DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: The president was disappointed with the ruling, but vowed that he would lodge an appeal over the decision and deliver more evidence to the court
By Rich Chang
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday lost the libel suit brought against him by opposition leaders for comments he made suggesting they had tried to engineer a "soft coup" during the aftermath of last year's presidential election.

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DEJA VU: For the second time in two months, a chemical spill into a major river is threatening the drinking water of thousands of residents, this time in southern China
Chinese officials worked feverishly yesterday to ensure safe water supplies to a city in southern China threatened by a toxic slick, the second major water pollution crisis in recent weeks.

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Taiwan will help rebuild a university in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh Province, a spokesman for Taiwan's representative office in Jakarta said on Tuesday.

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Commuters trudged through freezing temperatures, rode bicycles and shared cabs as the largest US mass-transit system was shut down by the first strike in more than 25 years, stranding millions of riders at the height of the Christmas rush and prompting a judge to slap the transit union with a US$1 million-a-day fine.

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In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution in 80 years, a federal judge on Tuesday barred a state public school district from teaching "intelligent design" in biology class, saying the concept violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

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