SYDNEY, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - A cold glass of beer is about to become more expensive in much of Australia, after prolonged drought wiped out much of the winter barley crop.

The price of other staples such as meat and bread will also rise by as much as 10 percent, New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said.

After little or no rain in September, almost 80 percent of New South Wales state is now in a state of drought, compared with 71 percent last month.

PARIS, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - It may be the longest hangover in the history of binge beer drinking.

When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow, Scotland last October complaining of 'wavy' vision and a non-stop headache that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British journal The Lancet reported Friday.

MUNICH, Germany, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - Munich opened the beer taps on Saturday to launch Oktoberfest, with an estimated six million people expected to attend the beer celebration over 16 days.

Munich Mayor Christian Ude ordered the tapping of the first beer barrel, the ritual kick-off for the 174th edition of the party.

The festivities are held at Theresienwiese, a 31-hectare (12.4 acre) park with 14 large tents where drinkers, many wearing traditional Bavarian costumes, take their spots at long wooden tables.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - Danish brewing company Carlsberg said on Tuesday it was creating a joint venture with Vietnamese state brewing company Hanoi Beer & Beverage Corporation (Habeco) to build a new brewery in the south of the country.

Carlsberg and Habeco will each hold 29 percent of the joint venture, while other unnamed external investors will hold the rest, Carlsberg said in a statement.

The brewery will be called the Hanoi Vung Tau Joint Stock Company and will have 500,000 hectolitre capacity, it said.

PRAGUE, Sept 2, 2007 (AFP) - The Czech Republic's last remaining brewery in state hands, Budejovicky Budvar, could be partially sold off with a strategic shareholder preferably brought in, the minister of agriculture said Sunday.

'We can perhaps sell a minority stake to a strategic investor or on the Prague stock exchange,' Petr Gandalovic said in a debate on Czech public television.

In the long term, Gandalovic said he believed a strategic investor should be brought in to run the country's third biggest brewer.

BRUSSELS, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev posted Thursday a better-than-expected 27 percent increase in second-quarter net profit, boosted by a strong performance in emerging market countries.

The brewer, which owns such brands as Stella Artois, Beck's and Brahma, booked a net profit of 499 million euros (681 million dollars) for the period from April through June, up from 394 million in the same period of 2006.

HARARE, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - Beer has joined the list of commodities fast running out in Zimbabwe, with the high demand for lager a sign of people hitting the bottle to drown economic hardships, a drinks company said Friday.

'We have witnessed an unprecedented demand for our lager beer products. Average sales are rising fast and approaching 300,000 litres per day,' George Mutendadzamera, general manager-corporate affairs of the country's biggest beverages producers, Delta Beverages, said in a statement.

PRAGUE, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - Czech breweries produced a record 9.92 million hectolitres in the first half of the year thanks to heavy demand caused by hot weather and strong exports, the Czech Beer and Malt Association announced on Friday.

The 3.9 percent rise in production puts producers on course to beat last year's total output of 19.7 million hectolitres, the best performance since the country was created in 1993.

COPENHAGEN, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - Danish brewer Carlsberg on Wednesday reported contrasting second quarter results, announcing a gain in sales but a slide in net earnings due to rising costs.

Carlsberg said net profit in the April-June period fell 17.4 percent to 1.12 kroner (151 million euros, 207 million dollars) from second quarter 2006.

Sales grew 10.44 percent in the period to 12.63 billion kroner, thanks to strong performances in eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Operating profit rose 13 percent to 1.85 billion kroner.

LONDON, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - British brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle said Tuesday that net profits dipped in the first half of 2007, as beer sales were dampened by a wet start to summer in Britain and France.

The maker of Kronenbourg 1664 and Foster's said that profit after tax fell by 3.1 percent to 124 million pounds (182 million euros, 251 million dollars) in the six months to June 30, compared with the same period a year earlier.

Pre-tax earnings rose by 2.1 percent to 191 million pounds but was below analysts' consensus forecast of 205 million pounds.