news.ncmonline.com Eastern Group Publications, Ingrid Maida, Mar 17, 2003

There is a saying in Spanish that goes “In times of thin cows, not only do meat prices go up, but so do people’s taste for beef.” The same trend appears to be happening with gasoline.

“If something has increased besides gas prices, it is gasoline sales,” says Ignacio Pilar, an Arco gas station attendant in Boyle Heights. “I don’t know why, but when the prices skyrocket, people buy more gas.”

As the American economy suffers through ever more serious woes and as gas prices break new records across the country, it is becoming more and more difficult to understand this phenomenon.

“It’s not that people are buying more, but what is happening is that the same amount of money buys you less gas,” affirms Jorge Perez, a Mexican immigrant. “Before I could fill up my tank with $20, now I need $40.”

Lester Garcia, a student who also works full time, assured this reporter he is buying the same amounts of gas now than he usually does. “Actually, I’d like to reduce my gas consumption, but I have to get to school and work. You have to do what you have to do, no matter how high the prices go.”

Despite his assurances, many gas stations are beginning to see not only an increase in profits, but also in the amount of gas they sell.

“We’ve tripled our sales,” says Agustin Campero, an Exxon gas station manager in Huntington Park. “Before we used to sell about four thousand gallons a day, but now we’re selling between 10,000 and 12,000 per day.”

It’s not entirely clear why that is, he explained. He speculated that the high gas prices have forced drivers to seek out gas stations with the lowest prices, thereby increasing sales at those places.

“Our sales our down by 25 percent,” said Nassim Hassen, a manager of a Shell gas station on the corner of Olympic and Soto streets. “I know our prices are a little bit more expensive than at other places, but we get our prices from the owners and we have to do what they tell us.”

Luckily for Nassim, however, most drivers interviewed said they usually buy their gas at the same place and don’t necessarily go where gas is cheapest.

“I always buy at Shell, though it’s higher here,” said Chilo Neri, who works in a clothing store. Ernestine Allen says the same thing. “I go to the 76 Station, though it’s a few cents more expensive.”

Well for some people it may just be a few cents more or less, it is evident that higher gas prices are harming many members of the local community.

“Sometimes I can’t scrape up enough money to put gas in the tank, so I walk or take the bus,” said Ramon Padilla as he put $5 worth of gas into his car.

Antonia Gutierrez, a mother of four from the state of Jalisco, Mexico, is upset over the increase in prices. “Latinos are always in worse shape because we earn less money and now we have to spend more,” she said.

According to the Automobile Club of Southern California, gas prices in California are breaking new records. “The last record was on May 15, 2001, when prices shot up to an average of $2.03,” said Paul Gonzales, an Auto Club spokesman.

Today, the average price is well above $2 in California. According to economic analysts, the threats of war, the strikes in Venezuela and the severe winter in the East Coast are the principle villains of the high prices. However, the majority of drivers blamed the imminent war for having to pay more at the pump.

“This imperialist government and this president who want to start a war in Iraq and ruin us here are to blame,” said an angry Juan Jose, a construction worker. But not everyone agrees.

“Everyone says high gas prices are due to the threats of the war, but they’re not. The oil companies are gouging us, pure and simple,” said Fernando Antezana. “There is no shortage of petroleum.”

Whatever the real causes may be, today most people’s pockets are being emptied at the pump while other people’s pockets are being filled, with the certainty on both sides of the gas pump that it’s strictly a temporary situation.

“Every year they find an excuse to raise gas prices because they know people need it and have no other choice but to buy it,” said Campero. “These are cycles of the market that take advantage of things like a war or events like September 11 in order to raise prices, but eventually they have to come back down again.”

De: "Robert Alonso" robertalonso1990@hotmail.com Fecha: Mar, 18 de Marzo de 2003, 9:17 am Para:

EL TERROR

Así como no se puede batir concreto sin agua, es imposible instalar un comunismo sin contar con "El Terror".

