez's party in the City Council of Caracas shooting at protesters. Mr. Chavez has charged Mr. Fernandez for fabricating his report in a computer.      Mr. Fernandez also said his colleagues in state-owned media companies suffer abuse from the anti-Chavistas. There were no reporters for state-owned media outlets present at the meeting, but a report put together by journalists lists numerous accounts of physical attacks on journalists for state-owned media.      "We didn't know who they were," said Mr. Fernandez, regarding the rooftop snipers. But after the footage was aired and some snipers were identified, he started getting death threats on a regular basis. Some journalists have been less lucky. One cameramen covering the April 11 protest was fatally shot in the head, said Mr. Fernandez. Another journalist, Alicia La Rotta, a reporter for the newspaper El Universal, said that she was physically assaulted by a member of military intelligence. Journalists photographed the man as he cocked back his fist to hit Mrs. La Rotta. She said she has since gotten numerous death threats, as well, and that her access to official sources has been limited.      Last month, the Chavez government began "administrative procedures" against media outlets for airing reports unflattering to the government. And in late January Mr. Chavez said: "The world should not be surprised if we start closing TV stations in Venezuela shortly," adding, "This is a country at war."      Regardless of how Mr. Chavez and his supporters regard the objectivity the press in Venezuela, the president would make a big mistake to limit its freedoms. After all, Mr. Chavez can use speeches and state-owned outlets to counter any perceived subjectivity or inaccuracies.      Weakened accountability could well result in serious human rights abuses in Venezuela, as seen in other places in the world.