Nation wilts as heat wave spreads eastward (AP)

NEW YORK – Americans withered under yet another day of searing sun Friday as a heat wave spread in earnest into the urban core of the Northeast, while warnings about excessive heat stretched from Kansas to Maine and the Carolinas.

Temperatures were forecast near or into the triple digits Friday and into the weekend.

The high temperatures and smothering humidity will force up the heat indexes. Boston's 99 degrees on Friday could feel like 105 degrees; Philadelphia's 102 degrees like 114 degrees and Washington, D.C.'s 103 degrees could seem like 116.

It's enough to test the patience of a saint.

Taking her morning walk with temperatures already soaring near 90, Sister Elizabeth Ann Hughes of St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia offered her simple strategy — go out only when it's relatively cool and stay in the air conditioning when it's not.

"I walk in the shade and get out of the sun before 10 a.m.," she said.

In New York, people looking to beat the heat were thwarted by warnings urging them to avoid city waterways after a wastewater treatment plant disabled by fire began spewing millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson River.

Officials cautioned against swimming and bathing at four beaches in the city boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, especially for people with medical conditions.

It was 90 in New York City at 8 a.m.

Beesham Nanan, 53, was drinking coffee in an air-conditioned fast-food restaurant before starting his shift as a limo driver. He often has to drive clients to their destinations and then wait in the car. He tries to park somewhere where he can turn the car's air conditioning on, but it's risky. "You're not supposed to have the engine on in the city," Nanan said. "It's a big fine."

Across the country, emergency room visits were way up, according to public health officials, mainly because of people suffering from heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

The weather is suspected of contributing to a number of deaths nationwide. At least six more fatalities were reported Thursday, including a Michigan restaurant cook who suffered a heart attack after being sent home from his job and a teenage boy who drowned while swimming at summer camp in the same state.

In Chicago Thursday night, hundreds of children and more than a few adults cavorted in a shallow pool of the Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park. Temperatures hovered around 90 degrees in the park, about half mile from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Christopher and Renee Mickles said they came out in the evening to give their 3-year-old a little exercise after being cooped up in their air conditioned house.

"It didn't cool off, but at least the sun isn't out," he said.

A Pittsburgh man slipped as he worked on the roof of his cousin's home on Thursday and found himself stuck for nearly two hours because of the hot tar he'd been using.

Lamont Robinson said the slick tar kept him from climbing to safety after he slipped. He said he was "baking like a turkey" before his rescue. Temperatures were in the low-90s.

In Connecticut, a dozen Girl Scouts were treated for heat-related problems at a scout camp.

None of the girls required hospitalization, but New Fairfield First Selectman John Hodge says they spent Thursday night in the camp's cafeteria after workers brought in industrial fans to help cool them off.

Philadelphia's public schools canceled summer classes Thursday and Friday, while Allentown to the north waived fees at its public pools.

Special dangers can come at night, experts warn, if the temperatures don't cool enough to provide relief.

While the current heat wave has recorded 12 all-time daily highs so far this month, it also has registered 98 all-time overnight highs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported at a briefing Thursday.

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Associated Press writers Randolph E. Schmid in Washington, John Seewer in Toledo, Herb McCann in Chicago, Karen Matthews in New York City and Jeff McMillan in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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South Sudan becomes world's newest nation (AFP)

JUBA (AFP) – Celebrations erupted in South Sudan on Saturday as the world's newest nation proclaimed formal independence and turned the page on five decades of devastating conflict with the north.

"Our martyrs did not die in vain... We have waited for more than 56 years for this day. It is a day that will be forever engraved on our hearts and minds," President Salva Kiir told tens of thousands of jubilant southerners at the official ceremony in Juba.

Earlier, parliament Speaker James Wani Igga read out the declaration of the south's secession from the north following a near unanimous vote for separation in a January referendum.

"We, the democratically elected representatives of the people, based on the will of the people of South Sudan, and as confirmed by the outcome of the referendum of self-determination, hereby declare South Sudan to be an independent and sovereign nation," Wani Igga told the cheering crowds.

South Sudan's national flag was then raised, to wild applause, tears and song.

"I should cry for the recognition of this flag among the flags of the world," shouted one tearful man.

"We have been denied our rights. Today, no more shall that happen."

