■NEW ZEALAND
Teen fined for random pee
A teenager dubbed “The Piddler on the Roof” by police admitted on Wednesday to urinating into a parking machine and was ordered to pay NZ$200 (US$142) to the city council. Sarron Malot, an 18-year-old cook, has become the butt of jokes around the country as photos and videos of him aiming into the machine’s coin slot have circulated on Web sites. Police dubbed him “The Piddler on the Roof” because of the second-floor location of the city council parking meter. “He pees up in the air in a big arc, so it goes in the coin slot and out the hole where people collect their tickets,” police said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Boobs on bikes parade
Thousands of spectators turned out to watch about 30 topless women take part in a so-called Boobs on Bikes parade through Auckland’s main street on Wednesday after a judge rejected a city council bid to stop it. The council failed on Tuesday to get a court injunction to stop the parade organized by a self-confessed pornography baron, with Judge Nicola Mather saying it may be tasteless but that “in a mature society the vast majority might consider it harmless.” Anti-pornography campaigners staged protests before and after the parade down Queen Street. Parade organizer Steve Crow told reporters: “It’s nice to see a few protesters exercising their right to free speech.”
■NEW ZEALAND
Father tried for flicking
James Mason, 49, who has admitted he disciplined his two sons by flicking them on the ear, was sent for trial on assault charges yesterday, news reports said. Mason, a Christchurch musician, was one of the first parents to be prosecuted under a so-called anti-smacking law passed by parliament last year that removed the right to physically discipline children without being charged with assault. His sons were aged two and five in December when Mason, who denies the assault charges, was reported to have hit the children by a teacher and an off-duty police officer. A minor political party will campaign at this year’s general election for a referendum to overturn the anti-smacking law.
■HONG KONG
Cocaine shipment seized
Cocaine with a street value of about HK$1.6 million (US$204,000) was posted to the special administrative region from California in parcels containing children’s books, customs officials confirmed yesterday. The haul weighing 2kg was discovered in four parcels, hidden inside hollowed-out books which were gift-wrapped and tied with ribbons. The drugs had been wrapped in aluminum foil first in an effort to avoid being detected by X-ray, a spokesman for the customs drug investigation group said. They were sent by express mail arriving at the airport last Friday and addressed to a non-existent residence in the New Territories.
■INDONESIA
Rare leopard spotted
A new population of rare leopard has been found living in thick forests on Borneo island, a researcher said yesterday. Camera traps in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan Province have snapped pictures of two adult male Bornean clouded leopards in an area once decimated by logging, British zoologist Susan Cheyne said. The discovery by researchers from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and Indonesia’s Pangkalan Raya University is the first confirmation the clouded leopard, which is classified as vulnerable, lives in the park.
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