NEW YORK (Reuters) - Welder Mark Moynihan crawled down a narrow tube into a space the size of a car interior to seal the crack in the fermentation tank at Calhoun's Bar-B-Q & Brewery in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The space was oversaturated with oxygen. He lit his torch, and a flash-fire erupted. His hair and clothing disintegrated instantly.

Moynihan, a contractor for the craft brewery, dragged himself up the tube and out of the vat while still on fire, suffering serious burns over much of his body. He died 75 days after the 2009 accident, just before his 40th birthday, said his widow, Kim Moynihan.

It was not an isolated incident.

From 2009 through 2012, at least four people died in craft brewery accidents in the United States, compared with two deaths at large breweries that make 10 times more beer, according to a Reuters analysis of federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration data and local media reports.

There were also nearly four times as many safety violations at craft breweries in recent years than at large breweries. And brewery experts say the safety oversight at smaller companies is worse than official statistics might suggest because injuries, even severe ones, often go unreported.

"It was horrific," Kim Moynihan said. "It was an accident, but it was an avoidable accident."

She sued Copper Cellar, claiming the owner of the brewery and a small chain of Calhoun's restaurants in the Knoxville area created a dangerous work environment, according to court documents. She settled for an undisclosed amount but said she could not discuss the settlement further because of a nondisclosure agreement.

Nicholas J. Chase, a lawyer at Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis representing Copper Cellar, said neither he nor his client could comment on the accident because the agreement might prohibit it. He said he was unable to immediately provide further details of the agreement.

OVERLOOKED SAFETY

The craft brewing industry has grown from a niche market 20 years ago into a $10.2 billion business in 2012, according to the Boulder, Colorado-based Brewers Association, which represents 1,797 U.S. craft and larger beer makers. The association is not aware of safety issues unique to the craft brewing industry, Chris Swersey, its technical brewing projects coordinator, said in an email to Reuters.

Matt Stinchfield, a brewery safety consultant for insurance companies, said that as the industry scrambles to meet the exploding demand for craft beer, employee safety has sometimes been overlooked. "You have a few eager entrepreneurial spirits, and they don't come with an industrial safety background," he said. "There is still some growing up to do."

Brewers Association board member Gary Fish said craft brewers sometime struggled with safety, as many other small manufacturers do.

Haste causes accidents, and pressure to meet demand causes haste, said Fish, who is the founder and CEO of Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. "It's a challenge everywhere," he said. "I don't think anyone is deemphasizing safety."

State inspectors and OSHA found 547 violations, including 250 serious ones, at craft breweries from 2003 through 2011, according Reuters' analysis of the data. Officials fined the small brewers an aggregate $220,000 for violations ranging from failing to enclose sprockets and chains to not ensuring machinery was disabled when an employee was inside.

By comparison, large brewers, such as Anheuser-Busch and Coors, had 151 violations, including 69 serious ones, during the same period.

OSHA officials declined to comment.

The Brewers Association defines a craft brewery as one that makes 6 million barrels of beer a year or less, with less than 25 percent of the company owned by an alcoholic drink maker that is not a craft brewer. Traditional recipes are also required.

To be sure, the differences in fatality and violation figures partly reflect the larger breweries' greater automation and resources to spend on safety programs, as well as - in many cases - their more extensive experience.

Safety experts say the workplace fatalities are avoidable.

Last year, for example, an employee of Redhook Brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, died when a keg he was cleaning with compressed air exploded and hit him. An OSHA investigation found the air line lacked a device that would keep the pressure in the keg at safe levels. The brewery's owner, the Craft Brew Alliance, was fined $44,000 for that and a series of other safety violations.

Sebastian Pastore, vice president of operations for the Craft Brew Alliance, said the incident was a "freak accident" involving a plastic keg dropped off by a customer to be refilled.

The company subsequently re-examined safety issues at the brewery. It has stopped filling plastic kegs and hired an outside consultant to review safety procedures at its breweries. It now has a dedicated safety consultant for the Portsmouth brewery.

FEW INJURIES REPORTED

Despite the number of violations and deaths, OSHA data only shows two serious injuries at craft breweries since 2002, both at the same one. Two workers were burned in separate incidents at Ballast Point Brewing Co in San Diego in July 2010 and August 2010.

Since then, the company has not had one hospitalized injury despite a fivefold increase in production and employees, said Chief Financial Officer Rick Morgan.

The number of injuries reported to OSHA does not reflect the number of injured employees, consultant Stinchfield said. This is because brewers often do not know that many states require them to report serious injuries.

He knows of four burn cases that were never reported. Each required skin grafts and months of treatment.

