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Worker flicks wrong switch, costs Nova $11 mln

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A worker accidentally tripping a shut-off switch at a major Ontario plastics plant will cost Nova Chemicals Corp. $11 million in lost profit, the company said on Wednesday, because it won't be able to fulfill some contracts because of the blunder.

A contractor's employee installing a structural steel platform at an ethylene plant in Corunna, Ontario, mistakenly activated a process shutdown switch on Monday afternoon, halting production and forcing two weeks of repairs at the facility.

"The switch is a safety thing so if anyone sees something going wrong they have the opportunity to shut down the plant," said Nova spokesman Greg Wilkinson. "But that's not what happened here. It was not a safety issue. It was simply inadvertent."

Because of the unexpected shutdown, Nova declared force majeure on shipments of propylene and some other products. Force majeure is a legal term that means a company can't fulfill contracts because of circumstances beyond its control. It will be lifted when the plant returns to normal operating rates and inventory levels.

The company said the outage and lost sales will shave profits by about $8 million in the second quarter and $3 million in the third. According to Reuters Knowledge, analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn $68.2 million in the second quarter.

Nova has launched an investigation into just how the worker hit the button, but the company said its priority is repairing the facility.

Nova's spokesman said later on Wednesday that the company has decided to await the results of its inquiry before making any decision on potential penalties. However Wilkinson said he has some sympathy for the worker.

"I can't imagine how that feels, but it has got to be very distressing," he said.

The Corunna plant is one of Canada's largest plastics facilities, capable of supplying up to 40 percent of the country's primary petrochemical market.

The plant processes crude oil, natural gas condensates and liquids into products like ethylene, propylene, benzene and toluene. Those are in turn used to make plastic resins for the manufacture of small appliances, plastic bottles, carpets, cosmetics and other items.

The facility, located near Sarnia, Ontario, 180 miles (290 kilometers) southwest of Toronto, employees about 1,000.

Shares of Nova, which is based in Calgary, Alberta, but maintains executive offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, fell 26 Canadian cents, or 0.85 percent, to C$30.30 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

($1=$1.11 Canadian)

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The regimental goat of the 1st Battalion Royal Welch has been demoted - after refusing to keep in step at a parade to mark the Queen's birthday.
Six-year-old William Windsor, otherwise known as Billy, got a dressing down because of his "lack of decorum" at the event at the Episkopi base in Cyprus.

Fusiliers will no longer have to stand to attention when Billy - demoted from Lance Corporal to Fusilier - passes by.

Monarchs since Queen Victoria have presented the regiment with a goat.

Billy, a Kashmir goat given to the 1st Battalion Royal Welch by the Queen in 2001, was on his first overseas posting.

Goat major

The parade on 16 June was held in the presence of a number of invited dignitaries including the ambassadors of Spain, Netherlands and Sweden and the Argentine commander of UN forces on Cyprus.

His handler Lance Corporal Dai Davies, 22, from Neath, South Wales, dubbed the goat major, found he was unable to keep him in line.

"Billy can be badly behaved at times but I didn't think there was anything wrong myself at the time," said the regiment's Captain Crispin Coates.

"However, after the parade he was reported through the chain of command and accused of disobeying a direct order."

But the loss of prestige could be temporary.

According to Captain Coates, Billy is "extremely well known" on Cyprus and highly liked.

"His situation is currently being reviewed and he could regain his rank," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5113188.stm

...one finds it difficult to know how to respond to this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobinHood3000

...one finds it difficult to know how to respond to this.

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By saying one finds it difficult to know how to respond to it?

:D

Extra security had to be drafted in to an historic royal palace after people said their food was being stolen. Concert-goers who were at Hampton Court Palace, south-west London, to see the likes of Eric Clapton, complained of cakes and sandwiches going missing.

Eventually a duck was identified as the culprit after being caught on camera taking the food for her ducklings.

Organisers are now urging people to bring secure hampers and cool bags to "be on the safe side".

Hampton Court Palace east front manager Mark Howarth said: "Robin the Duck, as we've nicknamed her, lives in the East Front gardens.

"As soon as everyone has gone into the show and the music starts she appears by the picnics to see what she can raid."

