'Due To' and 'Owing To'

I think there is a radical difference between "Due to" and "Owing to" in meaning. "Due to" means "caused by", however, "Owing to" means "because of" and it comes always at the beginning of the sentence. Besides "owing to" as a result or consequence of something. In fact, there are some "rules" governing this usage. Although there is a huge debate still ongoing over the prepositional and adjectival function of 'due to', the most famous of them is probably the one that says, "Never begin a sentence with 'due to'"! .Yeah right.