BBC news 2011-09-12 加文本

BBC news 2011-09-12

BBC News with Marion Marshall

President Obama has been leading tributes to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the United States during the 9/11 attacks 10 years ago. The official commemorations began in New York at the site of the World Trade Center, where hijacked passenger planes destroyed the twin towers. As in previous years, the names of those who died were read out, accompanied by music and interspersed with tributes from their relatives, such as this one.

"My sister, Patrice Paz, who was on her way out to survival when she ran back to rescue a missing co-worker, you are my hero."

Our correspondent Stephen Evans was in the South Tower of the World Trade Center when it was hit. He was at the New York ceremony and earlier gave this personal impression.

What really strikes me about the names is the great variety of them. McGee, just went through an Irish name, a lot of Hispanic names going through. It's the very ordinariness of the thing which hits you in a way in which each name represents a person. You know, sure, I do think about turns-left-rather-than-turns-right decisions to stay here and not move on there, which meant I wasn't amongst those names, but really it's about remembering the bigger event. And as somebody involved in that event in a very peripheral way, I do find it very, very moving.

The ceremony at Ground Zero in New York drew to a close with four trumpeters from the police and fire departments in the US military  playing this lament.

President Obama laid a wreath at the memorial in rural Pennsylvania where another plane was brought down after passengers fought their al-Qaeda hijackers. He's done the same at a ceremony that's taking place at the Pentagon, which was hit by a fourth hijacked aircraft. Earlier at the Pentagon, the US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States was a safer and stronger country now than it was a decade ago.

"In the wake of the attacks, a generation of Americans stepped forward to serve in uniform, determined to confront our enemies. Because of their sacrifices, we are a safer and stronger nation today, and the principal terrorist behind these attacks has been brought to justice."

People from more than 100 nations were killed in the 9/11 attacks, and memorial ceremonies have been held around the world, including London. In Italy, Pope Benedict held a special Mass. But on the eve of the events in Afghanistan, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a Nato base in the central province of Wardak, killing two Afghans and wounding more than 100, most of them American soldiers.

World News from the BBC

The Niger government says that one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, Saadi, has arrived in the country. The justice minister said Saadi Gaddafi was in a convoy heading for Agadez, in north Niger. From the capital Niamey, Thomas Fessy sent us this report.

Al-Saadi Gaddafi was in the latest convoy which has crossed into Niger. He was with eight other people whose identities have not been confirmed, according to the Justice Minister and government spokesman Marou Amadou. Security forces patrolling the long stretch of desert south of the Libyan border on Sunday spotted the convoy on its way to the northern town of Agadez. Mr Amadou said it was possible that al-Saadi Gaddafi would arrive in the capital Niamey on Monday. He said it would be hosting on humanitarian grounds like the other Colonel Gaddafi's loyalists who have fled Libya over the past week.

Earlier this month, Saadi Gaddafi, who used to run the Libyan Football Federation, had offered to negotiate with anti-Gaddafi forces just as his brother Saif said Gaddafi loyalists would fight to the end. Meanwhile, the head of the Libyan National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, has said he plans to form a new inclusive interim government within 10 days. Speaking in Tripoli, he also said that Libya had started to produce oil again.

A group of prominent Burmese comedians has returned to Burma from self-imposed exile in Thailand weeks after the new civilian president urged citizens overseas to come home. The manager of the group, known for its political satire, told the BBC there were signs that Burma's military-backed government was taking steps towards democracy.

Police in southeast England have rescued 24 men believed to be victims of slavery from a gypsy caravan site. The men were living in cramped conditions. Some were covered in excrement, and many were suffering from malnutrition. It's understood that some have been held against their will for up to 15 years. Several arrests have been made.

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