One guest added: "I thought I was losing my marbles when I couldn't find the rest of our sandwiches.

"I was amazed that anyone here would steal food. It's such a relief to discover that it was only the palace duck.

"She obviously has very expensive tastes because she took all my smoked salmon sandwiches. I suppose it also explains why the duck pate was left!"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5114720.stm

Moscow has overtaken Tokyo to become the most expensive city in the world, according to a new study. According to Mercer Human Resource Consulting's annual report, an expat's money stretches three times further in Asuncion, Paraguay - the cheapest city. Mercer said it ranked 144 cities on transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment costs.

After Moscow the world's next most expensive cities are Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London.

The main cause of Moscow's ascent was a surge in property values, Mercer said in its annual report.

"Steep accommodation costs have contributed to Moscow's high ranking, as the recent property boom has driven up rental prices for expatriates," Mercer said in its report.

'Significant shifts'

Rising prices are also a problem in Russia, where high oil prices helped drive the inflation rate to 5% during the first three months of 2006. The International Monetary Fund has warned that Russia now has little chance of meeting its 2006 inflation target of between 8.5% and 9%.

THE 10 MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES
Moscow, Russia
Seoul, South Korea
Hong Kong, China
London, UK
Osaka, Japan
Geneva, Switzerland
Copenhagen, Denmark
Zurich, Switzerland
Oslo, Norway
New York, US
Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting

"We have seen significant shifts in the cost-of-living rankings over the past few years, reflecting a changing global market," Mercer explained.

Over the past 12 months, London has dropped two places in the rankings, mainly as a result of a decline in the value of the UK pound against the US dollar.

Currency movements have also seen Ukraine move up from 54th to 21st as its hryvnia strengthened against the dollar.

Mercer said its report was often used by companies that sent their workers abroad as foreign, or expatriate, workers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5117480.stm

:lol:
Rush Limbaugh under new investigation

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name.

Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found the Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said
Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Miller said the alleged violation could be a second-degree misdemeanor. The sheriff's office was investigating and will soon turn the case over to the state attorney's office, which had no immediate comment Tuesday.

Under the deal reached last month with prosecutors, Limbaugh was not to be arrested for any infraction for 18 months in exchange for authorities deferring a charge of "doctor shopping." Prosecutors had alleged the conservative talk-show host illegally deceived multiple physicians to receive overlapping painkiller prescriptions.

Limbaugh also must submit to random drug tests and continue treatment for his admitted addiction to painkillers.

Limbaugh's doctor had prescribed the Viagra, but it was "labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes," Roy Black, Limbaugh's attorney, said in a statement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection examined the 55-year-old radio commentator's luggage after his private plane landed at the airport, Miller said.

Investigators confiscated the drugs, which treat erectile dysfunction. Limbaugh was released without being charged.

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A German entrepreneur plans to launch the world's first smokers' airline next year, promising a return to the times before planes became smoke-free zones. Alexander Schoppmann, a former stockbroker, is seeking the start-up cash for Smintair - Smoker's International Airways.

On its website Smintair promises to "bring back the exclusivity in flying encountered in the 1960s".

The plan is to fly two leased Boeing 747s on the Duesseldorf-Tokyo route.

Old-fashioned luxuries

The airline will not offer economy-class tickets, but will target business people who enjoy smoking - and who are willing to pay for some extra pampering.

Smoking will be allowed in all 138 seats on board - and there will be extra leg room, because jumbo jets normally accommodate more passengers.

"The upper deck will be the passengers' lounge and not be jammed with seats, as you can sadly find everywhere, nowadays," the website says.

"Allergics against tobacco smoke or militant anti-smokers are asked to not apply," Smintair says on its jobs page.

On the website Mr Schoppmann writes nostalgically about the old times when Lufthansa offered its passengers a vast selection of Montecristo cigars.

He says airline smoking bans were prompted by a desire to economise on air conditioning systems. He promises to restore the old-fashioned system of pumping fresh air through the cabin.

Before it can launch, Smintair needs to find at least 40 million euros (£27.6m) for an operating licence from the German federal aviation authority.

