The biz: Vodka site blames the imaginary 'gatecrashers'

Weekend visitors to local vodka company 42 Below's normally swept-up and funky website were left viewing a rather humbling and slightly cryptic apology for the site being down.

"You know when you were 15 and your mum and dad went away for the weekend and they said 'look, you're 15 now and we trust you to look after the house while we're away,' etc ... but you thought it would be cool to invite a few friends over for a party'?" the message said.

"And then your friends invited some friends who also invited some friends. And everything got way out of hand and about 1 million people turned up. And you didn't know any of them and they totally trashed the place. Well that's kind of what's happened to our website."

42 Below boss Geoff Ross told The Biz the site had been brought down by an unprecedented 25,000 hits in a day after a link to it started doing the email rounds.

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Maybe Genesis Energy needs to work on its phone messages.

During a recent power cut, a customer rang to ask when electricity would be restored. The phone lines were busy and she was put on hold. Desperate to get power so she could finish a computer project with a looming deadline, she was not amused to hear a recording encouraging her to conserve energy by turning off heated towel rails.

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Inspired by the Pentagon's playing cards of Iraq's most wanted: a deck of cards made up of American corporate offenders. "Corporate America's least wanted" is the slogan for "The Stacked Deck".

"All your favourites! Ken Lay, Martha Stewart, Enron, Andersen, and more!" The cards are sold through The Stacked Deck

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Aussie trade officials have finally done it. After two years of negotiations, they have managed to convince Saudi Arabia to lift its ban on Australian offal.

The September 2001 ban on what was a A$5 million ($5.6 million) a year export industry came as a surprise and even hit shipments of offal which were already on their way to Saudi Arabia.

"Australian producers of offal have the highest quality and health standards in the world," a relieved Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said last week.

"Saudi Arabia's willingness to lift the ban is appreciated by the Australian Government."

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Let's hope this one doesn't suffer from leaky building syndrome.

Dubai and a German investor plan to build what they promise will be the world's first luxury underwater hotel in the Gulf Arab emirate.

The 10.8ha, US$500 million ($861 million) Hydropolis Hotel is due to be built off the Gulf coast and will be completed by late 2006.

One of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has big ambitions to develop its reputation as a trade and tourism centre for the region to help make up for falling revenues from its dwindling oil reserves.

It has already launched a number of major projects, including the US$3 billion Palm resort, under construction on artificial islands near Dubai's coast.