The declaration of independence affirmed the new state's democratic and multi-ethnic and multi-confessional character, and its commitment to friendly relations with all countries "including the Republic of Sudan."

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, guest of honour at the ceremony, watched a parade by thousands of members of his former military foes, the SPLA, whom he failed to defeat as head of the northern army for 16 years.

In a conciliatory speech, Bashir repeated his wish to see the newborn nation succeed.

"We will fulfill our commitment to help the new state of South Sudan in its first steps, because we want it to succeed, and because its success will be our success," Bashir said.

From early morning, revellers had gathered at the venue amid tight security for the ceremony which was attended by dozens of African leaders and senior Western officials.

It was the largest international gathering ever seen in the war-damaged former garrison town on the White Nile that lacks even basic infrastructure, and army generals were asked to vacate their seats to make space for foreign guests.

International dignitaries attending the ceremony included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and British Foreign Secretary William Hague

More than a dozen African leaders also attended.

Recognition of the newly independent state flooded in from around the world, with US President Barack Obama vowing to support South Sudan in the "hard work" of nation building.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called it a historic day "for South Sudan and the whole of Africa."

Ban hailed the new state's birth "after a struggle that destroyed so many lives for so many years," and said it was an important day for the United Nations which has been engaged in promoting peace in Sudan for many years.

South Sudan's independence came exactly six months after southerners voted almost unanimously to split with their former civil war enemies in the north.

For decades, until a peace agreement was signed in 2005, southern rebels fought successive wars with the north, leaving the region in ruins, millions of people dead and a legacy of mutual mistrust.

The independence ceremony was held at the mausoleum of the late rebel leader John Garang, who died just months after signing the peace accord that ended Africa's longest-running conflict and opened the door to nationhood.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lokudu appealed for reconciliation after the long years of civil war.

"We pray for a new mentality of mutual understanding and cooperation between our two new neighbouring nations," he said.

Some at the ceremony were critical of Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, Sudan's war-torn western region.

Around 200 supporters of Darfur rebel leader Abdelwahid Nur held a banner reading: "The new beginning," and "Together we must stop genocide in Darfur, Nuba Mountains."

The Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state in the north have seen deadly clashes in the run-up to southern independence between northern troops and pro-southern militia.

But Khartoum was among the first countries to officially recognise the fledgling nation, which now needs all the help it can get to meet the challenges of building a stable and prosperous future.

For this, it must strike a cooperative relationship with Bashir, given the strong ties that continue to bind the two countries, and despite the strain on relations caused by the bloodshed in the Nuba Mountains.

Bashir said it was the joint responsibility of both nations to build confidence and reach agreement on outstanding issues that were not resolved before partition, during talks in Addis Ababa.

Kiir called on his people to forgive those who had caused them suffering and urged them to take responsibility for building a "strong foundation" for their nation.

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South Sudan is world's newest nation at midnight (AP)

JUBA, Sudan – When Southern Sudan becomes the world's newest country on Saturday, its people will rejoice in the streets as it enters statehood as one of the poorest and least developed places on earth.

But advocates and diplomats warned Friday that when the celebrations subside and the dignitaries leave, unresolved problems between the south and the northern government, could spark renewed conflict along their new international border.

The internationally-brokered 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south war expires Saturday.

South Sudan becomes its own nation at midnight. The U.N. recognizes 192 countries; South Sudan will be 193.

Sudan, the country South Sudan is breaking away from, will recognize the new country as soon as Friday turns to Saturday.

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Yemen's president addresses nation in video (AP)

SANAA, Yemen – Yemen's embattled president has appeared publicly for the first time since he was in injured in a blast at his palace compound early last month.

In a brief video aired on Yemen state TV, Ali Abdullah Saleh lashed out Thursday at those who have sought to drive him from power, saying they have an "incorrect understanding of democracy."

More than four months of popular uprising seeking to push the longtime ruler from power have shaken the impoverished corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

Saleh has been in treatment in Saudi Arabia since June 5.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Suspected al-Qaida militants killed 10 Yemeni soldiers after stopping them at a fake checkpoint in the country's restive south, security officials said Thursday.

