'Obama born in Hawaii, meets requirement to be Prez'

Washington, Jul 28 (PTI) Seeking to stem persistent
rumours that Barack Obama was not a "natural-born" US citizen,
the Hawaii state government Tuesday insisted that the
country's first black President was born in Honolulu and thus
meets the key constitutional requirement to be in the White
House.

Hawaii's health director Chiyome Fukino said he has
personally seen Obama's birth certificate in the department's
archives which says he was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.

"I have seen the original vital records maintained on
file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying
Barrack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born
American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this
statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over
eight months ago....," Fukino said in a brief statement.

On October 31 last year, Fukino originally tried to put
an end to reports that Obama was not born in the United States
and thus was ineligible to run for the office of President.

Despite Fukino's statement today, the issue continued to
resonate from Capitol Hill to the national airwaves as also
the blogosphere, 'USA Today' reported.

The controversy linked to Obama's birth and whether he
was "genuinely" born on US soil resurfaced as the President's
reaction to last week's arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, a
black Harvard Professor, threatened to spark a racial row and
dent his reputation. Obama had said the police had acted
stupidly in the case.

Conspiracy theorists in the United States and far
right wingers, who have begun to call themselves "birthers",
claim that Obama is not entitled to be the 44th US President
simply because he is born in Kenya, his father's homeland.
They have challenged his citizenship in court.

CNN also reported that Hawaii officials had destroyed
Obama's original 1961 birth certificate without citing a
source.

The US Constitution states that a person must be a
"natural-born citizen" to be eligible for the Presidency. PTI
AKJ