In one of those cases, Teri Fahrendorf was working her first job as a rookie brewmaster at a now-closed San Francisco brewery in 1989 when she used a kettle that was too small to cook wort, a pre-beer solution.

The boiling wort spilled out of the kettle and into Fahrendorf's knee-high rubber boots. Doctors took strips of skin from her head to graft onto her foot, she said.

Now Fahrendorf promotes safety standards in the industry as founder and president of the Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women succeed in brewing. Fahrendorf said the brewery did not report the incident, and it does not appear in OSHA data.

She said she had lacked promised safety and other training. Craft breweries, she said, "don't have experience with big-boy chemicals, and they don't have experience with pots that are filled with 900 gallons of boiling liquid."

TANK EXPLOSION

Bridgewater, Vermont-based Long Trail Brewing Co and its Otter Creek Brewing subsidiary are two of only three U.S. craft brewers participating in a stringent OSHA safety program.

They joined the program, investing millions of dollars in upgrading equipment, developing safety policies and hiring a safety officer, after a 2011 fermentation tank explosion.

The blast did not injure anyone, but was a wake-up call, said Jed Nelson, a Long Trail Brewing Co director.

There are signs of a shift in the industry's attitudes, said Dan Drown, an industrial chemical safety consultant who has been working with craft brewers in San Diego for the last five years.

At least 250 people attended a safety lecture at a craft brewing conference in San Diego last year, he said. More companies also are paying for safety training and classes.

"They are maturing," he said.

The widow, Kim Moynihan, hopes that is true.

"I know it was an accident, but I believe if the employees received proper training, this would not have happened," she said. "I think they just overlook it."

(Edited by Maurice Tamman, Martin Howell and Lisa Von Ahn)

But the Los Angeles foothill suburb of Glendale hopes such jokes will do a serious job and keep smokers from trashing local parks and trails.

The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/12yElO8 ) says 18 humorous signs were put up in April throughout the Verdugo and San Rafael mountains, at the Glendale Sports Complex and Deukmejian Wilderness Park.

Other samples: "Do not throw cigarette butts on the ground. Our squirrels are getting cancer" and "Smokers will be fed to the bears."

Smoking is banned on city trails and parks but the city doesn't have enough workers to patrol every trail.

___

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed militants had fired on an American Chinook transport helicopter in Baghlan province overnight.

But coalition spokesman Capt. Luca Carniel said on Friday that there was no report of insurgent activity in the area at the time of the incident.

Afghan provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad says the helicopter made an emergency landing but then flew back to its base on its own.

Carniel says the coalition is investigating the incident to determine the cause of the "hard landing" a term that can mean anything from a crash to an emergency landing.

He says the "aircraft has been recovered."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For some time it's been clear that the second quarter was going to be less than robust for U.S. corporate results. Investors in the stock market don't seem to care.

For the second quarter, S&P 500 earnings are expected to grow just 2.6 percent, according to Wall Street analysts estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

But projections for third-quarter earnings growth, on the other hand, are seen at 8.4 percent, with fourth-quarter growth seen at 12.8 percent. And investors are banking on those numbers to get them past what may be a rocky few weeks.

"It looks like the slow growth rate of S&P earnings has troughed and is poised to begin rising again after three successive, low, single-digit quarters," said Mike Jackson, founder of Denver-based investment firm T3 Equity Labs.

For the bulls, it had better work out that way. The S&P 500 () () on Thursday notched an all-time closing high, with the consensus for the S&P to hit 1,700 by the end of 2013, according to a Reuters poll. (EPOLL/US)

Should those brighter second-half earnings expectations be cut, it could hurt the rally.

The lion's share of 2013 earnings growth is expected to come in the second half of the year. The last two quarters of 2013 are expected to account for more than 70 percent of the year's growth, Thomson Reuters data shows, with about 52 percent of total earnings per share forecast to come in that period.

The economic growth rate is going to be crucial in all this. Most economists so far have underestimated how slow the U.S. recovery has been. The U.S. government recently cut its reading of first-quarter growth to 1.8 percent, and some economists are predicting the second quarter will be below 1 percent.

U.S. economic growth is expected to pick up to an annualized 2.3 percent rate in the current quarter and 2.6 percent in October-December, according to a Reuters poll. (ECILT/US)

Rising U.S. home prices, the boom in U.S. oil and gas production, and a better jobs picture have all made the outlook for the U.S. economy look better than in many other places, particularly in comparison to weakness in Europe, China and other major emerging markets.

Even political gridlock in Washington and automatic government spending cuts have been less of a threat as the fiscal picture has improved.