The militants ordered the soldiers off a bus as they returned from leave to rejoin their units and shot them execution style, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The Wednesday killings show the growing strength of Islamic militants across Yemen, where security has largely collapsed during more than four months of mass protests seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Islamists have seized control of two towns in the southern province of Abyan, where Wednesday's attacks occurred. For weeks, Yemeni forces have fought unsuccessfully to push them out of Zinjibar and Jaar, leading to regular casualties on both sides.

Yemen state TV said it would broadcast a recorded message later Thursday from Saleh, who left the country for treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia after he was injured in a rocket attack on his palace in early June.

Saleh has not been seen publicly since the attack, sparking widespread speculation about the severity of his wounds. He last address the nation in an audio recording on Yemen state TV shortly before he flew to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment June 5.

Yemeni officials said last week that Saleh remains bedridden and has difficulty breathing and talking. Still, his aides insist he will soon return to Yemen.

On Tuesday, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said Saleh's health is "generally good."

A ruling party leader close to Saleh said the new message was recorded Thursday in a Saudi hospital. Yasser Yemani said he had seen the video and that Saleh uses it to "reassure the people about his health."

Yemani said Saleh also uses to the video to support a U.S.-backed peace initiative proposed by Yemeni's Gulf Arab neighbors as the only way to end the country's political crisis.

Before leaving the country, Saleh repeatedly refused to sign the proposal after saying he would.

Yemani said it had not yet been decided if both the audio and video of the message would be aired, or just coothe audio.

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Post-9/11, a security blanket for a wounded nation (AP)

MARTINSBURG, W. Va. – Brian Tolstyka stood at the edge of a giant American flag spread across several tables in the Veterans Affairs hospital gym. Wearing a leather vest with a flag patch and a hat with a flag pin, Tolstyka was about to stitch his place in history.

Gently clasping a threaded needle between thumb and forefinger, Tolstyka, 43, slipped it into the fabric of a red stripe. The 300 people in the West Virginia gym clapped. The Gulf War veteran felt a lump in his throat.

The 30-foot flag flew from a half-destroyed building across from ground zero in New York in those dark days after Sept. 11 — its stripes torn and tattered by debris from the fallen World Trade Center. In 2008, it was mended by 58 tornado survivors in Kansas with remnants of flags from their communities. Dubbed the National 9/11 Flag, it's been traveling the country ever since — a journey for the country's most recognizable symbol that has brought most Americans along, uniting more people in a post-9/11 world than it has divided in other times.

Within hours of the attacks, flags seemed to be everywhere: car windows, T-shirts, front porches. Wal-Mart sold 5 million by the spring of 2002.

Tolstyka, who served in the Army and organizes memorial motorcycle rides for veterans, went out and bought a flag for his car antenna a few days after Sept. 11. "It was a symbol," he says, "of support."

It was also a show of defiance against the terrorists, a rallying cry of unity and a soothing security blanket for a wounded nation.

"Every time there's some kind of national emergency, we put up flags," says Carolyn Marvin, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "The flag represents the life of the country."

The Stars and Stripes hasn't always been as feel-good a symbol, depending on the decade and the politics. Defaced by Vietnam War protesters in the 1960s, invoked by politicians on both sides of debates about war and American values and burned by anti-American protesters overseas, it's been alternately reviled and revered.

Few Americans flew the flag outside of homes or businesses in the first few decades of its existence, says Marc Leepson, who wrote a book called "Flag: An American Biography."

But on April 12, 1861, when Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, "flags started appearing almost overnight," he says. Women wore them in hats, men put them in wagons."

Leepson discovered an advertisement in a copy of a New York newspaper that was published just after the Fort Sumter attack. It mentioned a paint shop that advertised red, white and blue paints, and touted: "These colors are warranted not to run."

After Sept. 11, 2001, the flag took on a larger-than-life symbolism and brought that unity to a grieving country. Bumper stickers with images of the flag and phrases like "these colors don't run" became commonplace in parts of the U.S.

A New Jersey photographer snapped a photo of three city firefighters raising a flag on the ruined trade center site in an image that instantly was compared to the 1945 photo of U.S. Marines raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima. Flags spearheaded a patriotic buying boom, appearing outside homes, on office buildings, mugs and pins.

Country Singer Toby Keith wrote "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" one week after Sept. 11. The song led with Americans saluting the flag and described wreaking vengeance upon the country's enemies:

"When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell/And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you/Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue."

