Tahrir Square comes alive again, sees mass protest
Cairo, July 8
Thousands of Egyptians converged on Cairo’s Tahrir Square today to renew the demands of the January revolution and press for a quicker democratic change, making their anger evident against the slow pace of reform under the military regime.

‘Obama’s dad considered putting him up for adoption’
Boston, July 8
US President Barack Obama’s father had intended to put his unborn son up for adoption as the senior Obama tried to appease US immigration officials who raised concerns about him having two wives as well as his “playboy ways”, a new book has revealed. Details about Obama senior have emerged in a book by Boston Globe reporter Sally Jacobs.

London, July 8
The police arrested David Cameron’s former spokesperson today over the scandal that has shut down Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, forcing the prime minister to defend his judgement while promising sweeping new rules for the British press.

As Cameron was fielding hostile questions over why he hired Andy Coulson from the editor’s chair at the tabloid in 2007, despite knowing that one of his journalists had been jailed for hacking into voicemails in search of scoops, Coulson was being arrested by the police on suspicion of conspiring in the practice.

Cameron said he took “full responsibility” for his decision to hire Coulson, who quit Downing Street in January when the police relaunched inquiries. But the premier rebuffed direct criticism and strove to spread the blame for an affair that has generated public outrage against the press, politicians and police.

“Murder victims, terrorist victims, families who have lost loved ones in war...” he said: “That these people could have had their phones hacked into in order to generate stories for a newspaper is simply disgusting.” So widespread was the rot, Cameron told an emergency news conference after Murdoch shut down his best-selling Sunday paper, that only a completely new system of media regulation and a full public inquiry into what went wrong over a decade at News of the World would meet public demand. “This scandal is not just about some journalists on one newspaper,” Cameron said. “It's not even just about the press. It’s also about the police. And, yes, it’s also about how politics works and politicians too.”

Shares in the pay-TV chain BSkyBfell 4 per cent after the media ministry said it would take events at the News of the World into account and take its time before giving any approval. Cameron also criticised his friend and neighbour Rebekah Brooks, Coulson's predecessor as editor and now a top executive and confidante of Murdoch. She should have resigned herself, he said, after closing down the newspaper at a cost of 200 jobs.

Cameron’s Labour opponent Ed Miliband, and his Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, offered broadly similar prescriptions for addressing what many Britons believe is a tabloid press out of control in its readiness to invade the privacy of both celebrities and vulnerable people. But media and civil liberties groups will resist efforts to impose regulation they believe would curb free speech or thwart scrutiny of corruption and hypocrisy. 

Cairo, July 8
Thousands of Egyptians converged on Cairo’s Tahrir Square today to renew the demands of the January revolution and press for a quicker democratic change, making their anger evident against the slow pace of reform under the military regime.

The epicentre of the protests that led to the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak came alive yet again as thousands descended at the square after Friday noon prayers to take part in a new million-man rally. More than 23 political parties and groups have announced their support to the Friday protest. Five months after a caretaker military-led government promised to bring about a democratic transition, many in Egypt believe that a number of demands of the revolution have not been met because of the absence of security and slow-paced trials of corrupt officials. — PTI 

Boston, July 8
US President Barack Obama’s father had intended to put his unborn son up for adoption as the senior Obama tried to appease US immigration officials who raised concerns about him having two wives as well as his “playboy ways”, a new book has revealed. Details about Obama senior have emerged in a book by Boston Globe reporter Sally Jacobs.

Titled ‘The Other Barack, The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama’s Father’, the biography is slated for release next week. “In the spring of 1961, President Obama’s father revealed a plan for his unborn son that might have changed the course of American political history,” Jacobs said in an article in the Boston Globe.

The elder Obama, who was at the time a sophomore at the University of Hawaii, had come under scrutiny by federal immigration officials who were concerned that he had more than one wife. When questioned by the school’s foreign student adviser, the 24-year-old Obama insisted that he had divorced his wife in his native Kenya.

Although his new wife, Ann Dunham, was five months pregnant with their child 'Barack Obama II', Obama declared that they intended to put their child up for adoption.

“Subject (Obama senior) got his USC (United States citizen) wife 'Hapai' (Hawaiian for pregnant) and although they were married they do not live together and Miss Dunham is making arrangements with the Salvation Army to give the baby away,” according to a memo by in the Honolulu office of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. — PTI

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s decision to attend South Sudan’s independence celebrations in Juba on Saturday has created an awkward situation for delegations from countries that have been pressing for his arrest on a war crimes indictment.

Southern Sudanese officials are sensitive to these largely western concerns and are choreographing a delicate diplomatic dance so as to avoid any embarrassments. The Hague-based International Criminal Court has indicted Gen Bashir on allegations of war crimes in Sudan's western province of Darfur.

US President Barack Obama has dispatched a high-level delegation that includes US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and Colin L Powell, who as Secretary of State was present at the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Nairobi in 2005. The agreement ended two decades of a bloody civil war between the north and the south. Two million people were killed in that conflict.

Rep Donald Payne, a New Jersey Democrat and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa who is also part of the delegation, said he had no intention of meeting Gen Bashir. “If the US delegation decides to meet with President Bashir, I will not attend,” Payne said in an e-mail to The Tribune.

Barrie Walkley, the US Consul General in Juba, said there were no plans for the US delegation to meet Gen Bashir.

A senior Western official in Sudan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said southern officials had assured the diplomatic corps in Juba that they would do everything to avoid embarrassments on independence day.

“The government is sensitive to these concerns and is going to do everything possible to make sure there are no embarrassments of any sort, on any side, on that day,” the official said.

A special seating arrangement has been worked out to minimise the possibility of awkward encounters. Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir will be seated alongside Gen Bashir at the ceremony to be held at the mausoleum of John Garang, who led the Sudan People’s Liberation Army during the civil war. Garang, who was also the first president of the autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, was killed in a helicopter crash in July of 2005.

African delegations that have been largely sympathetic to Gen. Bashir will be seated on his side. Western and non-African delegations will be seated on Mr. Kiir's side.

“It is a way of separating Bashir from those who might feel uncomfortable in his presence,” said the senior Western diplomat. “That way, when the heads of the Western delegations come up to give a speech they won't have to walk past Bashir.”

The African Union has been largely supportive of the Sudanese leader and view the ICC as biased against the continent. A State Department official, who spoke with The Tribune on the condition of anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the issue, said the US was committed to international efforts to bring Gen Bashir to justice.

“The US believes that there cannot be a lasting peace in Sudan without justice and accountability, and we strongly support international efforts to bring those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes to justice,” the official said.

Alobeid Murawih, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Khartoum, told The Tribune in a phone interview that Gen Bashir was determined to show his solidarity with the south with his presence at the independence celebrations.

Southerners voted overwhelmingly in favour of separation from the north in a referendum in January.

Relations between the north and the south have grown tense in recent weeks following the outbreak of violence in Southern Kordofan, a northern state near the internal border with the south, Blue Nile state and Abyei, which straddles that border and is claimed by both sides.

At the mega event, South Sudanese officialswill a tough time handling the situation as Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s has decided to attend the independence celebrations, which will see presence of delegates from countries that have been pressing for his arrest on a war crimes indictment