THE US: US citizens around the world yesterday celebrated their first Independence Day since the September 11th attacks, amid heightened security and warnings that they could be terrorist targets.
President Bush used an Independence Day celebration in the hamlet of Ripley, West Virginia, to deliver a defence of the pledge of allegiance to the US flag.
"The American people, when we pledge our allegiance to the flag, feel renewed respect and love for all it represents. And no authority of government can ever prevent an American from pledging allegiance to this one nation under God," he declared.
On June 26th, the appeals court ruled the pledge violates the US constitution's ban on government establishment of religion because of the phrase "under God".
Amid a near-unanimous uproar from the US public and political class, the judge who issued the ruling put his decision on hold.
Several thousand people packed into the square in front of the Jackson County Courthouse recited the pledge before Mr Bush's speech, shouting the phrase "under God" in a rejection of the court ruling.
Mr Bush's defence of the pledge, which is uttered daily by millions of US schoolchildren, came as he paid tribute to veterans and said the September 11th terrorist attacks had reminded a uniquely diverse nation that it is "a single people."
The Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, called on Americans to live up to their national ideal of liberty by confronting poverty, bigotry and inequality as the US pursues its war on terrorism.
In a message delivered outside the 18th-century hall where America's founders declared independence from Britain on July 4th, 1776, Mr Powell avoided references to foreign policy and instead focused on Thomas Jefferson's vision of a democratic system designed to correct injustice.
"As Jefferson did in his time, so too must we recognise that America is not yet perfect," the first black secretary of state said after receiving the Philadelphia Liberty Medal. "We know that there are still bigots. We know that there is still poverty. We know that all of our children don't yet have the same opportunity for a quality education. We know that our cities aren't all gleaming alabaster, undimmed by human tears."