■ Singapore
Illegal masseuses nabbed
Seventy-seven women from China, Malaysia and Thailand have been arrested in Singapore following a crackdown on illegal massage parlors, police said yesterday. The arrests were carried out during a three-day operation that began on June 30, a police statement said. Police have stepped up checks on massage parlors amid increasing public concern over the proliferation of unlicensed establishments, which often solicit sex under the pretext of offering "traditional" massages.
■ Bangladesh
Strike shuts down country
Major towns and cities were at a standstill yesterday as opposition parties enforced a nationwide shutdown in protest at the death of an activist, police said. The main opposition Awami League said one of its members died on Sunday during a protest after being hit by a tear gas shell at Dhaka's main bus terminal. Police are investigating if he suffered a stroke after leaving the scene of the protest. The strike, called by a 14-party opposition alliance led by the league, is the latest in a string of opposition-enforced stoppages. Most have been called as part of the alliance's campaign for electoral reforms ahead of an election scheduled for January.
■ Philippines
Arroyo appoints police chief
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday appointed a new police chief amid a spate of extra-judicial killings in the country. Deputy Director General Oscar Calderon takes over as national police chief today when Director General Arturo Lomibao retires from the service. Calderon, the most senior among the candidates, denied speculation that he was chosen for the position because he is a distant relative of Arroyo. "I deserve the post," he said.
■ Russia
Joint exercises planned
Russia and China will stage joint military exercises for the second time following last year's first-ever Russo-Chinese war games, the chief of the Russian General Staff was quoted as saying yesterday. General Yuri Baluyevsky said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart General Liang Guanglie (梁光烈) that the next round of maneuvers would be held in Russia, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Baluyevsky declined to disclose the date of the exercises. In August last year, some 10,000 troops, mostly Chinese and about 1,800 Russians, took part in major drills in the Shandong peninsula in the Yellow Sea.
■ United Kingdom
Bone-fused limbs developed
British scientists have developed the technology that enables artificial limbs to be directly attached to a human skeleton, press reports said on Monday. The concept of growing skin tissue around metal, a staple of science fiction films such as The Terminator, was realized by researchers at University College London. It allows the artificial limb to breach the skin without risk of infection. According to the Times, the breakthrough was reached after a detailed study of the way skin seals around deers' antlers. It paves the way for significant advances in the technology of artificial limbs, including the use of bionic limbs controlled robotically by nerve impulses.
■ Ireland
Bomb threat clears airport
Police ordered the emergency evacuation of Dublin International Airport yesterday after a man claiming to have a bomb in a suitcase was arrested in the airport's arrivals hall. Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, said several of its units and the Irish army bomb squad were being dispatched to the airport, about 15km north of central Dublin, but no explosive device was immediately found. Siobhan Moore, spokeswoman for the Dublin Airport Authority, said all travelers and staff had been evacuated from the airport terminal to nearby car-parking spaces or to the sidewalks outside, while all flights out of the airport would be grounded.
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