SAY IT LOUD: A 2005 ruling fined the president NT$1 and ordered him to apologize to the KMT's Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James Soong in three local newspapers
The Taiwan High Court upheld yesterday a Taipei District Court ruling ordering President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to apologize to his two rivals in the 2004 presidential election for insinuating that they had attempted to stage a "soft coup" after losing the election.

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PAY UP: If convicted, the companies, including Toys `R' Us, Mattel and Costco, could be required to pay a multimillion-dollar sum under California state law
California on Monday launched a lawsuit against 20 companies, accusing them of knowingly exposing children to lead in toys they manufactured or sold.

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By Hu Ching-hui
Eighty-five percent of Hoklo and Hakka people have Aboriginal ancestry, according to a study on the DNA of non-Aboriginal ethnic Taiwanese conducted by Mackay Memorial Hospital's transfusion medical research director Mari Lin (林媽利).

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More than 3,400 people jailed in Pakistan under emergency rule have been released, the Interior Ministry said yesterday, while Karachi police detained about 150 journalists protesting the state of emergency.

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Tibetan spiritual and political leader in exile the Dalai Lama said he is open to naming his successor before he dies, going against centuries of tradition but ensuring that China does not interfere.

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The head of the Khmer Rouge's largest and most notorious torture center took the stand yesterday in the first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.

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