newsobserver.com Saturday, May 3, 2003 12:00AM EDT By JOHN ZEBROWSKI, Staff Writer

ZEBULON -- The voice of Ismael Quintana, better known as Pico de Oro to the listeners of La Super Mexicana radio, comes at a furious pace, an excited stream of words touching on everything from pop singers to sports to the rising temperature outside. He speaks in Spanish, but even someone with no understanding of the language can pick up on certain phrases: enfermedades transmitida sexualmente, prevencion de abuso infantil, sifilis.

Then, there's this: Wake County Human Services.

It's 2 p.m. and this week's topic is about how mothers deal with unruly children. Quintana introduces his guest, a petite woman originally from Venezuela named Niosoty Baptista Paparella, a county especialista de salud mental (or mental health specialist). He asks her how parents should discipline their children.

"It isn't just about punishing children," Paparella said. "Some people think that discipline is to beat the children. We need to understand that children aren't property."

The show goes on for nearly 45 minutes, as mothers call in and Paparella gives advice and plugs the services offered by Wake County for the growing Latino population. Each Wednesday, a different expert on women's health sits in the cramped studio of WETC, a 15,000-watt AM station that can be heard throughout central North Carolina and southern Virginia.

Future up in air

The half-hour program runs through September, when its future becomes uncertain. The March of Dimes, which has provided the $10,000 budget the past three years, is looking for other sponsors to help fund the show.

For Wake County, the show is part of a push to better reach the Latino population, which is often kept by language and cultural barriers from using county services.

Over the past decade, the number of Latinos in Wake grew more than five-fold to nearly 35,000, outstripping the county's ability to provide the necessary help. To catch up, Human Services has hired interpreters and printed health materials in Spanish. Each year brings greater focus on Latino health issues.

But it still isn't enough, said Maria Robayo, a county public health educator who produces "En el Aire" ("On the Air"), as the program is called. Robayo was raised in Colombia and has lived in North Carolina for four years. She assigns the topics -- diabetes, hypertension, child immunization, depression -- for each week, books the guests and tries to direct them to the one-story cinderblock studio, which sits underneath four huge radio antennas in a clearing about a half-mile down a narrow dirt track from Riley Hill Road.

Robayo is also a presenter, doing two shows on sexually transmitted diseases. After her first program in March, which focused on gonorrhea and chlamydia she said about 60 people called her office seeking advice. "The response was wonderful, but it shows that people are looking for help and don't know where to go," Robayo said.

Radio a connection

For many Latinos spread around the Triangle, life is an isolated rural existence without the community support English-speaking residents take for granted. Even something as basic as watching television is complicated by the fact Spanish-language channels are available only through satellite or cable systems.

Wake Human Services works with local print media such as the Spanish-language newspaper La Conexion. But, said Martha Olaya-Crowley, Human Services' director of project management and development, the fact many area Latinos are poorly educated makes radio the best way to reach people. She said it is no coincidence that a popular English-language FM station in Raleigh recently converted to Spanish.

"People really rely on Spanish radio to stay informed," she said. "They can call in and ask a question and get an immediate response. You can hear how much they appreciate this."

On this afternoon, the caller is Maria, a mother of two whose husband abandoned her. When Maria was young, she said her own parents used to beat her. Now, she treats her own daughters roughly.

"I realize listening to you that how I'm acting is wrong," she told Paparella. "I don't want my children to be afraid of me. How can I be a more loving mother to my children?"

Robayo smiled as Paparella responded by congratulating Maria for wanting to change her behavior and telling the young mother about the classes on parenting she teaches. Each week Robayo said a similar scene is repeated over the airwaves, with women who have felt alone in a new and frightening place making contact with people who understand them.

With Univision, the national Spanish-language cable network, announcing it will soon broadcast a statewide local channel from Charlotte, Robayo is working with other counties' public health officials to see if they can pool resources to create a similar program for the television.

"We do that," she said as the phone in the studio rang with another question, "and we can help even more people."

Staff writer John Zebrowski can be reached at 829-4841 or jzebrows@newsobserver.com.

NewsStand - Friday, May 02, 2003 <a href=www.menafn.com>MENAFN-The Dallas Morning News Exxon Mobil Corp. Sudeep Reddy

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported a record quarterly profit of $7.04 billion Thursday, more than triple its earnings from a year earlier, but analysts said a recent drop in crude oil prices should restrain profits for the rest of the year.

"Earnings were strong but really weaker than they appear," said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Fahnestock & Co. who attributes some of the gains to lower-than-expected tax rates and other factors out of the company's control. "When you dig into them, they are a lot softer."

Crude oil prices rose more than 50 percent in the first quarter due to the war in Iraq and production disruptions in Venezuela and Nigeria. Natural gas prices more than doubled due to cold weather and fears of a supply shortage.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded oil company, said first-quarter earnings were $1.05 per share, compared with 30 cents a year ago, when profit was $2.09 billion. Quarterly revenue grew from $63.8 billion from $43.4 billion.

Without an accounting change, discontinued operations, merger effects and a special item, first-quarter earnings were $4.79 billion, or 71 cents a share, a penny above Wall Street's consensus estimate, according to Thomson First Call.

Despite record earnings across the sector, oil company shares have stalled as investors bet on lower profits now that commodity prices have fallen. Exxon Mobil shares closed Thursday at $35.48, up 28 cents. The stock has lost 14 percent over the last year.

But the company's shares have done better than the overall market in the last three years. They've declined 33 percent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has fallen 40 percent.

Commodity prices are still higher than historical levels, which are under $20 per barrel for crude oil and around $2 per million British thermal units for natural gas.

Crude oil for June delivery closed Thursday at $26.03 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas closed at $5.27 per million BTUs.

