South African hero Mandela turns 85

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- They adore him like a favorite uncle, idolize him like a rock star and revere him like a religious icon.

South Africans of all races and ages breathlessly praised Nelson Mandela as he -- and the entire nation -- celebrated his 85th birthday on Friday.

Newspapers printed commemorative editions. Businesses sponsored billboards and television commercials saluting the former president. South African Airways named a new jet in his honor, and television stations streamed birthday greetings from his people across their screens.

While Mandela is respected and admired across the world, to South Africans he is a superstar of near-mythic proportions, a hero who preached racial reconciliation to the apartheid-scarred nation despite the 27 years he spent imprisoned by the white, racist regime.

Former President Clinton is scheduled to deliver the first annual Nelson Mandela lecture today in his honor. In the evening, some 1,600 guests will pay tribute to Mandela at a banquet. The guest list has been kept secret, but local media say it includes Barbra Streisand and Michael Jackson, as well as several world leaders and royals.

Hong Kong leader faces tough criticism

HONG KONG -- Many Hong Kong people call their leader "Old Dumb Tung," and he's done little lately to change that view.

Former shipping executive Tung Chee-hwa may have seemed the right man at the right time when Beijing picked him to steer the territory after its handover from British rule, but his popularity has plunged.

Tung was asked to play a new role: to guide capitalist Hong Kong into the embrace of the communist motherland while retaining the territory's unique character and international identity.

He now faces a crisis stirred by mass protests over a proposed national security law seen as a clamp on freedoms Hong Kongers hold dear. Critics call him Hong Kong's biggest liability and say he should resign.

Martin Lee, Hong Kong's best-known opposition figure, calls Tung the product of an undemocratic system that could never make Hong Kongers happy.

Israel may free some jailed Islamic militants

JERUSALEM -- Israel is considering a limited release of jailed Islamic militants, Israeli officials said Friday, in a move that would partially satisfy a key Palestinian demand for maintaining the three-week Mideast cease-fire.

Highlighting the issue's importance, the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers were expected to address it at an upcoming meeting. Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said the meeting would be on Sunday, but Israeli officials would only say the meeting would be next week.

Israel has already agreed to release a few hundred imprisoned Palestinians, but has refused to comply with a Palestinian call that it also free thousands of militants belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, groups which have mounted suicide bombings and shootings that killed hundreds of Israelis.

-- From wire reports

Those militant groups -- together with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement -- declared a temporary cease-fire on June 29, and the violence level has plunged.

Rebel ministers refuse to participate in government swearing-in

KINSHASA, Congo -- Cabinet ministers representing Congo's two main rebel movements boycotted a swearing-in ceremony Friday, threatening a power-sharing government created to end nearly five years of civil war.

The move came the day after four new vice presidents -- including the leaders of the two rebel groups -- were sworn into the unity government under President Joseph Kabila.

Rebels objected to Kabila heading the government, saying they would accept him only as the symbolic leader of the country.

"Joseph Kabila is not the head of the government," said Jean-Pierre Kisanga, a spokesman for one of the rebel groups. "Today we cannot swear loyalty to him."

Friday's events compounded the many challenges to peace in this mineral-rich country, which is one-fourth the size of the United States.

Kabila appointed the ministers last month. Rebel officials said the appointments are still valid as the country's constitution doesn't require ministers to be sworn in.

Fourteen rebel ministers and eight rebel vice-ministers refused to take part in the ceremony, in which a total 36 ministers and 25 vice-ministers were to be sworn in -- representing Kabila, opposition parties, rebel groups and civil society.