FIFA apologizes for Tibet row
( 2003-12-09 15:58) (chinadaily.com.cn)
The organizing committee of the FIFA 2006 World
Cup has apologized to the Chinese for listing Tibet as a neighboring
country of China on its official website.
A spokesman of the organizing committee said that the mistake has
been corrected, Beijing Morning Posts reports. The spokesman also asked the
newspaper to convey their apologies to the Chinese people.
Earlier, on the English, French and German versions of the website, Tibet -
one of China's five provincial-level minority autonomous regions - was
listed as a neighboring state in the "country information" section for China.
The misinformation, spreading worldwide through the Internet,drew the ire of
the Chinese people . Many domestic websites are awash with complaints from
indignant readers and surfers who sent missives to FIFA, seeking an
explanation.
"Whether on purpose or not, the website did it. This has seriously hurt the
feelings of Chinese people," said a netizen on Sina.com's message board.
"The mistake must be corrected, immediately," he stressed.
The official Website (fifaworldcup.yahoo.com) is operated by yahoo.com in
cooperation with FIFA.
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