Following criticism of a visit this week by Senegal's soccer team, DPP lawmakers yesterday blasted a National Council of Physical Fitness and Sports (NCPFS,
"Such an event may cost at least NT$100 million," DPP Legislator Lan Mei-chin (
"The NCPFS should spend the money on Taiwan's athletes," she added, saying the NCPFS should stop wasting money.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Some opposition lawmakers demanded yesterday that NCPFS Chairman Lin Te-fu (林德福) step down, calling him incompetent and saying he must take responsibility for the fiasco of the Senegal team's visit.
Media reports had said the team would play an exhibition match on Monday, but the team turned up at the stadium in street clothes and stayed on the pitch for only 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, police in Taipei believe that the young man who vandalized Lin's office on Wednesday morning took a taxi to the council's offices, and are searching for the taxi and its driver.
The man who attacked Lin's office was armed with two baseball bats, police said.
Since Lin was a co-organizer of the Senegalese team's visit, there is speculation that the attack could be related to the players' visit.
In related news, one of the Senegalese team's coaches has threatened to sue the international media, including Taiwan's, for publishing negative reports about the team, it was reported yesterday.
In response to a number of reports, the team said its defeat to Turkey in the quarterfinals of the World Cup was not because the players had gone out the night before, as had been reported.
"This is a very serious accusation," an assistant coach said.
"I'm warning the media that [legal] action will be taken."
He also denied that the players had solicited prostitutes during their 30-hour stopover in Taiwan.
The team returned to Senegal's capital, Dakar, on Wednesday to a heroes' welcome at the airport.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
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Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
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