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Monday, 12 September 2011

9/11- A day to be remembered

Those across the United States on Sunday paused -- some at formal commemorations, some in quiet remembrance -- to honor their countrymen who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to remember the day that changed the nation, and the world forever.
Thousands gathered at New York's ground zero, site of the World Trade Center, and stood still in silence, some crying as they listened to the names of victims attacks read aloud.
"They were our neighbors, our friends, our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children and parents," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who, along with President Barack Obama, helped lead the commemoration on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
"We have asked their families to speak their names out loud, to remind each of us about the person we lost in New York, in Washington and in Pennsylvania. They each had a face, a story, a life cut short from under them."
A moment of silence spread across New York City at 8:46 a.m. -- the time when American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Houses of worship tolled their bells.
After Obama read a psalm, 167 pairs of family members began reading the names of those who perished. The reading was interrupted by another moment of silence at 9:03 a.m. -- the time when United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.
The solemn ceremony at the site of the World Trade Center came amid a heavy security presence permeating the area in lower Manhattan, as authorities continued their search for possible plotters of another terrorist strike.
Information considered credible but unconfirmed indicated up to three attackers could be trying to use an explosives-laden vehicle for an attack in New York or Washington, according to various sources. Authorities stressed that while they were taking information of a possible attack plot seriously, there was no evidence so far that an actual terrorist operation was underway.
Roads near ground zero were blocked and police checkpoints for both vehicles and pedestrians surrounded the memorial, with backpacks checked by bomb-sniffing dogs and put through x-ray machines.
At the ceremony, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stood behind bullet-proof protection. Former President George W. Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks, read a letter sent by Abraham Lincoln to a woman who lost five sons in the Civil War.
"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming," Bush read, quoting Lincoln. "But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save."

credit: cnn world news

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