| Caribbean business news briefs package
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Crews have erected scaffolding at the Hovensa refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands to prepare for a scheduled round of maintenance and inspection that will require the shutdown of several processing units at the Western Hemisphere's second-largest oil refinery. The cleaning, inspection and repairs will take place from May 7 to June 10 and will require the hiring of about 1,800 temporary workers, said refinery spokesman Alex Moorhead. Hovensa will not specify how many units will be closed and will not disclose whether the project will have any effects on production, Moorhead said. Hovensa typically does not release such information to avoid disrupting the market. The refinery, on the island of St. Croix, is a joint venture between a subsidiary of Hess Corporation and a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.
NATURE GIRL: Mobile teen wins a safari to South Africa after ...
"We skipped dolls totally," said the 13-year-old Mobile girl's mother, Dr. Carole Boudreaux. "She was obsessed with bugs at around the age of 3 or so. "She loved all types of creatures, and wasn't intimidated by any of them." That fascination with nature has landed Madeleine a safari to South Africa this summer, the prize for being selected as a winner in the National Geographic Kids magazine's Hands-On Explorer Challenge essay contest. The UMS-Wright Preparatory School student is one of 15 students, ages 10-13, from the United States who will make the trip in August. They were chosen from more than 4,000 entries nationwide. "It's sunk in a little bit, but not a lot," said Madeleine, sitting on the porch of her home on Dog River.
Historic SF Hotel Transports Guests Back to 1906
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 16, 2007 -- Built after the great earthquake and fire in 1906 and authentically restored and maintained since 1972, the San Remo Hotel at 2237 Mason Street in San Francisco is adding to its reputation for transporting guests back in time with special promotions from April 16 through May 11. The 62-room North Beach Victorian hotel -- in partnership with the Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf, The Urban Safari tours and Fior d'Italia Restaurant -- will launch "Portal to the City's Past," a collection of value-added guest experiences celebrating its role in the city's rebirth following the devastating quake. Guests will have a rare chance to view how rooms were used 100 years ago, when they served as temporary housing for residents displaced by the quake and as lodging for seamen and workers recruited to rebuild the city.
To find the real Zambia, it took a village
The traditional healer, a dark-skinned woman with intense brown eyes, wasted little time introducing herself when we walked into her thatched hut in Kawaza, a village of 48 people from the Kunda tribe in eastern Zambia. "Right now, my name is Fanny," she said. "But when I am possessed I am no longer Fanny. My name becomes Hetina." Fanny was wearing a long white dress decorated with bright red crosses, signifying her status as the village shaman. She was gripping a well-thumbed Bible that she soon would be reading to us while describing how she tackles her village's health-care issues - from the common cold to HIV/AIDS. But first Fanny had a question for her three foreign visitors. "Is there anything you'd like to ask me?" she said, speaking in her native language, Senga, through our English-speaking guide.
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