■NEW ZEALAND
Phony pee a whiz at tests
Retailers are selling synthetic urine to help people beat workplace drug tests, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported yesterday. The phony pee has a similar chemical composition to real urine. Chris Fowlie, the owner of an Auckland shop called Hempstore that offers the product, said it gave workers back their privacy. “Random drug testing goes against the Bill of Rights and the Privacy Act and violates the natural justice of presumption of innocence,” Fowlie told the newspaper. Hempstore’s Web site offers a product called “Quick Fix,” which it claims has a 100 percent pass rate in New Zealand drug tests. It comes complete with a pouring spout that users can use to mimic relieving themselves if anyone is watching. “With a bit of practice the pouring spout makes it look very realistic,” the Web site says. Scientist Paul Fitzmaurice, from the government’s Environmental Science and Research Department, said the fake urine was difficult to distinguish from the real thing, although it did not smell like the natural substance. Police said they were unable to comment on whether selling the fake urine broke any laws.
■SOUTH KOREA
Short men’s love quest aided
A human rights watchdog yesterday told two matchmaking agencies to stop height discrimination when signing up men as members. The National Human Rights Commission ruled in favor of a 39-year-old man who filed complaints against two agencies. They refused to accept him as a member due to his height of 1.58m. The commission said it amounted to a “breach of human dignity” for the agencies to deny applicants on grounds of their physical characteristics. The agencies had refused membership to men shorter than 1.65m on the grounds that brides prefer taller men.
■UNITED STATES
‘Madman’ gets scare
A Missouri teenager dressed as a machete-wielding madman to promote a Halloween store was the one who ended up getting a scare. The Joplin Globe reports a police officer pointed a gun at the costumed teenager and ordered him to the ground on Saturday after getting a report that a disturbed person was brandishing a weapon on a city street. The teen, whose name was not released, wore a mask and swung what later proved to be a plastic machete while waving to cars outside the Spirit of Halloween store. Other officers arrived and quickly determined the boy posed no threat. Rick Henderson, consignment owner of the store, says the boy was not acting strangely. He says a large banner advertised that it was a Halloween store.
■IRELAND
No sleep till Dublin
Motorists using the new motorway network can expect to find themselves thirsty or bursting for the lavatory because the government hasn’t any money left to build roadside service stations. The government body in charge of roads has begun erecting signs warning drivers not to expect any rest stops along a network that stretches from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic. Struggling to plug Europe’s biggest budget deficit and to kickstart the ailing economy simultaneously, Ireland set aside scarce funds to revamp a road network still reminiscent of its past as one of Europe’s poorest countries. As money ran out the National Roads Authority had to scrap plans to build service stations in most places. It is now putting up signs warning of no “online” services ahead and pointing motorists towards gas stations in nearby towns.
■CHILE
Miner’s daughter born
The 33 miners trapped deep underground for weeks had something to cheer about on Tuesday after the birth of a worker’s daughter. Esperanza Elizabeth — whose name was inspired by the Camp Hope set up by the miners’ families on the outskirts of the San Jose mine — was born at midday through caesarean section, her family said. She is the daughter of Ariel Ticona, who has been trapped with his fellow miners 700m below the surface since the entrance to the San Jose gold and copper mine collapsed on Aug. 5 near Copiapo. The girl, who weighed 3kg and measured 48cm, is Cristian Ticona’s third child with Elizabeth Segovia.
■SUDAN
Forces seek engineer
A joint Sudanese-Chadian force is searching for a Chinese engineer kidnapped in Chad along the border of the two countries, a Sudanese army spokesman said yesterday. “We have information that kidnappers took the Chinese engineer into the border areas between Sudan and Chad,” Sawarmi Khaled Saad said. “A joint Sudanese-Chadian force is following the kidnappers, and the Sudanese army is also assisting,” he said. The Chinese national working for an engineering company in Chad was kidnapped last week in the northeast of the country, according to a senior Chadian official, who said the kidnappers and their hostage were on Sudanese territory on Tuesday. The engineer was seized in Am-Djarass in the Ennedi region, close to the border with Sudan, where he was working on a project “to supply water to the town,” the official said. He is an employee of CGCOC-Chad, the local affiliate of a Chinese construction company that has many branches in Africa and Asia.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
Botswana is this week holding a presidential election energized by a campaign by one previous head-of-state to unseat his handpicked successor whose first term has seen rising discontent amid a downturn in the diamond-dependent economy. The charismatic Ian Khama dramatically returned from self-exile six weeks ago determined to undo what he has called a “mistake” in handing over in 2018 to Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who seeks re-election tomorrow. While he cannot run as president again having served two terms, Khama has worked his influence and standing to support the opposition in the southern African country of 2.6 million people. “The return of
SOUTH CHINA SEA TENSIONS: Beijing’s ‘pronounced aggressiveness’ and ‘misbehavior’ forced countries to band together, the Philippine defense chief said The Philippines is confident in the continuity of US policies in the Asia-Pacific region after the US presidential election, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said, underlining that bilateral relations would remain strong regardless of the outcome. The alliance between the two countries is anchored in shared security goals and a commitment to uphold international law, including in the contested waters of the South China Sea, Teodoro said. “Our support for initiatives, bilaterally and multilaterally ... is bipartisan, aside from the fact that we are operating together on institutional grounds, on foundational grounds,” Teodoro said in an interview. China’s “misbehavior” in the South