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US celebrates Independence Day
AFP - Sunday, July 5
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Americans across the United States celebrated their national holiday on Saturday, commemorating the 233 years since the Declaration of Independence with barbecues, live music and lots of fireworks.
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The New York Times devoted its back cover to a full page reprint of the declaration, while the nation's capital prepared to receive hundreds of thousands of visitors for an annual concert and fireworks show.
Flags everywhere -- flown over storefronts, on lawns, on shirts, hats, but also painted on cheeks and fingernails, and later lighting up the sky -- greeted sightseers and locals alike at tourist sites, but also at cities and towns across the country.
Ahead of thousands of fireworks displays across the country, the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned Americans to handle explosives carefully, and television stations played the agency's cautionary safety videos, complete with mannequins getting their heads blown off by the explosions.
Police departments also issued their annual lists of prohibited fireworks, hoping to keep to a minimum the unofficial -- and sometimes illegal -- displays that usually accompany the American holiday.
In New York, the Statue of Liberty's crown reopened to the public for the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and Orlando's Disney World debuted the latest figure in its "Hall of Presidents" -- Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, the president himself played some golf before heading back into the White House, which was being decorated with red, white and blue celebratory bunting ahead of a barbecue for military family members.
Obama and First Lady Michelle were scheduled to host about 1,200 military relatives at their official residence before the president leaves on a trip to Russia, Ghana and Italy.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden celebrated Independence Day with American troops, including his soldier son beau, and gave a speech mocking executed Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein just days after US troops pulled back from Iraqi cities and towns.
"We did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of nothing better," Biden said, referring to a naturalization ceremony of 237 men and women, most Mexicans and Filipinos, at Al-Faw Palace near Baghdad airport.
"That SOB is rolling over in his grave right now," he said of Saddam.
Biden joined hundreds of US troops dining on chicken, ribs, hamburgers, salad, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and cakes at a July 4 feast in a canteen decked out in red, white and blue streamers and tablecloths.
Earlier Saturday, Obama used his weekly address to remind Americans of the "courageous group of patriots" that first declared America independent and he called on his fellow citizens to work for a more perfect country.
"Today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become," the president said.
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Enlarge Photo
Julian Martinez, age 2, waits for lunch at an Independence Day picnic in Denver, Colorado. Americans across the United States celebrated their national holiday on Saturday, commemorating the 233 years since the Declaration of Independence with barbecues, live music and lots of fireworks.
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