Latest developments

- The Pentagon on Saturday dubbed the U.S. military's increased role in homeland defense and support for civil authorities "Operation Noble Eagle." The operation includes Navy ships protecting both Coasts; fighter overflights protecting airspace over the Northeast Corridor; and the call-up of 35,000 reserve troops to aid with those missions and assisting in recovery efforts in New York and Washington.

- Officials in New York raised the number of people unaccounted for after Tuesday's destruction of the World Trade Center to 4,972, about 200 higher than previous estimates. New York firefighters -- who suffered heavy casualties in the attacks on the World Trade Center -- held services for three of their slain comrades, including Fire Chief Pete Ganci.

- In Washington, the Pentagon lowered the estimate of those unaccounted for in that attack to 187, including 64 aboard the American Airlines jet that crashed into the building. Authorities also, for the first time, released the name of one of those killed -- Aerographer's Mate First Class Edward Thomas Earhart, 26, of Salt Lick, Kentucky. Buses brought several family members of the Pentagon victims to the scene Saturday, where they laid flowers and balloons at the site.

- The foreign ministry of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said it would consider forming an invasion force to attack any neighboring country that aided the United States in the use of military force against Afghanistan. Afghanistan is considered a possible target for any retaliation because terrorist suspect bin Laden reportedly operates from the Afghan mountains. (Full story) (Full story)

- Bush worked the phones Saturday in an effort to build an international coalition against terrorism, reaching out to President Vicente Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain. A senior administration official said Bush will continue to make the case "over and over" that his campaign against terrorism would not end quickly. "This is not going to be an overnight solution," the official said.

- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani cabinet and security council voted unanimously to "help the international community fight terrorism." The U.S. government has asked Pakistan to close its border with Afghanistan, stop fuel supplies to the Taliban and, if requested, grant U.S. warplanes access to Pakistani airspace.

- Iran has ordered its border with Afghanistan closed in preparation for possible American retaliatory strikes on Afghanistan, the country's Interior Ministry announced. Iran already houses nearly 2 million refugees displaced by two decades of war and famine in Afghanistan.

- Boston's Logan Airport, the point of origin for two of the hijacked planes Tuesday, reopened Saturday, while Continental Airlines announced layoffs and schedule cutbacks that were "a direct result" of the aftermath of the attacks.

- The Justice Department said that the tape in the cockpit voice recorder from the hijacked jet that plowed into the Pentagon was badly damaged. Officials hope to get some usable information from the other so-called black box, the flight data recorder, which was also recovered overnight Thursday. Searchers have also found both recorders from the Pennsylvania crash.

- German officials confirmed German connections for Ziad Samir Jarrah, who U.S. authorities believe may have been at the controls of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. In Belgium, two men believed to have been planning an attack on American interests in Europe were charged with possession of weapons of war.