Manager says state businesses: ; not affected by sale

DAILY MAIL BUSINESS EDITOR

An area manager for Service Corp. International, the world'slargest provider of funeral and cemetery services, said none of thecompany's West Virginia properties are among the more than 400funeral locations and 105 cemeteries up for sale. The companyannounced it is selling some of its properties to reduce debt.

Timothy Beavers, area manager of Service Corp. International'sWest Virginia properties, said, "None of the West Virginiaproperties are affected."

Those properties are:

- Long & Fisher Funeral Home, Sissonville.

- Pryor Funeral Home, East Bank.

- Ridgelawn Memorial Park and Woodmere Memorial Park, both ofHuntington.

- Sunset Memory Gardens and Sunset Memorial Funeral Home, both ofParkersburg.

- Rosedale Cemetery Co. and Rosedale Funeral Chapel, both ofMartinsburg.

- Roselawn Memorial Gardens and Monte Vista Park Cemetery, bothof Princeton.

Service Corp. International is headquartered in Houston, Texas.The company operates 3,823 funeral-service locations, 525 cemeteriesand 198 cremetoria and has more than 30,000 employees. The companysays on its Internet site that it "helps nearly one million familiesa year with funeral, burial and cremation services and associatedmerchandise, prearranged funeral plans, and pre-need cemeteryproperty and merchandise."

Revenues in fiscal year 1999 exceeded $3.3 billion. Service Corp.International's stock is traded under the ticker symbol "SRV" on theNew York Stock Exchange. The company's stock hit a 52-week low of$1.56 per share on Wednesday. Late this morning, the stock wastrading up 6 cents, at $1.94 per share.

Writer George Hohmann can be reached at 348-4836 or by e-mail atbusiness@dailymail.com.

NSW: More double lives in Montana's tale

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2004
NSW: More double lives in Montana's tale

SYDNEY, Aug 14 AAP - The tangled web surrounding the family of kidnapped Melbourne
baby Montana has become tangled further with new reports of more double life intrigue.

It was revealed this week that Montana's father Joe Barbaro was leading a double life
with another woman in Canberra.

Today, The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Barbaro's Canberra fiance was also having
a relationship with another man.

Giuseppe Lumbace told the newspaper he had been Tanya Flynn's one-on-one boyfriend
for the past five months.

He was shocked to learn she had planned to marry Mr Barbaro.

Ms Flynn has claimed she did not know about Mr Barbaro's double life until a national
plea for Montana's return was launched last weekend.

Mr Barbaro's baby daughter, with partner Anita Ciancio, was snatched from her mother
at a suburban Melbourne shopping centre last Saturday.

The three-week-old Montana was found alone but unharmed in a derelict house in North
Melbourne on Monday, and a married couple have been charged with the alleged kidnapping.

Mr Barbaro is the cousin of gangland figure Pasquale Barbaro, gunned down along with
Jason Moran in the carpark of the Cross Keys Hotel, in Essendon North, last year.

NSW Police are seeking to extradite Mr Barbaro, who turned 49 today, to face outstanding
drug charges dating back to 2002.

AAP tam/cdh s

KEYWORD: BARBARO

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NT: Worker considers legal action against uranium mine

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2004
NT: Worker considers legal action against uranium mine

By Karen Michelmore

DARWIN, April 5 AAP - A worker at Australia's biggest uranium mine is considering legal
action after falling ill from drinking water mistakenly contaminated with uranium.

Twelve workers at Energy Resources of Australia's Ranger mine in Kakadu National Park
have reported suffering nausea, headaches and stomach cramps after drinking the contaminated
water.

The Ranger mine was shut down for eight days after the contamination was discovered
on March 24, although the mine's uranium ore processing plant, where the contamination
originated from, remains closed.

The water supply became polluted with uranium and other chemicals after processed water
was mistakenly connected to the drinking water supply.

Federal Environment Minister David Kemp today said the incident was unacceptable, and
he had asked for a full report.

"This event should not have happened - it's very hard to see standing from outside
the mine how it did happen," Dr Kemp told ABC radio.

"There's obviously management issues that need to be addressed within the mine ...

(and) we will make sure those steps are taken."

Worker Paul McDonald said he was sacked by his contractor after returning home from
the Northern Territory to Perth to seek further medical treatment.

Mr McDonald, a casual fitter employed by a contractor to work at the mine, said he
had only been at Ranger a couple of days when the contamination occurred.

He said he was now considering legal action, after falling ill after drinking two to
three waters of the water.

Mr McDonald said he only found out about the extent of the contamination by reading
about it "on a newspaper billboard".

"We actually read it in the newspaper ... (that) it was contaminated with uranium 400
times above the accepted level and obviously we all went into a panic then," Mr McDonald
told ABC radio.

"I was just very annoyed that nobody had been and told me exactly how serious it was
- I just thought the contamination had been just probably a little too much sulphur or
chloride or whatever.

"I was mortified when I was found out it was uranium and another cocktail of acids."

ERA had paid all of his medical bills, he said.

"You feel okay and then all of a sudden you go into this sick feeling for three or
four hours, and then you come out and you feel okay again.

"The doctors ... really have not got a lot of idea how to deal with this, because not
many people go around drinking uranium."

A spokeswoman for ERA said the company was working with the NT government and the Office
of the Supervising Scientist to fully investigate the incident.

"It's hoped that preliminary investigations may soon be completed," the spokeswoman said.

"Some affected persons on site were employees of contractors based in Perth and we
understand that some people have have sought legal advice.

"ERA has implemented a program of providing information, support and counselling, including
specialist medical advice for those who might have been affected by the incident."

