Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks started to climb up Tuesday after the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average earlier fell to its lowest level in 26 years to 7,000.

At 1:33 pm (0433 GMT) the Nikkei gained 216.43 points, or 3.02 per cent, to 7,379.33. Earlier the Nikkei had fallen to 7,000, its lowest level in 26 years.

Japan Tuesday imposed a ban on naked short selling to try to stabilise Asia's largest bourse, following similar crackdowns in the United States, Australia and some European markets.

Short sales involve selling borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back later at a cheaper price to make a profit. With naked short-selling, traders sell stocks before even borrowing them.

Taipei - A Taiwan woman, heart-broken over a broken-off love
affair, confined herself to her home for 30 years, a newspaper reported
Tuesday.

For the past 30 years, Ah Fang, 56, has never stepped out her home
in Tainan City, south Taiwan, and has been cared for by her mother, the
United Daily News (UDN) said.

But her mother is now bedridden after a car accident, so neighbours and relatives are taking food and clothes to Ah Fang now.

Thirty years ago, Ah Fang was a quiet young woman working in a wood
barrel factory and fell in love with a colleague at the factory. UDN
did not report the reason for the break-up, but it left a deep
psychological scar on Ah Fang with her refusing to leave her home ever
since.

Hong Kong (dpa) - Police in Hong Kong were Tuesday facing an inquiry
into why they carry out 18 strip searches a day on suspects with some
claiming they are repeatedly ordered to undress.

Legislators have set up a sub-committee to investigate the practice
after hearing that more than one in five suspects detained between July
and September were strip-searched.

Many of the suspects strip-searched are women from mainland China
and other South-East Asian countries detained for prostitution and
related offences in the wealthy city of 6.9 million.

A hearing of the legislative council's security panel Monday heard
that of 8,086 people detained by police between July and September,