diff --git a/test/functional/wiki_controller_test.rb b/test/functional/wiki_controller_test.rb
index 087c3cef..e1c5a050 100644
--- a/test/functional/wiki_controller_test.rb
+++ b/test/functional/wiki_controller_test.rb
@@ -690,7 +690,7 @@ class WikiControllerTest < ActionController::TestCase
     a = ''.respond_to?(:force_encoding) ? "\u{1D538}\u00FCthorOfNewPage" :
                                           "\360\235\224\270\303\274thorOfNewPage"
     assert_equal a, new_page.author
-    assert_equal "\xF0\x9D\x94\xB8\xC3\xBCthorOfNewPage".as_bytes, r.cookies['author']
+    assert_equal a, r.cookies['author']
   end
 
   def test_save_not_utf8
diff --git a/test/unit/page_renderer_test.rb b/test/unit/page_renderer_test.rb
index 506273ff..c0f94774 100644
--- a/test/unit/page_renderer_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/page_renderer_test.rb
@@ -230,6 +230,20 @@ END_THM
 
   end
   
+  def test_utf8_in_lists
+
+    assert_markup_parsed_as(
+    "<ul>\n<li>\u041E\u0434\u0438\u043D</li>\n\n<li>\u0414" +
+    "\u0432\u0430</li>\n\n<li>\u0422\u0440\u0438</li>\n</ul>",
+    "* \u041E\u0434\u0438\u043D\n* \u0414\u0432\u0430\n* \u0422\u0440\u0438\n")
+    
+    assert_markup_parsed_as(
+    "<ol>\n<li>\u041E\u0434\u0438\u043D</li>\n\n<li>\u0414"+
+    "\u0432\u0430</li>\n\n<li>\u0422\u0440\u0438</li>\n</ol>",
+    "1. \u041E\u0434\u0438\u043D\n2. \u0414\u0432\u0430\n3. \u0422\u0440\u0438\n")
+
+  end
+
   def test_have_latest_itex2mml  
 
       assert_markup_parsed_as(
diff --git a/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/parse_doc.rb b/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/parse_doc.rb
index 7808ed22..5f362233 100644
--- a/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/parse_doc.rb
+++ b/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/parse_doc.rb
@@ -204,8 +204,8 @@ Disabled by default because of security concerns.
 					               
 					# Select all text elements of e
 					XPath.match(e, "//text()" ).each { |original_text| 
-						s = original_text.value.strip
-						if s.size > 0
+						s = original_text.value
+						if s.strip.size > 0
 
 					#	    puts "Parsing #{s.inspect} as blocks: #{parse_blocks}  (#{e.name}, #{e.attributes['markdown']})  "
 
diff --git a/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/type_detection.rb b/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/type_detection.rb
index 716fde70..ba086f2f 100644
--- a/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/type_detection.rb
+++ b/vendor/plugins/maruku/lib/maruku/input/type_detection.rb
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ module MaRuKu; module Strings
 		# Something is wrong with how we parse lists! :-(
 		#return :ulist    if l =~ /^[ ]{0,3}([\*\-\+])\s+.*\w+/
 		#return :olist    if l =~ /^[ ]{0,3}\d+\..*\w+/
-		return :ulist    if l =~ /^[ ]{0,1}([\*\-\+])\s+.*\w+/
-		return :olist    if l =~ /^[ ]{0,1}\d+\..*\w+/
+		return :ulist    if l =~ /^[ ]{0,1}([\*\-\+])\s+.*/
+		return :olist    if l =~ /^[ ]{0,1}\d+\..*/
 		return :header1  if l =~ /^(=)+/ 
 		return :header2  if l =~ /^([-\s])+$/ 
 		return :header3  if l =~ /^(#)+\s*\S+/