Decía que en Cuba el terror es genético. Ha pasado una generación bíblica en la isla del caribe desde que los cubanos comenzaron a conocer al "Sr. Terror", un "individuo" sin alma que se presta a todo sin esperar nada a cambio.

Sentirse preso en una isla produce un impresionante terror, como terror siente el prisionero de conciencia cuando los guardias calan sus oxidadas bayonetas soviéticas. El sonar de unos disparos al salir el sol produce mucho terror porque los cubanos saben - o se imaginan - que provienen del paredón de fusilamiento y el terror se incrementa en las tinieblas del alba al sonar el tiro de gracia que destroza la sien del condenado a muerte.

Terror siente el padre cuando le dice adiós a un hijo que se marcha a una guerra absurda en un continente que está tan lejos como la esperanza de un futuro en Cuba. Terror siente una madre cuando su hijo regresa muerto o mutilado de esas misiones internacionalistas.

Terror lo produce un vecino que mira detrás de una ventana cuando cae la tarde cargada de calor y terror siente el cubano cuando supone que lo están observando día y noche.

Cuando el cubano se queda sin trabajo en la isla del terror siente un profundo terror pues sabe que fue despedido por el único patrón que tiene su patria: el estado.

Más fuerte que el terror de morir en altamar al intentar alcanzar la libertad en tierras extrañas, está el terror de seguir viviendo esclavo de los designios de un tirano, pero nada es comparable al terror que produce despedir al hermano quien se monta en una frágil balsa para alejarse de las costas y no regresar jamás a Cuba.

Terror siento yo cuando pienso que esta patria, Venezuela, pudiera cambiar su alegría de siglos por el terror eterno teñido de un rojo viejo y absurdo.

El Hatillo 18 de marzo de 2003

Robert Alonso robertalonso2003@cantv.net

Procter & Gamble Monday March 17, 4:58 pm ET

CINCINNATI, March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG - News) today stated it is raising earnings guidance for the January to March 2003 quarter behind solid volume growth and favorable exchange rates.

Volume for the quarter is expected to grow in the six to eight percent range, with broad scale improvement across global business units and geographies. The health care business unit and developing markets continue to lead the volume progress. The solid volume growth is on top of a strong base period when volume grew by 10 percent, and includes the current year negative impact of the Jif and Crisco spin-off, which was completed at the end of May 2002.

Sales, excluding foreign exchange, are expected to finish the quarter with growth in the mid single-digit range. Foreign exchange is expected to add approximately three to four percent to sales growth, which is one to two percent above previous estimates. Total sales growth is projected in the high single-digits, reflecting the solid volume growth and favorable exchange rates.

Operating margin is expected to grow in the range of 20 to 50 basis points versus a very strong base period when operating margins grew by 280 basis points.

Core earnings per share, which excludes restructuring program charges, are expected to grow in the 13% to 14% percent range, at or above consensus estimates. Previous guidance included anticipated core earnings per share growth of 11% to 13%.

Also, the company announced that A.G. Lafley, chairman of the board, president and chief executive, and Clayton C. Daley, Jr., chief financial officer, will be presenting at the Merrill Lynch Consumer Products Conference in New York City tomorrow, March 18, at 7:00 a.m. (ET). The presentation will be made in the Spellman Room of the Palace Hotel. Analysts and investors are invited to attend.

For those unable to participate in person, a conference call of the meeting will be available by calling 800-946-0742 in the U.S. For calls outside the U.S., the number is 719-457-2650. Please use the following confirmation code 177504 to get access to the conference. Also, the meeting will be available via webcast on Tues., March 18 at 7:00 a.m. (ET). You may link to the webcast by going to our website at: www.pg.com .

A replay of the call will be available until midnight, Tues., March 25, 2003 by calling 800-289-0579 in the U.S. The confirmation code is 177504. Outside the U.S., please call 719-457-2550 and use the same confirmation code.

