The retired Navy SEAL who says he shot al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden in the forehead has publicly identified himself amid a debate among the special operations community about breaking silence about their secret missions.

Partial remains of several victims of the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States were incinerated by a military contractor and sent to a landfill site, a government report said.

THE plot of land known for a decade as “Ground Zero” has opened to the public for the first time since September 11, 2001, transformed into a memorial consisting of two serene reflecting pools ringed by the chiseled-in-bronze names of the nearly 3,000 souls lost.

Families carrying photos of lost loved ones streamed into a plaza near “ground zero” in New York today to observe the eighth anniversary of the World Trade Centre attack, wiping tears and raindrops from their faces under dreary skies.

US President George W Bush’s re-election campaign commercials have angered several relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks.