Main news of July 9

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

* The Republic of South Sudan celebrated its first day as a nation with more than 30 African leaders and senior Western politicians, hours after jubilant crowds danced down the streets of the new capital, Juba

* Newly elected Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was accused of buying votes with noodles, Thai newspaper Bangkok Post said

* More than 50 European activists have succeeded in breaching the checks at the International Airport of Tel Aviv Ben and crossed into the West Bank as part of a pro-Palestinian rally, WAFA news agency said

*Decommissioning of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, crippled in the March 2011 quake and tsunami, will take decades, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in the first government announcement of a long-term timeframe for the cleanup

* Azerbaijan will respond on Russia's proposals on Nagorny Karabakh settlement after it studies it, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister lmar Mammadyarov said