All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this news release, are forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition to the risks and uncertainties noted in this news release, there are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by some of the statements made. These include: (1) the achievement of expected cost and tax savings associated with changes in the Company's organization structure; (2) the ability to achieve business plans, including growing volume profitably, despite high levels of competitive activity, especially with respect to the product categories and geographical markets in which the Company has chosen to focus; (3) the ability to manage and maintain key customer relationships; (4) the achievement of growth in significant developing markets such as China, Turkey, Mexico, the Southern Cone of Latin America, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of Southeast Asia; (5) the ability to successfully manage regulatory, tax and legal matters, including resolution of pending matters within current estimates; (6) the ability to successfully implement, achieve and sustain cost improvement plans in manufacturing and overhead areas; (7) the ability to successfully manage currency (including currency issues in Latin America), interest rate and certain commodity cost exposures; and (8) the ability to manage the continued political and/or economic uncertainty in Latin America (including Venezuela) and the Middle East, as well as any political and/or economic uncertainty due to terrorist activities or war (including Korea). If the Company's assumptions and estimates are incorrect or do not come to fruition, or if the Company does not achieve all of these key factors, then the Company's actual results might differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein. For additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those projected herein, please refer to our most recent 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G is celebrating 165 years of providing trusted quality brands that make every day better for the world's consumers. We market nearly 300 brands -- including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Bounty®, Pringles®, Folgers®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Actonel®, Olay® and Clairol® -- in more than 160 countries around the world. The P&G community consists of nearly 102,000 employees working in almost 80 countries worldwide. Please visit www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

onebusiness.nzoom.com

Thirty-seven defendants will be asked to explain dirty dealings within France's political and business elite involving the embezzlement of some $US200 million and former French oil giant Elf at a trial that opened on Monday.

The fruit of an eight-year investigation, the trial will expose the use of cash sweeteners to secure contracts for the then state-owned Elf in oil-rich countries, and how some of that cash slipped into the pockets of certain executives.

The trial will also rake up well-known sleaze like the kickbacks from an illegal arms deal secured via a now infamous liaison between then Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and a woman who dubbed herself "The Whore of the Republic".

The trial will be overshadowed abroad by the likely start of a US-led war on Iraq, but keenly watched in France where the affair has stirred up charges of endemic corruption a decade ago during the last years of the late President Francois Mitterrand.

Elf is now part of French oil major TotalFinaElf, which is negotiating multi-billion dollar deals with Iraq.

It was France's biggest company and controlled by the state at the time of the alleged siphoning off of huge sums of cash into offshore bank accounts between 1989 and 1993.

With the prosecution documents running to 44,000 pages - peppered with evidence of luxury villas and jewellery - the trial is due to run for around four months, following the longest investigation in French judicial history.

It has ramifications as far away as Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville, as well as Spain and Germany, where judges believe Elf paid bribes linked to its 1992 purchase of the eastern German Leuna refinery complex.

The prosecution alleges politicians in Elf's African strongholds were given cash for every barrel of oil extracted.

Anti-corruption magistrate Renaud van Ruymbeke has also investigated charges Elf paid tens of millions of dollars of bribes to win a contract in Nigeria in 1995.

High drama

One of the key defendants, ex-Elf head Loik Le Floch-Prigent, 59, already serving time in prison for earlier Elf-related charges, failed to appear in court on Monday, citing a skin disease his lawyers say has worsened in jail.

He faces corruption charges carrying a prison sentence of up to 10 years, along with his former deputy Alfred Sirven, 76, and Andre Tarallo, 74, the expert for Africa, where Elf played a major business and political role.

Le Floch-Prigent, Sirven and Christine Deviers-Joncours, a lingerie model turned Elf lobbyist, were given jail terms ranging from 18 months to three years in January on corruption charges linked to lavish gifts that Deviers-Joncours showered on Dumas to secure an illegal sale of frigates to Taiwan.

Dumas, 80, wept openly as an appeals court overturned his conviction for his part in that scandal, where the total fraud was estimated at nine million euros, on the grounds he was not aware the gifts from his mistress were funded by Elf.