In December of 2001, Congress designated Sept. 11 as "Patriot Day" to honor those lost during the attacks — and mandated that all flags should be flown at half-staff each year on that day.

Nearly a decade later, flags aren't hanging from every front porch anymore, but they fill many American blocks, and thousands follow the touring flags to touch something that connects them to Sept. 11.

For West Virginia's Tolstyka, the national flag in Martinsburg — a small city straddling three states in West Virginia's lush green panhandle — directly to ground zero in New York and the attack that tore it shreds.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," he says, grinning through his long, salt-and-pepper goatee.

For Bob McKee of Van Buren, Ohio, the flag symbolizes how much the U.S. has grown and changed over the years, while remaining strong. The 60-year-old flies four U.S. flags outside of his home, a few miles from Findlay, Ohio — a northwest Ohio community that's been known as Flag City since the 1970s.

"People from both political parties, from the left to the right, the one thing they have in common is the love for their country and what represents that is the US flag," he said.

After Sept. 11, McKee draped the flag in black crepe.

The attacks did more than usher a renaissance for the U.S. flag; they have also spawned a cottage industry of entirely new flag designs, mostly sold to raise money for various 9/11 charities.

There's the "Flag of Heroes," which lists the names of all emergency workers who died on Sept. 11. The "Flag of Honor" lists the names of everyone who died in the attacks that day.

There are two flags dedicated to the 40 who died aboard Flight 93 in a Shanksville, Pa., field: It declares, "OUR NATION WILL ETERNALLY HONOR THE HEROES OF FLIGHT 93" at the top three white stripes.

A retired Catholic priest created the "Thunder Flag," comprised of a blue stripe on top, white in the middle, and red on the bottom. On the top blue stripe are four white stars, representing the four planes on 9/11. The other colors represent heaven, courage and American soil.

There's a "9/11 National Remembrance Flag" that is loosely modeled on the POW-MIA flag.

There's a traditional American flag with the New York City skyline, including the twin towers, superimposed on the field of stars.

There's the "9/11 Patriot Flag," created by a Sept. 11 survivor, which depicts the Pentagon, two trident steel columns from the World Trade Center and four stars, one for each hijacked jet that crashed on Sept. 11.

That flag shouldn't be confused with the other "Patriot Flag" — a 75-pound, traditional U.S. flag that's also touring the country to honor the victims. It will be in New England on July 4.

Marvin, the Penn professor, says it's common, especially after such a ground-shifting event like Sept. 11, for flags to take on the status of a "sacred icon."

Or a national quilt. In West Virginia — the 32nd state to host the national flag's tour — folks lowered their voices to describe their feelings about having contact with something that once was near New York's twin towers. Yet when pressed to explain, they fell back on simple phrases about America and pride.

Samuel Boynton, who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam and used a walker to approach the flag, says simply: "It means number one to me. There's no other flag better than the American flag."

A New York construction worker retrieved the flag and stored it at his home in a plastic bag for seven years — then brought it to Kansas when a nonprofit group, the New York Says Thank You Foundation, went to help people there recover from a tornado strike. State by state, Americans are stitching the banner back together, using pieces of fabric from American flags scheduled for retirement.

The flag is in Southport, N.C., this weekend; at the end of its tour, it will be displayed at the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum in New York.

Denny Deters, the president of the New York Says Thank You Foundation, his wife and their tiny Yorkie dog travel with the flag around the country, mostly in the couple's RV — although they occasionally fly. As he did in Martinsburg, Deters often emcee's each stop and introduces the people who lay the first stitches.

But the greying, faded flag that once flew across from ground zero might be most remembered for what it offers: a chance for ordinary Americans to weave a bit of their own history into the fabric.

Mending it, Deters said, "shows that the American people have the resiliency to come back."

In Martinsburg, Dawn Johns, 41, waited patiently in line. She had been there since the beginning, to mend a tiny piece of national history. She said that she could feel the patriotism, the emotion, as she looked at the flag.

"It represents everyone coming together and helping one another after a tragedy," she said.

Two hours later, it was Johns' turn to stitch, She had tears in her eyes as she took the needle in her hand.

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Online:

http://national911flag.org/

EDITOR'S NOTE — Tamara Lush is traveling the country writing about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush.

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