Weird top padding on horizontal list items

Question

I have a horizontal list on which I have placed borders on the li tags in order to separate them. Its all working well but I have some mysterious padding on the top of the li which is making the borders taller than the text:

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3706/picture13y.png

I have played around with the padding and margins but I cant figure out what is causing this. Any suggestions?

Here is the html:

<div id="top_center">
<ul>
<li><a href="#">(1 New)</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Verified Account</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Prefrences</a></li>
</ul>           
</div>

Css:

 /* -------------------------------------------------------------- 

   typography.css
   * Sets up some sensible default typography.
   * Based on the typography.css portion of Blueprint CSS @ http://blueprintcss.org/

-------------------------------------------------------------- */

/* Default font settings. 
   The font-size percentage is of 16px. (1 * 16px ~ 16px) */
body { 
  padding: 0px; 
  margin: 0px; 
  font-size: 100%;
  color: #313131;
  background: #fff;
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}


/* Headings
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { font-weight: normal; color: #313131; }

h1 {  text-transform: none;  text-decoration: none;  font-style: normal;  font-weight: normal;  letter-spacing: -0.01em; font-size: 30px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
h2 { margin-bottom: 0.75em; text-decoration: none; font-size: 1.13em; }
h3 { font-size: .88em; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 1em; color: #767676; }
h4 { font-size: .88em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 1.25em; }
h5 { font-size: .75em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }
h6 { font-size: .75em; font-weight: bold; }

h1 img, h2 img, h3 img, 
h4 img, h5 img, h6 img {
  margin: 0;
}


/* Text elements
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

p           { margin: 0 0 1.5em; }
p img.left  { float: left; margin: 1.5em 1.5em 1.5em 0; padding: 0; }
p img.right { float: right; margin: 1.5em 0 1.5em 1.5em; }

a:focus, 
a:hover     { color: #94c909; }
a           { color: #7aa807; text-decoration: underline; }
h5 a, #top_center li a {text-decoration: none; font-size: .75em; padding-top: 0px;}

blockquote  { margin: 1.5em; color: #666; font-style: italic; }
strong      { font-weight: bold; }
em,dfn      { font-style: italic; }
dfn         { font-weight: bold; }
sup, sub    { line-height: 0; }

abbr, 
acronym     { border-bottom: 1px dotted #666; }
address     { margin: 0 0 1.5em; font-style: italic; }
del         { color:#666; }

pre                 { margin: 1.5em 0; white-space: pre; }
pre,code,tt { font: 1em 'andale mono', 'lucida console', monospace; line-height: 1.5; }


/* Lists
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

li ul, 
li ol       { padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 1.5em; margin-top: 0; }
ul, ol      { padding-left: 0; margin-left: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-right: 1.5em; margin-top: 0; }

ul          { list-style-type: none; }
ol          { list-style-type: decimal; }

dl          { margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; }
dl dt       { font-weight: bold; }
dd          { margin-left: 1.5em;}


/* Tables
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

table       { margin-bottom: 1.4em; width:100%; }
th          { font-weight: bold; }
thead th        { background: #c3d9ff; }
th,td,caption { padding: 4px 10px 4px 5px; }
tr.even td  { background: #e5ecf9; }
tfoot       { font-style: italic; }
caption     { background: #eee; }


/* Misc classes
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

.small      { font-size: .8em; margin-bottom: 1.875em; line-height: 1.875em; }
.large      { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 2.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; }
.hide       { display: none; }

.quiet      { color: #666; }
.loud       { color: #000; }
.highlight  { background:#ff0; }
.added      { background:#060; color: #fff; }
.removed    { background:#900; color: #fff; }

.first      { margin-left:0; padding-left:0; }
.last       { margin-right:0; padding-right:0; }
.top        { margin-top:0; padding-top:0; }
.bottom     { margin-bottom:0; padding-bottom:0; }



#top     { height: 53px; width: 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-image: url(img/top_bg.jpg); }
#top_center     { height: 53px; margin: 0 auto; width: 950px; }
#top_center ul  {float: right; margin-top: 10px; padding-top: 0px;}
#top_center li  { display: inline; padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 7px; padding-top: 0px; border-left-color: #b3b3b3; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid;}
#top_center li:first-child { border: none;}
#top_center li img { margin-right: 7px; }

Answer 1

It could be that you decrease the text size of the links.
Update: You decrease the font size here:

h5 a, #top_center li a {text-decoration: none; font-size: .75em; padding-top: 0px;}

Then the text gets aligned to the bottom of the box. To center them vertically, you can do this:

  #top_center a {
    vertical-align: middle;
  }

Update 2: Ok with your whole CSS it doesn't align properly somehow. But this works for me:

#top_center a {
    display: table-cell;
    vertical-align: middle;
  }

Reference: vertical-align