Mr Schoppmann is optimistic his airline will take off next summer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5121786.stm

Tropical Stonehenge may have been found

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory — a find archaeologists say indicates early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.

The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet in diameter.

On the shortest day of the year — Dec. 21 — the shadow of one of the blocks, which is set at an angle, disappears.

"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute. "We may be also looking at the remnants of a sophisticated culture."

Anthropologists have long known that local indigenous populations were acute observers of the stars and sun. But the discovery of a physical structure that appears to incorporate this knowledge suggests pre-Columbian Indians in the Amazon rainforest may have been more sophisticated than previously suspected.

"Transforming this kind of knowledge into a monument; the transformation of something ephemeral into something concrete, could indicate the existence of a larger population and of a more complex social organization," Cabral said.

Cabral has been studying the site, near the village of Calcoene, just north of the equator in Amapa state in far northern Brazil, since last year. She believes it was once inhabited by the ancestors of the Palikur Indians, and while the blocks have not yet been submitted to carbon dating, she says pottery shards near the site indicate they are pre-Columbian and maybe older — as much as 2,000 years old.

Last month, archaeologists working on a hillside north of Lima, Peru, announced the discovery of the oldest astronomical observatory in the Western Hemisphere — giant stone carvings, apparently 4,200 years old, that align with sunrise and sunset on Dec. 21.

While the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs built large cities and huge rock structures, pre-Columbian Amazon societies built smaller settlements of wood and clay that quickly deteriorated in the hot, humid Amazon climate, disappearing centuries ago, archaeologists say.

Farmers and fishermen in the region around the Amazon site have long known about it, and the local press has dubbed it the "tropical Stonehenge." Archeologists got involved last year after geographers and geologists did a socio-economic survey of the area, by foot and helicopter, and noticed "the unique circular structure on top of the hill," Cabral said.

Scientists not involved in the discovery said it could prove valuable to understanding pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon.

"No one has ever described something like this before. This is an extremely novel find — a one of a kind type of thing," said Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida's Department of Anthropology.

He said that while carbon dating and further excavation must be carried out, the find adds to a growing body of thought among archaeologists that prehistory in the Amazon region was more varied than had been believed.

"Given that astronomical objects, stars, constellations etc., have a major importance in much of Amazonian mythology and cosmology, it does not in any way surprise me that such an observatory exists," said Richard Callaghan, a professor of geography, anthropology and archaeology at the University of Calgary.

Brazilian archaeologists will return in August, when the rainy season ends, to carry out carbon dating and further excavations.

"The traditional image is that some time thousands of years ago small groups of tropical forest horticulturists arrived in the area and they never changed — (that) what we see today is just like it was 3,000 years ago," Heckenberger said. "This is one more thing that suggests that through the past thousands of years, societies have changed quite a lot."

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Campaigners in India's Tamil Nadu state say the law is literally an *** after a judge ordered the arrest of a donkey. The animal was kept overnight in a police station after being seized at a rally in which it was used to highlight alleged failings of local officials.

Police said the donkey was evidence from the "scene of a crime". They have been accused of animal cruelty.

The donkey's owners, meanwhile, say they are grateful to get it back after its period of incarceration.

They say that while it is good to have it home again, it is even more stubborn and bad-tempered than normal.

'Unmotivated and mulish'

The story began when two groups working in the district of Kancheepuram asked the animal's owners if they could borrow it as part of their campaign to promote land rights for Irula tribes people.

The Kancheepuram District People's Forum and the Sons of the Soil groups rented the donkey for use in a demonstration against what they say is the lethargy of the authorities in dealing with the issue.

A poster was hung from the donkey's neck during the protest earlier this week in which the district administration was caricatured as "slow to act, unmotivated and mulish".

This gesture angered members of the administration, who filed a complaint with police against the two groups.

They complained that they had been "derided" in the demonstration.

Police then arrested the demonstrators and materials used by them including a tent, a loudspeaker and an amplifier, as well as the donkey.

Detention order

By the time they took the case before Magistrate IG Uthamaraj, it was late in the day. So he remanded the detainees - and the donkey - overnight in custody.

