Taipei  - A Taiwanese handbag thief who tried to withdraw cash from his victim's bank account was caught in the act by the victim's daughter, who happened to work at the bank branch.

Taipei police said Chang Shih-chun, 55, broke into the house of a retired teacher Tuesday and stole her handbag containing some cash, a bank book and an ink seal used by the victim to stamp her signature when withdrawing money.

Hanoi  - Taiwanese-owned condiment company Vedan has agreed to compensate Vietnamese farmers for damage from pollution it illegally discharged into a Vietnamese river for more than a decade, the company and farmers said Thursday.

"On the basis of our humanitarian responsibility to society, Vedan has offered a solution to share the farmers' losses to some extent," said Vedan lawyer Hoang Nhu Vinh.

Vinh said farmers would have to agree never to sue Vedan in order to receive payouts from the company.

Vedan representatives spent Monday and Tuesday negotiating with Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province farmers' associations over the settlement.

Taipei  - An elderly man in the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung has fallen prey to fraudulent lottery scams 11 times in two years, police said Wednesday.

The 66-year-old man, identified by his family name Chang, believed it was true every time he received notification that he had won a big lottery prize, police said.

"He has been cheated 11 times and swindled out of 3.45 million Taiwan dollars (100,000 US) in the past two years," said Chang Chin-lan, spokeswoman of the police anti-fraud hotline.

Taipei  - A museum in Taiwan has apologised and recalled 3,000 copies of a visitor brochure after a string of mistranslations - including referring to "adultery" when it meant "adulthood."

The National Museum of Prehistory, in Taitung, southeast Taiwan, made the apology on Tuesday after a lawmaker pointed out several mistakes in the English brochure for the museum's exhibition on aborigines.

The brochure says that facial tattoo is the symbol of adultery for aborigines, when it in fact means adulthood.

Taipei - Tibetans in Taiwan held demonstrations and rallies on Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of China's 1959 occupation of Tibet.

Two Taiwan cities and one county have declared March 10 as "Tibet Day" as a protest to commemorate the Dalai Lama's fleeing Tibet to seek exile in India, as the Tibet Day.

The three places are Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County and Tainan City.

On Tuesday morning, Tibetan exiles and their supporters held a rally in the Cental Park in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan.