DONGGUAN, China: “Meiyou, meiyou” - “None here, none here!” the filling station attendant shouts, waving his arms at a small truck pulling up to the diesel pump to signal that it is dry.

Without stopping, the truck rolls on in search of the fuel elsewhere - another casualty of the low-profile but intense battle between Chinas government and its increasingly independent oil firms over who should fund fuel subsidies.

The showdown has caused diesel shortages in parts of Chinas booming coastal province of Guangdong for weeks, according to drivers, gasoline station managers and industry sources, as refiners seek to staunch losses by reducing sales.

The dry pumps are a distant echo of the fuel crisis in the summer of 2005 that sparked long lines and a government crackdown on oil firms huge exports. Beijing suspended tax incentives and set export quotas to keep more fuel at home.

“There is definitely a shortage going on,” said a manager at a state-owned filling station in Dalang Township, who requested anonymity. “But on the whole, its much better than in 2005.”

The dry pumps are a tangible reminder of the price distortion that can distort fuel demand in the worlds second-biggest oil consumer and makes the earnings of Sinopec, Chinas top refiner, unpredictable.

Despite repeated promises to gradually allow fuel prices to catch up with global rates, Beijing has maintained a tight grip on prices, fearful that costlier energy could spark inflation or unrest. Gasoline prices have not been increased since May 2006.

The government forces state-owned or state-controlled oil firms to absorb losses that analysts say are now running at up to $10 a barrel on imported crude, although for the past two years also doled out hefty year-end compensation to Sinopec, the worst hit.

In response, refiners trying to limit losses have trimmed processing rates and cut flows to markets, tightening supplies of diesel and cheaper gasoline - particularly in demand hot spots.

Major cities, such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, appear to be better supplied than some other less-prosperous areas.

In a semi-rural part of Dongguan, which lies between those two cities, many filling stations lacked diesel.

At a joint-venture Petrochina-BP station in the town of Changping, a manager repeats a familiar phrase: “Diesels pretty tight.

“If you want diesel,” he said, “we can only sell you a little, maybe 50 liters or 100 liters” - 13 to 26 gallons.

U.S. oil prices last month climbed to record levels above $80 a barrel, in contrast to Chinese domestic fuel prices, which not been raised for more than a year. Gasoline pump prices were even trimmed slightly in January when markets temporarily retreated.

“The refineries are bringing forward their maintenance and overhauls in the hope that oil prices will ease,” said analyst Gordon Kwan at CLSA in Hong Kong.

“I think they are running down on their crude oil and refined product inventories now so they dont have to refine more.”

China does not publish commercial or state inventory levels, but throughput at top refineries fell 3 percent in September from a month earlier, amid heavy maintenance, a Reuters survey showed.

High prices are also slashing supply from independent refiners, which now provide about 15 percent of Chinas oil products but have little access to crude so instead use more expensive fuel oil as feedstock, industry sources said.

Gasoline supplies are smooth for the most part, although some stations were low on the cheapest 90-octane, which has also been running out sporadically in the financial hub of Shanghai, drivers there said.

One to two months ago, things were worse, some reported.

A MUM who runs Scotland’s first “dog daycare” centre claims council officers told her to move into a caravan for two years in order to beat planning rules.

Sarah Medlam wants to expand her business in Midlothian to include kennels, and inquired about getting planning permission to build a house on the site.

At her Dog Day Care centre near Gorebridge, the single parent looks after and exercises dozens of dogs while their owners are at work, and has even installed a paddling pool for the pampered pooches. She now wants to begin taking animals in overnight, at a “home from home” for dogs - complete with beds and old armchairs for the dogs to lounge on. Her plans hinge on winning permission to build a new house on her land, which is earmarked for agricultural use.

Ms Medlam had hoped Midlothian Council would agree to the move as it is necessary for her business - but she was shocked when an official advised her put a caravan on the site and live in it for two years.

The 40-year-old said she laughed when she was given the advice. “I’ve got a teenage daughter who will be doing exams in two year’s time,” she added. “This really isn’t a possibility.”

She said the council wants her to run the kennels for two years to prove it is a serious business venture, and not just a ruse to get permission for a home in the countryside.

“I need to build a house so I can be there at night, but we would be struggling to get planning permission,” she said. “We submitted an inquiry letter and I was told they have no problem with building the kennels, but they want me to run them for two years before I get the house.

“I was told this was because sometimes people say they are going to run a business just so they can build a house. But I’ve got an existing business - I’m trying to expand. I just laughed when he suggested I live in a caravan. I thought he was kidding, but he was straight-faced.

