Germans in work put in an average of 1, 430 hours in 2006, the third-lowest rate in the OECD.

ECONOMIST: Germany scandalously underuses immigrants and women

For instance, at an annual rate, aggregate production-worker hours increased by 2.2 percent and industrial production rose by 1.0 percent.

WHITEHOUSE: Advance Estimate of GDP for the Fourth Quarter of 2012

During production surges, workers may put in another 10 hours of weekend overtime, for which they get double-rate pay.

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At the moment, for example, a straightforward colonoscopy, requiring a couple of hours in a clinic, is priced at two-thirds the rate of a full-scale splenectomy requiring 20 days of post-operative care.

ECONOMIST: Health care in France

"The bigger your save file gets, the slower the game is running, and so it's getting to the point where people who have been playing the game for 20 or 50 hours actually can't play it any more because the frame-rate is so low, " said Keza MacDonald, UK games editor at IGN.

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At the same time, the utilities charge residential consumers a flat rate, giving them no incentive to run appliances during off-peak hours.

ECONOMIST: Energy in Japan

Swansea Prison also has work to do to meet UK targets for tackling drug abuse, with 16.1%, and activity hours - 22 - but it was one of the best establishments for discipline with an assault rate of just 1.9%.

BBC: Prison faces poor drugs record

Indeed, Petrobras' accident rate is higher than the average of 1.6 accidents per million man-hours reported by the American Petroleum Institute.

FORBES: Disaster Of The Day: Petrobras

After a certain threshold of about 24 hours of continuous use, the bill accumulated at by-the-hour or by-the-minute rate typically exceeds the cost of otherwise paying a flat daily rate on a traditional car rental.

BBC: Pay-as-you-go rental cars