'FISHY': The DPP presidential hopeful again questioned his rival's integrity, accusing Ma Ying-jeou of telling `three lies' in less than a week since registering his candidacy
By Shih Hsiu-chuan
After several days of questions and accusing his opponent of holding a US green card, Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday called for a temporary halt to the issue.

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By Mo Yan-chih
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday apologized for failing to publicly acknowledge that his wife Chow Mei-ching (周美青) had sold shares in 2004 and 2005, while denying that the transaction constituted insider trading.

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LEGISLATIVE MONITORS: The group demanded that all meetings be open by allowing public access to the video-on-demand system in the legislature
By Loa Iok-sin
With the new legislature convening for the first time yesterday, the Citizen's Congress Watch (CCW) yesterday urged lawmakers to allow more transparency and ban cross-party negotiations from taking place behind closed doors.

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By Loa Iok-sin and Flora Wang
The two referendums on applying for UN membership will be held on the same day as the presidential election on March 22, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday.

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By Charles Snyder
US and Taiwan relations will continue to be "warm and quite special," whoever wins this year's presidential elections in Taipei and Washington, because Americans and Taiwanese share "very strong and mutual interests," American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt said on Thursday.

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The Council of Grand Justices yesterday ruled that several articles of the Anti-Hoodlum Law (檢肅流 氓條例) were unconstitutional and should be abolished within one year of the interpretation's publication.

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TRANSPORTATION: While the MOTC is pushing for a higher compensation level, the freeway bureau fixed the price of freeway toll-collection OBUs at NT$1,199
By Shelley Shan
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) plans to raise the minimum liability insurance payment to passengers who are injured or killed on the nation's MRT networks from NT$1.4 million (US$43,500) to NT$1.5 million per person.

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The mercury is expected to drop to around 11oC in northern and eastern Taiwan over the weekend with the approach of a new cold snap caused by a continental arctic air mass, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.

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The Bankers Association of the Republic of China reminded people ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays to be on guard against ATM card scams when withdrawing cash from their accounts.

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By Rich Chang
A man armed only with a spray bottle yesterday stole NT$920,000 (US$28,500) from an armored vehicle in broad daylight in Taipei City, police said.

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GREEN LIVING: Production of automated, self-powered houses made of sustainable materials could start as soon as next year, experts said at a seminar in Taipei yesterday
By Meggie Lu
Taiwanese homeowners could soon be living "MEGA-style" in self-powered, environmentally friendly houses, the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology's Ecological and Hazard Mitigation Engineering Research Center said yesterday.

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CULTURAL EXCHANGE: The exhibition is part of a joint project with Austria, which sent a collection of Baroque masterpieces, showing at the National Palace Museum
A collection of 116 ancient Chinese artworks from the National Palace Museum are being packed for shipment to the Austrian capital Vienna for a three-month exhibit set to begin on Feb. 25, the museum's curator said yesterday.

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FAST FOOD: In captivity, the molluscs, a popular seafood, grew to maturity faster than in the wild, which may help stop their numbers from dwindling
National Penghu University has successfully cultivated cuttlefish in a fully controlled environment -- an achievement that could help stop cuttlefish dwindling in the wild.

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■ HEALTH