The latest trial promises more high drama to add to past courtroom showdowns between Dumas and Deviers-Joncours and the Hollywood-style capture of Sirven at his Philippines hideaway in 2001 following his four years on the run.

On being seized, Sirven removed the chip from inside his mobile phone and swallowed it, to prevent investigators tracking down the last few people he called as police narrowed in on him.

Source: Reuters

foxnews.com Monday, March 17, 2003

NEW YORK — Time is running out for extra oil supplies expected from the OPEC cartel to hit U.S. shores and allow the world's biggest fuel consumer to smoothly build gasoline supplies before the summer driving season.

Not getting the supplies could leave the United States more dependent on imports than ever, at a time when the White House edges to the brink of war on Iraq and retail gasoline prices hit all-time highs, threatening the stuttering economy.

"The U.S. needs large slugs of extra oil to cope with the increase in (refinery) runs, stop the erosion of inventories and to begin to claw back some cover," JP Morgan said in a research note. "The U.S. oil market is undersupplied."

U.S. oil stockpiles have fallen below 270 million barrels, the government's suggested level for seamless operations, as supply disruptions from Venezuela and an unusually long, cold winter drained supplies.

Resulting inventories, near the lowest level since 1975, could prove a problem for U.S. suppliers, who tend to use the brief respite in consumer demand in the second quarter to refine more crude and build fuel stocks before summer.

"The main problem is that while global oil demand does indeed hit a minimum in (the second quarter), U.S. crude oil runs increase," said JP Morgan, meaning deeper declines in crude supply are likely if imports don't shoot higher.

The U.S. second-quarter increase in crude oil demand averaged roughly 1 million barrels per day in 2001 and 2002, and is expected to be even sharper this year as the industry struggles to buffer paper-thin inventories.

"There's potential for trouble," said Tim Evans, senior analyst at IFR-Pegasus. "Low crude inventories limit the extent to which higher refinery rates can be sustained. But the cavalry rising up over the hillside is represented by OPEC, which has already started pumping away."

OPEC, which accounts for 60 percent of world oil exports, has signaled it will defend against global short supply by increasing shipment volumes even as it declines to lift its official production curbs due to worries over overall weakness in global demand.

OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia has already raised production sharply in the first two months of this year to make up for lost Venezuelan supply. Tanker brokers said Friday the kingdom snapped up 14 tankers to move 29.5 million barrels of crude oil to the U.S. Gulf for May delivery.

So far, the increased production has yet to translate into higher U.S. crude stockpiles.

And, while Saudi Arabia has reassured the market that it will continue to pump more oil in the event of a war, there are doubts about whether Riyadh has enough spare capacity to compensate fully for disruptions from Iraq, which has a sustainable export capacity of 2.2 million bpd.

The International Energy Agency in a monthly report on the oil market outlook released Wednesday estimated that OPEC in total has only 900,000 bpd to spare, with 400,000 bpd in Saudi Arabia.

If crude becomes scarce enough to hinder the U.S. oil industry's attempt to build up gasoline supplies before summer, pump prices will likely continue to surge, pushing through record levels.

The average retail price of gasoline in the United States on Saturday was $1.719 a gallon, a new all-time high, according to the American Automobile Association's latest survey.

The U.S. inventory situation has worried the White House enough to consider tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve -- something reserved for only the most dire supply crunches.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday Washington reserved the right to make a unilateral release of crude from the emergency reserve in the event of a severe supply disruption. The statement came after a similar comment from Japan, which said it would tap its reserve if Iraq is invaded by U.S.-led forces.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee, urged the Bush administration on Monday to immediately begin releasing up to 750,000 barrels of oil a day from the reserve until fresh OPEC supplies arrive.

Oil from the Middle East takes about 45 days to reach the U.S. market.

"This modest release would complement and not compete with the oil that is heading this way," Bingaman said. "We will be helping to prevent a gasoline supply shortage and further price spikes," he said.