Heavy monetary stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve has helped the stock market at a time when S&P 500 earnings growth has been lackluster, averaging 5 percent for the last four quarters. Revenue growth has averaged just 0.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. Second-quarter revenue growth is expected to come in at 1.5 percent.

MISSING SALES GROWTH

Six of the 10 sectors in the Russell 2000 are forecast to earn more than their usual percentage of earnings in the second half. Information technology is the most skewed, with 55 percent of earnings expected in the second half, compared with a bit more than 51 percent historically, Credit Suisse analysts said.

In addition to IT, Credit Suisse mentioned: materials, energy, consumer staples, consumer discretionary and utilities

Companies that are expected to see more than 50 percent of their 2013 earnings in the second half of the year could be most at risk if year-end growth fails to materialize, they said.

Among those are Dell (), where forecasts are for 54 percent of earnings in its second half compared with a usual 49 percent, household products maker Procter & Gamble (), with 57 percent versus 55 percent, and drugs maker Bristol Myers Squibb (), at 53 percent compared with a typical 49 percent.

"In the absence of a better economic climate and with flat revenue growth, earnings expectations will likely have to be trimmed in the second half," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

Current revenue forecasts don't suggest strong gains between now and year-end. Second-quarter sales growth is forecast at 1.5 percent, with third-quarter growth at 3.6 percent and fourth quarter at 1.4 percent, based on Thomson Reuters data, but analysts said those numbers may be too conservative.

"Mid-2013 is an inflection point for both GDP and EPS growth," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note this week, adding they expect "limited revisions" to second-half earnings estimates.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by David Gaffen and Leslie Gevirtz)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For some time it's been clear that the second quarter was going to be less than robust for U.S. corporate results. Investors in the stock market don't seem to care.

For the second quarter, S&P 500 earnings are expected to grow just 2.6 percent, according to Wall Street analysts estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

But projections for third-quarter earnings growth, on the other hand, are seen at 8.4 percent, with fourth-quarter growth seen at 12.8 percent. And investors are banking on those numbers to get them past what may be a rocky few weeks.

"It looks like the slow growth rate of S&P earnings has troughed and is poised to begin rising again after three successive, low, single-digit quarters," said Mike Jackson, founder of Denver-based investment firm T3 Equity Labs.

For the bulls, it had better work out that way. The S&P 500 () () on Thursday notched an all-time closing high, with the consensus for the S&P to hit 1,700 by the end of 2013, according to a Reuters poll. (EPOLL/US)

Should those brighter second-half earnings expectations be cut, it could hurt the rally.

The lion's share of 2013 earnings growth is expected to come in the second half of the year. The last two quarters of 2013 are expected to account for more than 70 percent of the year's growth, Thomson Reuters data shows, with about 52 percent of total earnings per share forecast to come in that period.

The economic growth rate is going to be crucial in all this. Most economists so far have underestimated how slow the U.S. recovery has been. The U.S. government recently cut its reading of first-quarter growth to 1.8 percent, and some economists are predicting the second quarter will be below 1 percent.

U.S. economic growth is expected to pick up to an annualized 2.3 percent rate in the current quarter and 2.6 percent in October-December, according to a Reuters poll. (ECILT/US)

Rising U.S. home prices, the boom in U.S. oil and gas production, and a better jobs picture have all made the outlook for the U.S. economy look better than in many other places, particularly in comparison to weakness in Europe, China and other major emerging markets.

Even political gridlock in Washington and automatic government spending cuts have been less of a threat as the fiscal picture has improved.

Heavy monetary stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve has helped the stock market at a time when S&P 500 earnings growth has been lackluster, averaging 5 percent for the last four quarters. Revenue growth has averaged just 0.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. Second-quarter revenue growth is expected to come in at 1.5 percent.

MISSING SALES GROWTH

Six of the 10 sectors in the Russell 2000 are forecast to earn more than their usual percentage of earnings in the second half. Information technology is the most skewed, with 55 percent of earnings expected in the second half, compared with a bit more than 51 percent historically, Credit Suisse analysts said.

In addition to IT, Credit Suisse mentioned: materials, energy, consumer staples, consumer discretionary and utilities

Companies that are expected to see more than 50 percent of their 2013 earnings in the second half of the year could be most at risk if year-end growth fails to materialize, they said.

Among those are Dell (), where forecasts are for 54 percent of earnings in its second half compared with a usual 49 percent, household products maker Procter & Gamble (), with 57 percent versus 55 percent, and drugs maker Bristol Myers Squibb (), at 53 percent compared with a typical 49 percent.

