World remembers September 11

Stock markets around the globe closed for a moment of silence. Firefighters from Australia to Norway honoured their fallen cousins. Scientists at an isolated research facility on Antarctica played Mozart’s Requiem for the dead.

Despite renewed threats, remembrances were held around the world today to mark the terror that one year ago, killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of foreigners.

As New York slept, the day began on the other side of the globe with a tree-planting ceremony in New Zealand, one of many held on the grounds of US embassies around the world.

“This date has been forever etched into our memories,” New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said. “The world will never forget the tragedy which took place. Those attacks were acts of utterly incomprehensible violence which shook us all profoundly.”

Although the exact number may never be known, nearly 500 foreigners are believed to have died in the attacks. Among them were 26 Britons, a dozen Japanese, 10 Australians - all told, 91 countries lost citizens.

Along with mourning lost compatriots, many also chose to honour the American rescuers who died in the line of duty.

At Australia’s Surfers Paradise, a popular holiday resort, dozens of people led by firefighters and ambulance staff took to the beach to form a human stars and stripes flag.

Barry Brazel, of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service, said the day held a special meaning for firefighters of all nationalities.

“It’s a sacred time,” he said.

Firefighters and other emergency officials were to join an evening ceremony outside the city hall in Oslo, Norway. During the ceremony, 3,056 torches are to be lit, one for each person believed killed when hijackers crashed their planes in the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania.

Stock markets across Asia opened with brief observances and moments of silence. In Tokyo, screens on the exchange trading floor carried a message of renewed prayer and condolence. European markets were expected to follow suit when they opened later in the day.

Replacing the cries of shock and fear that rang out one year ago, Mozart’s Requiem was heard around the world, with 180 choirs in 20 time zones launching a “Rolling Requiem” to mark the moment when the first hijacked plane flew into the World Trade Centre’s north tower.

US researchers at the South Pole also played the music at their isolated base.

The memorials were held amid fears of renewed attacks.

Nine US embassies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East were closed, and US military bases and embassies in Europe enforced tightened security.

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation and home to several hardline Islamic groups, the US Embassy announced it was closed until further notice because of a “credible and specific” terrorist threat.

More than a dozen soldiers in Kuala Lumpur, capital of the predominantly Muslim nation of Malaysia, patrolled the street outside the US Embassy, which was also closed. A ceremony to commemorate September 11 there was cancelled, and the stars and stripes flew at half-mast over the embassy compound.

In Washington, officials cited the threats against US embassies in southeast Asia in raising the nation’s terror alert to “code orange”, its second-highest level.

Australian travellers in southeast Asia were warned to be vigilant after the threat to that country’s interests in East Timor. Deputy prime minister John Anderson said Wednesday the public should not panic.

“It’s just a time for great vigilance,” he said.

But the threats seemed to pale in importance before the need among many to gather in remembrance.

“I spent a year studying in the US and it’s not someone else’s problem,” said Megumi Hirokawa, an 18-year-old college student who attended a small, quiet ceremony outside at the US Embassy in Tokyo.

Hirokawa, who was an exchange student at a high school in Arizona, said she wanted to do something to mark the anniversary because, when she watched with horror as the hijacked planes hit their targets a year ago, she felt helpless.

“There was just nothing that I could do then,” she said.

In Seoul, South Korea, about 150 diplomats, US businessmen and servicemen joined South Korean government officials, politicians and religious leaders at a 30-minute memorial service on the lawn of the US ambassador’s residence.

The ceremony began with a four-member Marine honour guard presenting the US flag and Marine colours. Then the people stood for a moment of silence at the lawn surrounded by maples and pine trees and other rush evergreens. Diplomats and politicians laid long-stemmed white chrysanthemums around a lit candle.

Under a bright, late summer sun, a singer sang God Bless America.