An evangelical pastor insisted his plans for a mass torching of the Koran would go ahead after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the “disgraceful” burning ceremony in Florida.
Clinton was the most senior US official to speak out against the torching scheduled for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying she was “heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths.”
The White House also added its voice to warnings that the move could trigger outrage around the Islamic world and endanger the lives of US soldiers.
“It puts our troops in harm’s way. And obviously any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm’s way would be a concern to this administration,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday.
He was reiterating comments by top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, who warned burning the holy book of Islam would provide propaganda for insurgents.
However, a small church, the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has vowed to mark Saturday’s ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by burning Korans as they remember the almost 3,000 people killed by hijackers.
“We are taking his concerns very seriously,” pastor Terry Jones told CNN late on Tuesday, referring to Petraeus, but “we right now have plans to continue.”
Jones said the Koran torching aimed “to remember those who were brutally murdered on Sept. 11,” and to send a warning “to the radical element of Islam.”
“Instead of us being blamed for what other people will do or might do, why don’t we send a warning to them?” he said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
RSS