Time stands still at Ground Zero

Bells rang across New York and moments of silence were observed on Thursday to remember the 2,792 people killed at the World Trade Center on...

Bells rang across New York and moments of silence were observed on Thursday to remember the 2,792 people killed at the World Trade Center on Sept 11 two years ago, when hijacked planes destroyed the 110-story twin towers.

As the emotional ceremony marking the anniversary took place at the site now called Ground Zero, the State Department in Washington urged Americans overseas to take special caution, citing growing indications the Islamist Al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept 11 attacks, was planning even 8216;8216;more devastating8217;8217; attacks.

In New York thousands of victims8217; relatives took part in an almost four-hour long solemn ceremony. Some wore T-shirts showing portraits of the dead, police and firefighters wore dress uniforms, bagpipes were played and many were tearful.

The children reading the names stood at a dais two by two, some wearing suits but most dressed casually, and read out the names, sometimes stumbling over pronunciations, each sequence ending with a child reading out the name of their dead mother, father, uncle, brother or other relation.

Bells rang and silence was observed at 8:46 am 1246 GMT to mark the moment when the first plane hit one tower and at 9:03 am 1303 GMT, when the second hijacked airliner crashed into the other tower and again at 9:59 am 1359 GMT and 10:29 am 1429 GMT when each tower crumbled.

In Washington, President George W. Bush attended a church service to remember the victims of the New York attacks and of the simultaneous crash of two other hijacked planes 8212; one into the Pentagon and the other into a field in Pennsylvania.

8216;8216;We remember lives lost. We remember the heroic deeds. We remember the compassion, the decency of our citizens on that terrible day,8217;8217; Bush said after a service near the White House. In New York, Phil Rosenblatt, who lost his sister Muriel Siskopolous, said he came to be closer to her. 8216;8216;I feel like when I am here she is here with me too. The pain never goes away. This is the place we have to be.8217;8217;

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Rudolph Giuliani, dubbed 8216;8216;America8217;s Mayor8217;8217; for his skillful and compassionate leadership as city mayor during NY8217;s darkest hour invoked the fighting spirit of Britain8217;s WWII leader, Winston Churchill.

At the Pentagon, more than 20,000 workers were silent at 9:37 am to commemorate the moment when a plane had crashed into the symbol of US military might, killing 189 people. Some relatives object that the loss of their loved ones has been used to justify wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reuters

Giuliani sees greed
Rudolph Giuliani, whose mayoral stint was marked by 9/11, reflecting on the second anniversary said a 1,776-foot office tower planned for Ground Zero is more a tribute to 8216;8216;greed8217;8217; than to WTC victims. Giuliani called for the creation of a 70-foot deep memorial on the site where the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. plans to erect the world8217;s tallest tower.

Emotions still raw
Two years on, emotions in New York are still raw. A New York Times poll this week showed two-thirds of New Yorkers are very concerned about another attack on the city. Some residents feel deceived by the Bush administration over the extent of environmental damage from the destruction of the twin towers.

9/11 tops Pearl Harbour
The attacks on Sept 11, 2001, ranked ahead of the bombing of Pearl Harbour as the most important event in the last 75 years, according to a national US poll released on Wednesday. Sixty-five percent cited 9/11, while the Japanese attack that brought the US into World War II was named most important by 61 percent of the Roper ASW survey conducted Sept 5-9 among 1,037 Americans aged 18 and older.

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Qaeda ally cancels plan
A radical British Muslim group which had planned to call four meetings across Britain to praise the 8216;8216;magnificent 198217;8217; Sept 11 hijackers, was forced to cancel the events on Thursday. A spokesman for the Al Muhajiroun said the events, which have drawn police attention, were cancelled because 8216;8216;all four venues have pulled out8217;8217;. Agencies