“Local people have also said to me that I could get permission if I had a caravan on site for two years. But I’ve got a teenage daughter - it’s not something I can consider. What am I supposed to do now? I can’t just abandon 40 dogs overnight.”

Ms Medlam had hoped to employ two full-time staff at the kennels and day-care centre. She is now discussing the options with an architect and said she would still be submitting a planning application next month.

She said: “The architect seemed quite positive. The planners have listed some of the problems, and he said he feels like they are willing to enter into negotiations.”

A Midlothian Council spokeswoman said they could not comment on the proposals as they had not yet considered a planning application.

She said: “Midlothian Council’s planning unit has been contacted on this matter and a planning officer has discussed the proposed development with the person concerned.

“Planning permission has not been sought for this development. Should a planning application be received it will be subject to the usual process of consultation, including with the local community council and through neighbourhood notification, as they must have the opportunity to comment before it is considered by the planning committee.”

Ms Medlam’s story will be featured on the STV property programme Safe As Houses tomorrow at 7.30pm.

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PANAMA CITY: Eduardo Arias hardly fits the profile of someone capable of humbling one of the worlds most formidable economic powers.

A 51-year-old Kuna Indian, Arias grew up on a reservation paddling dugout canoes near his home on one of the San Blas islands off Panamas Caribbean coast. He lives in a small apartment above a food stand in the nations capital, Panama City.

But one Saturday morning in May, Eduardo Arias did something that would reverberate across six continents. He read the label on a 59-cent tube of toothpaste.

On it were two words that had been overlooked by government inspectors and health authorities in dozens of countries: diethylene glycol, the same sweet-tasting, poisonous ingredient in antifreeze that had been mixed into cold syrup here, killing or disabling at least 138 Panamanians last year.

Arias reported his discovery, setting off a worldwide hunt for tainted toothpaste that turned out to be manufactured in China. Health alerts have been issued in 34 countries, from Vietnam to Kenya, from Tonga in the Pacific to Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. Canada found 24 contaminated brands and New Zealand found 16. Japan had 20 million tubes. Officials in the United States unwittingly gave the toothpaste to prisoners, the mentally disabled and troubled youths.

Hospitals gave it to the sick, while high-end hotels gave it to the wealthy.

People around the world had been putting an ingredient of antifreeze in their mouths and until Panama blew the whistle, no one seemed to know it.

The toothpaste scare helped galvanize global concerns about the quality of Chinas exports in general, prompting the government there to promise to reform how food, medicine and consumer products are regulated. And other countries are re-examining how well they monitor imported products.

Lost in this swirl of activity was the identity of the person who started it all - Arias. Until The New York Times tracked him down with the help of the Panama City mayors office, his name had not been known, even to some people working on the case.

“We havent been able to find him,” said Julio Cйsar Laffaurie, the Panamanian prosecutor pursuing the case of the contaminated toothpaste.

In looking back over events of the past year, Dr. Jorge Motta, director of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, a prominent research center in Panama City, said he was grateful that some good had come from the national trauma brought on by the toxic cough syrup.

“The whole questioning about Chinese goods began in Panama with our deaths,” he said, putting a twist on an old Chinese saying by adding, “A little butterfly in Panama beat her wings and created a storm in China.”

Arias, who lives alone and does not own a car, went to buy blank CDs on May 5 at Vendela, a discount store where he had heard prices were so low that street vendors bought supplies there. Stepping into the store, a large display of toothpaste caught his eye.

“Without touching the tube, the letters were big enough for me to read: diethylene glycol,” Arias said.

A year ago, those words would have meant nothing to him. “Nobody had ever heard of this stuff,” said Arias, who has a midlevel government job reviewing environmental reports. But a steady drumbeat of news about poison cough syrup had engraved the words in his mind.

Arias thought about alerting the store clerk but figured nothing would come of it. Instead, he bought a tube with the plan of turning it over to the health authorities. It was not easy.

Since government offices were closed on the weekend, he said, he used a vacation day on Monday to walk the tube to the nearest Health Ministry office. But that office refused to accept it, directing him to a second health center.

Arias walked there and found himself in a crowded office. The clerk there directed him to another section of the building where he spoke to another official.

“I said, look, here is this toothpaste I bought on the pedestrian mall,” he said he told the official, “and it says right here - its got diethylene glycol.”

At this point, Arias said he was given a form to fill out. He left wondering what if anything would come of his complaint.

Arias got his answer three days later when the nations top health official, Dr. Camilo Alleyne, announced that toothpaste containing diethylene glycol had been found by an unidentified shopper in Panama City.