"In the absence of a better economic climate and with flat revenue growth, earnings expectations will likely have to be trimmed in the second half," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

Current revenue forecasts don't suggest strong gains between now and year-end. Second-quarter sales growth is forecast at 1.5 percent, with third-quarter growth at 3.6 percent and fourth quarter at 1.4 percent, based on Thomson Reuters data, but analysts said those numbers may be too conservative.

"Mid-2013 is an inflection point for both GDP and EPS growth," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research note this week, adding they expect "limited revisions" to second-half earnings estimates.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by David Gaffen and Leslie Gevirtz)

Teacher Orvar Arnarson, 41, and student Andrimar Pordarson, 25, jumped separately, not in tandem, on Saturday after successfully completing two jumps earlier that day with 20 other people. The two Icelandic skydivers did not return from their third jump, tipping off an hours-long air and ground search around the Zephyrhills facility, about 30 miles northeast of Tampa. The bodies were discovered later that evening in the woods.

Investigators will review the helmet cam footage to try to glean more about what happened, said Pasco County sheriff's spokeswoman Melanie Snow.

The cause of death was blunt force trauma, the medical examiner's office said. Autopsy results were pending, but a preliminary investigation determined that the manner of death was accidental.

The men didn't deploy their main parachutes, which could mean that they lost altitude awareness and didn't know where they were during the jump, Skydive City co-owner T.K. Hayes told The Associated Press on Sunday. Both victims had backup automatic activation devices, but they didn't have time to fully inflate.

Out of just over 3 million jumps, 19 skydivers died last year across the U.S., according to the United States Parachute Association. Experts said it is "very rare" for two jumpers to die in the same accident.

"It happens from time to time if two skydivers collide while flying their parachutes if they don't see each other," said Nancy Koreen, Director of Sport Promotion for association.

"In that situation, their canopies can tangle, causing an accident. I don't yet know the details of this particular accident, but from what I understand, this was a different case," she said, adding that "it's extremely rare for this type of double fatality to occur."

The victims were part of a skydiving group from Iceland who travel to Florida annually.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A tabloid says Vladimir Putin is Russia's most eligible bachelor, but the president may have competition from an American half his age: Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor believed to be holed up at a Moscow airport.

Snowden, 30, has received a marriage proposal of sorts in a tweet from Anna Chapman, the glamorous redhead who was one of 10 Russian agents arrested in the United States and deported in a Cold war-style spy swap in 2010.

"Snowden, will you marry me?!" a posting on a Twitter account bearing Chapman's name and photograph said late on Wednesday.

After a few hours with no reply, a second tweet appeared.

"@nsa, will you look after our children?" it said, a wry reference, perhaps, to the surveillance powers of the U.S. National Security Agency.

Chapman, 31, did not immediately respond to an emailed query about the authenticity of the tweets and the proposal to Snowden, who is wanted by Washington on espionage charges.

Former NSA contractor Snowden is believed to have been living in a transit area in the Moscow airport since arriving on June 23. He has appealed to various countries for asylum.

Putin, 60, who praised Chapman and the other Russian agents deported from the United States, has separated from his wife, prompting the weekly Secrets of the Stars to speculate on his eligibility, under the headline: "Any woman would marry Putin!"

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Manchester City's new manager Manuel Pellegrini promised a more attacking brand of soccer and pointed to his experience of outfoxing local rivals Manchester United as he pledged on Wednesday to win trophies.

At his first news conference since taking over from Italian Roberto Mancini, Pellegrini said he aimed to improve City's poor Champions League record but reclaiming the Premier League title they won in 2012 or FA Cup they lifted in 2011 was as important.

Expectations are high at trophy-hungry City, where runners-up places in the Premier League and FA Cup were deemed to be unacceptable last season, and chief executive Ferran Soriano has said the target is five trophies in the next five years.

"Just five?" joked Pellegrini. "We'll try to work and we'll do our best here and see how many trophies we can win."

City finished 11 points behind champions United last season, also suffering a second successive Champions League group-stage exit, with Pellegrini confident he can improve matters.

"I know the most important thing... is for Manchester City to beat Manchester United. If I'm here it's because I'm sure we will do it," said the 59-year-old Chilean, who joined the club last month on a three-year deal after the sacking of Mancini.

"I have played against Manchester United twice in the Champions League with Villarreal, in both years... we passed to the last 16 and Manchester United didn't (in one of them), so I have experience playing against Manchester United."

The former Real Madrid and Malaga boss led Villarreal to four 0-0 draws against United in the group stages of Europe's elite club competition in 2005/06 and 2008/09 with his side going on to the semi-finals and last eight respectively.