Bewildered police say they did not expect this development, because the usual practice is for animals at crime scenes to be returned to their owners.

But because the animal's owners could not be traced, the magistrate said he had not option but to order its detention.

Officers were heard to complain that their four-legged prisoner was not the easiest of detainees, and was upset about everything from food and drink to the standard of accommodation.

Fortunately for police, the donkey's owners were traced the next day.

They said that they were unaware that the animal had been used for a demonstration when they agreed to hire it out.

Now police have filed a case against the two campaigning groups for animal cruelty. They in turn have accused the police of cruelty.

Owners of the donkey, meanwhile, joke that it is now consulting its lawyers with a view to suing both parties.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5128250.stm

Luciano Pavarotti recovering from surgery

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer and is "recovering well," his manager said Friday.

The 70-year-old singer was preparing to leave New York last week to resume his farewell world concert tour in Britain when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass, Terri Robson said from her London office.

"Fortunately, the mass was able to be completely removed at surgery," she said in a statement. "Mr. Pavarotti is recovering well and his physicians are encouraged by the physical and emotional resilience of their patient."

She told The Associated Press he underwent surgery within the past week at a hospital in New York that she declined to identify.

She said he remained hospitalized Friday.

As a result of Pavarotti's treatment, all remaining 2006 concerts have been canceled, she said. It is anticipated that tour plans will resume in early 2007.

Concerts had been scheduled for Finland, Norway, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal in September.

Pavarotti was forced to postpone five June dates because of complications from back surgery. He canceled eight concerts in April, saying he had been advised not to travel or perform while undergoing back treatment.

Because pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, it has one of the worst prognoses of all types of malignancies. Less than 4 percent of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis, and most die within a year. Even in the minority of cases where the tumor can be operated on, only about 23 percent remain cancer free.

Robson didn't say what type of pancreatic cancer Pavarotti had. In 2004, Apple Computer Inc.'s
Steve Jobs said he had a less-lethal form of the disease and that doctors had successfully removed his cancerous tumor.

Pavarotti made his debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme" at Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1961, and took advantage of the television age to become the world's most widely recognized opera singer.

He made his American debut in Miami in 1965 opposite Joan Sutherland in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" and his
Metropolitan Opera debut in New York on Nov. 23, 1968, in "La Boheme." He became a star when he nailed the nine high Cs in "Ah! Mes amis" as Tonio in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" at the Met in 1972.

His Met finale, on March 13, 2004, was his 379th performance with the company. He sang 140 times at Milan's Teatro all La Scala, 100 at London's Royal Opera, 76 each with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera, 48 at the Opera de Paris and 45 at the Vienna State Opera.

He retired from opera two years ago, saying his weight problem and bad knee prevented him from moving comfortably around stages. But he kept up with his concert career.

Pavarotti joined with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to form The Three Tenors, who sang 34 concerts from 1990 through 2003. They sang together before four World Cup finals, at Rome (1990), Los Angeles (1994), Paris (1998) and Yokohama, Japan (2002).

Domingo was to be joined Friday night by tenor Rolando Villazon and soprano Anna Netrebko for this year's pre-World Cup final concert in Berlin.

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Spain confirms its first case of bird flu

MADRID, Spain - Spain has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday. The deadly strain was found in a water fowl in a marsh area outside the northern city of Vitoria.

A protective area of 2 miles was declared outside the area where the bird — known as a great crested grebe — was found, the ministry statement said.

Spanish officials said late last year, as bird flu spread to several European countries, that it was only a matter of time before the disease made it to this country, which is on the route of northern-bound migratory birds from Africa.

Preventive measures taken so far had included banning outdoor poultry farming within a 6-mile radius of marshlands where migratory birds tend to gather.

Bird flu has killed at least 131 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the WHO. Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that makes it more easily transmissible among humans.

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People can live long, happy lives without consuming large amounts of the Earth's resources, a survey suggests. The 178-nation "Happy Planet Index" lists the south Pacific island of Vanuatu as the happiest nation on the planet, while the UK is ranked 108th.

The index is based on consumption levels, life expectancy and happiness, rather than national economic wealth measurements such as GDP.

The study was compiled by think-tank the New Economics Foundation (Nef).