AAP km/jv/br

KEYWORD: ERA

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Qld: Beattie says sorry for lobotomy gibe

AAP General News (Australia)
01-20-2004
Qld: Beattie says sorry for lobotomy gibe

TOWNSVILLE, Jan 20 AAP - Queensland Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg today accepted
an apology from Peter Beattie over comments the premier made about him in a Cairns radio
studio.

Mr Beattie reportedly told a SEA FM radio host in the north Queensland city yesterday
that he would need a lobotomy to pose as Mr Springborg in a mock debate.

Mr Springborg told reporters on the state …

Patient Appeals Judge for Canadian Drugs

KELLY KURT, Associated Press Writer
AP Online
10-09-2003
Dateline: TULSA, Okla.
A heart transplant patient told a federal judge Thursday that he saves nearly $9,000 a year on medication through a company the government says is breaking the law by importing drugs from Canada.

Jerry Cox told U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan that he would suffer serious economic harm if she shuts down 85 storefronts that operate under the names Rx Depot and Rx of Canada.

Eagan will decide whether to grant the government's request for a nationwide injunction against the Tulsa-based chain. After a two-day hearing Thursday, she gave both sides until Oct. 31 to submit final findings in the case.

The Justice Department alleges the company is breaking the law and putting the public at risk by importing drugs from Canada outside Food and Drug Administration scrutiny.

FDA witnesses testified Wednesday that the safety of drugs coming from Canada could not be ensured.

But three Rx Depot customers, including Cox, told the judge they had no problems with the drugs from Canada and that they couldn't afford their medications otherwise.

"It was a blessing when Rx Depot came around," said Cox, who testified the $22,900 he spent on drugs each year dropped to $14,000 a year when he started getting medication from Canada.

Mary Wilburn, a 71-year-old who is blind and suffers from seizures, said if she lived closer to the Canadian border she would cross over, like other senior citizens, to buy her medication.

"I'd go from right here if I could," the Oklahoma City resident said.

FDA witnesses said the agency uses enforcement discretion when it comes to individuals buying small amounts of medication in Canada.

Springfield, Mass., Mayor Michael Albano has said his city expects to save $9 million through a voluntary program in which employees get their drugs from Canada. The city's program get its drugs through another company, CanaRX.

Albano testified the city created the program based on FDA comments to Congress that it would not stop individuals who go to Canada to buy drugs or those who buy them over the Internet.

Testimony also came from Rx Depot president Carl Moore, who said he created the company not only to make a profit but also to help seniors.

"The vast majority of our people are there because they could not afford their medicine," he testified.

If Rx Depot must shut down "hundreds of thousands would suffer," he said.

Customers bring prescriptions to Rx Depot stores, where an administrator looks up the price. The prescription is copied and faxed along with the patient's medical history to a Canadian pharmacy, which fills it and mails the medication to customers.

In closing arguments, Justice Department attorney Gerald Kell said that while the government had sympathy for Rx Depot's customers, its operation is "a wholesale violation of the laws that Congress has passed."

Unlike individuals crossing into Canada to buy medication "what we have here is a large company which makes commissions essentially off the sale of drugs," Kell said.

Rx Depot's attorney Fred Stoops told the judge it was in the public's interest to leave Rx Depot open. He blamed the FDA's policies for the fact that Americans were turning to Canada for their medications.

"We have brought several witnesses here," he said. "We could have brought thousands."

Copyright 2003, AP News All Rights Reserved

Fed: Anti-war parties back troops, says defence force

00-00-0000
Fed: Anti-war parties back troops, says defence force

CANBERRA, April 24 AAP - The Australian Defence Force today tried to reassure forcesin Iraq that they'd get a warm welcome home, saying the leaders of all Australian anti-warparties have sent them personal messages of support.

Defence Minister Robert Hill, who is visiting the forces in the gulf, said yesterdaythat there was some apprehension about how they would be received at home.

His remarks surprised the ADF in Canberra, where a support-our-troops campaign was organised.

Spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan said that more than 20,000 messages of support hadbeen received from the public and sent on to the troops in the Gulf.

"All major leaders of political and social groups opposing the war have written personalmessages (of support) to the troops and these have been passed on," Brigadier Hannan said.

Only a handful of the 20,000 had not been sent on, and about half of these were thoughtinappropriate because they were bloodthirsty or racist rather than critical of the troops.

"There has been a clear differentiation made in the minds of most Australians thatpolitical differences over going to war is not the same thing as supporting the troops,"

he said.

"We hope that's been well put forward to the troops in the field."

Brigadier Hannan said he did not know why there was still apprehension.

He speculated that because of their isolation some troops, despite modern communications,were not getting a rounded view of Australian attitudes.

"The view from the ADF is that we enjoy overwhelming public support, which we guardzealously," he said.

AAP dw/cjh/br

KEYWORD: IRAQ ADF SUPPORT

Qld: Food prices must be tripled to pay for water - researcher

00-00-0000
Qld: Food prices must be tripled to pay for water - researcher

A forum on the drought has been told Australian consumers should be paying up to threetimes as much for food to cover the cost of water needed to produce it.

CSIRO researcher BARNEY FORAN has told the Queensland National Party forum that consumershave little idea about the environmental cost of producing goods and services.

Mr FORAN says it takes around 650 litres of water to produce one dollar's worth ofdairy product, and 500 litres of water for one dollar's worth of wine.

He says the time must come when consumers have to pay the full environmental cost forwater, and that would mean doubling or tripling the cost of food.

AAP RTV pjo/sc/wjf/rp

KEYWORD: WATER (BRISBANE)