New Zealand cafe serves dishwashing liquid

The owner of a New Zealand cafe that mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as mulled wine has been fined for causing emotional harm to two women, court officials said Monday.

Chico's Restaurant Ltd. in the mountain resort of Queenstown on South Island pleaded guilty to a charge of selling food containing extraneous matter — the chemical sodium hydroxide — that caused injury.

Prosecutor Sarah McKenzie told Queenstown District Court that the two women were taken to a hospital after drinking the liquid last July. One victim was a customer who ordered a glass of wine from Queenstown's Old Man Rock Cafe, owned by Chico's Restaurant Ltd.

Here is the complete story.

Now it's time to take global warming seriously!

Climate change will impact beer production: scientist

Updated Tue. Apr. 8 2008 9:09 AM ET

The Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The price of beer is likely to rise in coming decades because climate change will hamper the production of a key grain needed for the brew -- especially in Australia, a scientist warned Tuesday.

Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said climate change likely will cause a decline in the production of malting barley in parts of New Zealand and Australia. Malting barley is a key ingredient of beer.

"It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention.

Similar effects could be expected worldwide, but Salinger spoke only of the effects on Australia and New Zealand. He said climate change could cause a drop in beer production within 30 years, especially in parts of Australia, as dry areas become drier and water shortages worsen.