A day of mourning for nearly 3,000 victims of the September 11 attacks began with moments of silence and tears near Ground Zero in New York.

A soldier has been charged with the murders of three Afghan civilians, the US Army said today.

THE US government will begin taking land from seven property owners so that the Flight 93 memorial can be built in time for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the National Park Service said.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain today called for a top-level inquiry into the economic crisis, claiming that a corrupt and excessive Wall Street had betrayed American workers.

The self-proclaimed military commander of the south-east Asian terror network behind the Bali bombings faced a possible death penalty as his trial opened in the Indonesian capital today.

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said that he misspoke when he said he spent as much time, if not more, at ground zero exposed to the same health risks as workers combing the site after the September 11 attacks.

A top German federal court today said it had refused to take up the appeal of a Moroccan man convicted of helping three of the September 11 suicide pilots, leaving the 32-year-old with no further legal action possible in Germany.

A film paying tribute to the Irish priest who died in the World Trade Centre in the 2001 terrorist attacks is set for release on September 6 in the US.

Academy Award-winner Nicolas Cage has hit out at criticisms his role in upcoming 9/11 film World Trade Center is insensitive to the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

AN engineer at a nuclear power plant has been charged with sending threatening letters containing a powdery substance to a country club where US President George W Bush was scheduled to appear yesterday for a Republican campaign event.

THE terror-fighting USA Patriot Act may have a new lease on life.

AT least three people died and more than a million were left without power yesterday after Hurricane Jeanne hit Florida’s east coast.

Barring last-minute terrorism alerts or other problems, New York’s Statue of Liberty will reopen to visitors today for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks that destroyed the nearby World Trade Centre.

A “failure of imagination”, not government neglect, allowed 19 hijackers to carry out the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, the September 11 commission has said.

A college student told US authorities he placed box cutters and other banned items aboard two Southwest Airlines planes nearly five weeks before they were found, according to an FBI affidavit.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.04, or 0.9%, to close at 7,740.03, having declined 101 points on Thursday to a new five-month low. Earlier in the day, blue-chip stocks fell as much as 111 points.