Size doesn't matter

One of the authors, Nef's Nic Marks, said the aim of the index was to show that well-being did not have to be linked to high levels of consumption.

'HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH'

Population: 209,000
GDP/capita: $2,900 (£1,575)
Climate: tropical
Resources: forests, fish
Economy: agriculture, tourism
Environmental issues: deforestation and clean water
Source: CIA Handbook 2006

"It is clear that no single nation listed in the index has got everything right, but it does reveal patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all while living within our environmental means," Mr Marks said.

The small island state of Vanuatu is situated in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, and has a population of 209,000. Its economy is built around small-scale agriculture and tourism.

Latin American nations dominate the top 10 places in the index, while African and Eastern European nations fill most of the bottom 10.

Among the world's largest economies, Germany is ranked 81st, Japan 95th, while the US comes in at 150th.

Richard Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, said that the index was an interesting way to tackle the issue of modern life's environmental impact.

"It reminds us that it is not good enough to be happy today if we are impoverishing future generations through global warming.

"Over the last 50 years, living standards in the West have improved enormously but we have become no happier," Mr Layard told the BBC.

"This shows we should not sacrifice human relationships, which are the main source of happiness, for the sake of economic growth."

Although Vanuatu tops the happiness index, it is ranked 207th out of 233 economies when measured against Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Simon Bullock, economics co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth, which helped compile the data, said the findings showed that happiness did not have to cost the Earth.

"The UK economy hoovers up vast quantities of the world's scarce resources, yet British people are no happier than Colombians, who use far fewer," he said.

"The current crude focus on GDP is outdated, destructive and doesn't deliver a better quality of life."

Nef is calling for the adoption of a "global manifesto for a happier planet" that will list ways nations can live within their environmental limits and increase people's quality of life. The recommendations include:

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
Recognising the contribution of individuals and unpaid work
Ensuring economic policies stay within environmental limits

The index builds on a report that Nef published earlier this year that warned if annual global consumption levels matched the UK's, it would take 3.1 Earths to meet the demand.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5169448.stm

China con man proves money doesn't grow on trees

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man who conned dozens of farmers out of 2 million yuan ($250,400) to grow trees he said would be used in the 2008 Olympics has been jailed for 12 years, a Chinese newspaper said Tuesday.

Liu Lutang was barking up the wrong tree when he duped more than 50 farmers into contracts to buy saplings of a maple tree for 20 yuan ($2.50) each, promising them he would buy them back at a higher price after six months, the Beijing News said.

"He told the farmers (they) would be used in the Olympics," the paper said.

Liu, who had set up a bogus forestry company with offices in several Chinese cities, convinced the farmers the trees would sprout six to eight branches in a year and that he would pay them 8 yuan ($1) per branch, the paper said.

Liu's con was perpetrated between December 2001 and March 2002. He was arrested in 2002, but then skipped bail and evaded police for nearly three years, the paper said.

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Shakespeare book sells for more than $5M

LONDON - A rare complete copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, widely regarded as one of the most important books in the English language, sold for $5.2 million at auction Thursday.

London dealer Simon Finch Rare Books purchased the book — still in its original 17th-century calfskin binding — during a sale at Sotheby's.

The book is one of about 40 complete copies known to exist and one of the few in private hands. Its value was estimated at between $4.6 million and 6.4 million.

Formally titled "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies," the First Folio was produced in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death. It contains 36 plays, of which 18 — including "Macbeth" and "Twelfth Night" — were published there for the first time. Without the book, scholars say, those plays might have been lost.

Of some 750 copies of the First Folio, about a third have survived, though most of them have lost pages over the years, the auction house said. All but a few copies are in museums, universities or libraries.

"Relatively complete copies of the Folio in contemporary or near-contemporary bindings very rarely come to the market," said Peter Selley, Sotheby's English literature specialist. "There is only one copy recorded as remaining in private hands."

Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen bought a copy of the First Folio for $6,166,000 at Christie's in New York in 2001.

The book auctioned Thursday was sold by the trustees of Dr. Williams' Library, a private London library established in the early 18th century under the will of Daniel Williams, a government minister.

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