By Flora Wang
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) apologized yesterday to National Youth Commission Chairwoman Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) for swearing during a question-and-answer session in the legislature's Education and Culture Committee on Thursday.

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SEMANTICS: The Kaohsiung District Court decided that two men who handed out NT$500 each to voters on two buses were soliciting votes rather than buying them
By Jimmy Chuang
The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday returned a verdict of not-guilty for two men charged with vote-buying in the Kaohsiung mayoral election last December.

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A special investigative team from the Supreme Prosecutors Office is set to take action in three suspected election bribery cases connected to next year's elections.

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JUST IN CASE? : The KMT presidential candidate said the Chinese leadership was ready to talk peace with Taiwan, but added that he would seek to increase the defense budget
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday he was confident that Taiwan would be able to sign a peace accord with China, adding that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) had expressed a similar opinion.

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COMMUNICABLE: Eleven students in a Taichung City elementary school have been confirmed to have the disease. Officials suspect tainted tap water is to blame
By Jenny W. Hsu
The Centers for Disease Control yesterday said that the recent outbreak of dysentery at a Taichung City elementary school has been contained and that the affected students should make a full recovery after a five-day regimen of medication.

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By Mo Yan-chih
The Taipei City Government admitted yesterday that personal information relating to former Taipei City mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and some city councilors had been leaked over the Internet. The government said the information included addresses and ID numbers, and they promised to examine the city government's Web pages to ensure no further information was leaked.

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BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: Under a proposal from the Institute of Transportation, bicycles could be classed as both slow-moving vehicles and as `speedy pedestrians'
By Shelley Shan
Besides being legally defined as slow-moving vehicles, bicycles in Taiwan may now acquire a new definition as "speedy pedestrians" or suren (速人).

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A chef specializing in shark fin soup warned consumers that many shark fins bought in Taiwan are fake and might pose a hazard to their health.

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DISAPPEARING ACT: A series of music videos that included well-known Taiwanese songs with substituted derogatory lyrics was removed
By Wang Pei-hua
Overturning a previous decision, YouTube decided on Thursday to remove a series of music videos degrading Taiwanese women after angry reports from the Taiwanese public and media.

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NEW STRATEGIES: Speakers at two forums on cross-strait ties yesterday both said that closer ties would not work, and that Taiwan needed to develop its own strategies
By Loa Iok-sin and Shih Hsiu-chuan
Strengthening economic ties with China will not solve Taiwan's economic issues -- what Taiwan needs is new economic development strategies, a top economist said yesterday.

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SHORTAGE: A coalition of children's and women's protection groups said a system for handling cases of domestic violence and harassment was lacking
By Loa Iok-sin
Despite a well-designed system to respond to domestic violence cases and sex crimes, a shortage of budgeting and professional help still hurts the effectiveness of the victim support network, activists said at a conference yesterday.

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By Meggie Lu
To promote the reduction of packaging used for consumer products, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday advised the business sector on how to wrap its products in an eco-friendly way.

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Taiwan has donated US$230,000 to St. Christopher and Nevis (St. Kitts) for the purchase of a modern fishing vessel to help the Caribbean diplomatic ally develop its fisheries industry, Caribbean Net News reported on Thursday.

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■ SOCIETY

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