He also took competition debutants Malaga to the Champions League quarter-finals last season and, while Pellegrini said he did not value one competition higher than the other, he was clear City would improve their performances in Europe next term.

"We don't have priority for one competition or the other," he said. "I know we have to improve in the future what Manchester City have done in the last years in the Champions League but also, for me, it's as important, the same as (the Premier League) championship or FA Cup."

ATTRACTIVE GAME

Pellegrini, known as 'The Engineer', has a reputation for building teams who play attractive, possession-based football and is hoping to instil this philosophy in his new team.

"Fans of Manchester City will see a different way how they play (compared to) other years," he said.

"I'm sure we are going to play an attractive game. We will always try to play in the opposite side (of the pitch), trying to be an attacking team."

Pellegrini has bolstered his squad with Brazil midfielder Fernandinho and Spain winger Jesus Navas but also wants a replacement for Argentina striker Carlos Tevez who wanted to leave the club and has joined Juventus.

"We have two strikers at the moment and we need another one but I'm not talking about any different names," said Pellegrini, whose transfer window shopping is made easier by being at the world's richest club.

"We need a very good squad, a strong squad with two players in each position."

He has arrived in England at a time of huge change at the leading clubs, with David Moyes taking over from the retired Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Jose Mourinho having signed up for a second stint at Chelsea.

The changes do not make his job any easier, Pellegrini said.

"It will be the same. I'm sure David Moyes will do very well, Jose Mourinho knows everything about the Premier League," he said. "It will be as every year a very competitive Premier League, with five or six teams who will try to win."

Zanotti, three times a runner-up on tour, the last time at the 2012 Irish Open, shot his second 68 to finish six-under-par and ahead of a group that included 42-year-old Dane Thomas Bjorn.

Overnight leader Hansen, another 42-year-old Dane, dropped four shots in his first 11 holes, following up his 66 with a 78 and was two over along with former world number one Martin Kaymer of Germany, who carded a 76.

Zanotti, 30, ranked 391st in the world, had four birdies and a single bogey in his round at the testing Le Golf National course, venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup.

Defending champion Marcel Siem of Germany missed the cut and others who struggled were Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, the Britons both on two over. American Matt Kuchar was three over after a 75.

After fog delayed the start for an hour, one man in early contention was Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell. The former U.S. Open champion fired a second 69 to be four under.

McDowell, like many of the leading contenders warming up for the British Open at Muirfield this month, had missed the cut in five of his last six strokeplay events before this week.

"I'm playing this golf course the way it's supposed to be played - fairways and greens. Once you start hitting it off line it will punish you. I just have not got the putter revved up but I am well in touch and right where I need to be," McDowell said.

"It's been a rough couple of months for me. I've not been playing the kind of golf I'd like to and the key to this week was to come and get myself in the mix for the weekend and get some of the juices flowing again."

(Writing by Tony Goodson in London; Editing by John Mehaffey)

Stafford and the Lions have agreed to terms on a $53 million, three-year extension to keep him under contract through 2017, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The person, who spoke Tuesday to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been announced, said Stafford will make $41.5 million in guarantees as part of a new contract.

Detroit drafted Stafford No. 1 overall in 2009 and signed him to a six-year contract worth as much as $78 million with $41.7 million in guarantees. After two injury-shortened seasons, he helped the franchise reach the playoffs two years ago for the first time in more than a decade.

A month ago, Stafford vowed that he would focus on football while his agent and the team negotiated.

"I don't play this game to get contracts," he said in June. "I play this game to win games."

The Lions didn't do much of that last year, losing their last eight games to flop to a 4-12 record after a 10-win season.

Stafford threw more interceptions and had less than half as many touchdown passes in 2012 as he did the previous year.

After playing in just 13 games over two seasons, he flourished in his first full year with 41 TD passes while completing 64 percent of his attempts and throwing 16 touchdowns.

He stayed on the field last season, but his passing percentage dipped as did his TD passes (20) while he threw one more interception.

"Matt's not happy with last year," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said during last month's minicamp. "None of us were happy with last year, but you also can't overreact."

Stafford has spent much of this offseason splitting time between his home in suburban Detroit and team headquarters, after working out and rehabilitating injuries elsewhere in previous years.

He has looked back to analyze the previous season, seeing when it was good to take chances with passes and when it wasn't while the losses piled up after climbing to .500 midway through the season.

"It was a total, learning experience just because it was a tough year," Stafford said. "You have to find a way to battle through it."

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Follow Larry Lage on Twitter: http://twitter.com/larrylage