Thu, Feb 20, 2003 page3

• Taiwan Quick Take

  • STAFF WRITER WITH AGENCIES
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  ■ Politics

  Lu wants role spelled out

  Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called for the rewriting of the Constitution to definitively spell out definitely the role of vice president. In an interview with CNA, Lu said the Constitution's ambiguity on the government's organization has led to endless arguments about whether the president or the premier should be accountable to the legislature. In order to eliminate the controversy, Lu said a rewriting of the Constitution is necessary to clearly define the roles and functions of president and vice president.

  ■ Society

  Ministry plans hot line

  To provide more comprehensive assistance to foreign spouses, the Ministry of the Interior's Sexual Harassment Prevention Council is scheduled to provide a multi-lingual special telephone service for domestic abuse victims from April, the council announced yesterday. The service, which will operate in Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian, will be available as an option on the number already used by the Chinese-language domestic abuse line, 113, which was introduced in January last year. Council Secretary General Lin Tzu-ling (林慈玲) said that the service will provide information on preventing domestic abuse to foreign spouses, while also enabling them to report abuse with minimal communication problems. According to council statistics, some 543 foreign spouses sought assistance for domestic abuse through the Chinese-language line last year.

  ■ Justice

  Chen to focus on discipline

  Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) said yesterday that maintaining prosecutors' moral discipline is one of his goals for the year and that he has asked the ministry's Inspection Department to come up with a plan for doing so within a month. "We need to come up with certain rules for prosecutors and write them down. We have nearly 3,000 discipline inspectors at the department. I have asked the department to raise the guidelines within a month and I am confident that they can make it," Chen said. He said that "one shall shave himself first before he shaves others," meaning that law-enforcement officers should hold themselves to a stricter standard of morality.

  ■ Society

  Couple allowed to wed

  About 20 years ago, a man surnamed Wu (吳) had an extramarital affair resulting in a daughter with a woman surnamed Lin (林). Because the child could not be entered in the household registration, the birth certificate was forged, listing a married couple surnamed Kuo (過), friends of Wu and Lin, as the girl's parents. Wu then adopted the child, who had her surname changed to Wu and currently lives with her biological mother. As a child, the girl often visited the Kuo family with her mother. Eventually the girl and the Kuo's son, listed as her brother in the household registration, fell in love. When the two attempted to marry, they were denied by the court due to their blood relation. To eliminate the obstacle to their happiness, DNA samples were taken at the Tri-service General Hospital to prove that they were not related. After results verified that the two were not related, and that Lin was the mother of the girl, the court allowed the couple to get married.
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