That should support returns across the sector and attract new investment, said Tina Vital, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's.

"When the market realizes that, you won't see the disconnect between the oil and gas fundamentals and the stock market," Vital said.

(c) 2003, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.

NewsStand - Friday, May 02, 2003 <a href=www.menafn.com>MENAFN-Agence France-Presse NEW YORK, May 2 (AFP)

NEW YORK, May 2 (AFP) - World oil prices slipped Friday as Venezuelan gasoline arrived in the United States and a tense oil rig stand-off in Nigeria neared resolution, analysts said. New York, light sweet crude June-dated futures contract fell 36 cents to 25. 67 dollars a barrel.

In London, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for June delivery fell 24 cents per barrel to 23.58 dollars.

"The weakness of the energy market came from the fact that some gasoline is coming up from Venezuela and is landing in the Gulf (of Mexico)," said Refco market analyst Jim Still.

Weak gasoline priced dragged down prices of crude and heating oil, he said. In addition, the second quarter of the year was traditionally marked by weak demand for energy.

Earlier, prices were beaten down in London by as fears eased that labor unrest in Nigeria's oil fields could spiral out of control.

On Friday, a US oil firm whose Nigerian offshore rigs had been hijacked by striking workers since mid-April, trapping 100 Western employees, said it had reached a deal with unions to end the dispute.

Transocean Inc. said it hoped the process of evacuating people from the four rigs would begin "promptly".

Earlier this year, political and ethnic unrest in the country's oil rich Niger Delta region halted around a third of the country's oil exports, pushing world prices upwards.

The markets were also watching for any more action from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) following the cartel's somewhat botched attempt to ease prices up, analysts said.

At a meeting in Vienna last week OPEC said that its members would cut two million barrels per day of production from the start of June to absorb a glut in crude on world markets after the Iraq war.

However at the same time it raised official production ceilings to bring them closer into line with reality, leading dealers to conclude that little would really change.

Analysts at brokerage Sucden UK said the market had noted remarks from OPEC Secretary-General Alvaro Silva that while the cartel was waiting to see the results of the production cuts, its "does not mean our hands are tied until then".

"These comments show that it is likely that OPEC feel that they did not cut production enough and that with Iraqi production coming back on line prices could drop," the analysts said in a note.

However even this expectation was not sufficient to shore up prices.

Adding to the downwards momentum was anticipation that Iraq's crude could flow back onto world markets relatively soon.

On Wednesday, US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told reporters in Saudi Arabia that Iraq could restore its pre-war oil production levels "within months".

burs-ved/djw/mdl

By <a href=www.nytimes.com>BLOOMBERG NEWS

oyal Dutch/Shell and ChevronTexaco said yesterday that their first-quarter earnings more than doubled, capping a series of strong results for the industry as the price of crude oil rose.

Earlier this week, Exxon Mobil and BP reported sharp gains for the quarter, when crude oil prices climbed to a 12-year high and refining margins widened. Prices have since fallen by a third, signaling lower earnings over the rest of the year.

"This may be a high-water mark for the oil companies," said Timothy R. Ghriskey, who manages $100 million in assets, including an undisclosed number of ChevronTexaco and Exxon Mobil shares, at Ghriskey Capital Management. "Oil prices have already dropped, and you are likely to see second-quarter profits lower."

Shell, the British-Dutch giant, said net income jumped to $5.33 billion from $2.26 billion a year ago.

At ChevronTexaco, the next biggest oil company after Exxon Mobil, profit rose to $1.92 billion from $725 million. Sales climbed 53 percent at Shell and 46 percent at ChevronTexaco.

ChevronTexaco's profit was the highest since the company was formed through Chevron's acquisition of Texaco Inc. in 2001. The company's exploration and production earnings rose 73 percent from a year earlier, to $1.97 billion. Profit from oil refining was $315 million after a $61 million loss a year earlier.

Higher natural gas prices contributed to the profit gains.

In the first quarter, crude oil futures averaged $33.80 a barrel, up 56 percent from a year earlier. Prices have since fallen to about $26, with forces led by the United States taking control of Iraq and oil shipments resuming in Venezuela after a national strike. In addition, Shell and other producers have restarted wells in Nigeria that had been idle because of fighting between government and opposition forces.

May 2, 2003, 10:08PM Houston Chronicle News Services

Royal/Dutch Shell Group and ChevronTexaco said Friday that first-quarter profits more than doubled, capping a week of record oil earnings, because prices surged amid war in Iraq and supply disruptions in Nigeria and Venezuela.

Shell, Europe's largest oil company by market value, said net income jumped to $5.33 billion from $2.26 billion in last year's first quarter. At ChevronTexaco, the No. 2 U.S. oil company, profit rose to $1.92 billion from $725 million. Sales climbed 53 percent at Shell and 46 percent at ChevronTexaco.

The combined first-quarter profits at the two companies and rivals Exxon Mobil and BP tripled to $17.8 billion as crude-oil prices climbed to a 12-year high and refining margins widened. Prices have since fallen by a third, signaling lower earnings to come.

In other earnings:

· UAL, the bankrupt parent of United Airlines, on Friday reported the biggest quarterly shortfall of any major U.S. air carrier as the war in Iraq discouraged travel and raised fuel costs.

The $1.3 billion net loss topped that of rival AMR Corp. parent of American Airlines, which posted a $1 billion first-quarter loss last week and narrowly averted bankruptcy for the third time.

· Cigna said a strong performance from many of its employee benefits programs helped offset health plan membership declines and maintain first-quarter net income above expectations. · Unilever posted a 2 percent rise in first quarter profit, but the maker of Lipton Tea, Hellman's Mayonnaise and Dove soap said it had missed its own sales targets after weaker-than-expected demand in the beginning of 2003.