National and International News-Monday, Sept. 11th

NEW YORK (AP) - From a pit where the World Trade Center once stood, to a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, all across America today, people will reflect on what happened on September Eleventh 2001. In New York, people will observe four moments of silence, at8:46, 9:03, 9:59 and 10:29 a-m, the times when jetliners struck each of the twin towers, and when each tower fell. Spouses and partners of the two-thousand-749 people who died at the trade center will read the names of the victims. Lee Hanson says he'll spend the day remembering his granddaughter's smile. The two-and-a-half-year-old child was on the second plane that hit the World Trade Center. She was the youngest victim on Nine-Eleven. President Bush is starting his day in New York, before attending remembrances at the other crash sites: the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Other memorials are planned, too. In Muncie, Indiana, there will be a service at a funeral home that features a September Eleventh garden with twin glass towers that light up at night.

NEW YORK (AP) - President Bush today leads the nation in remembering Nine-Eleven, the attacks on America five years ago that killed nearly three-thousand people. He begins the day with a breakfast at a New York City firehouse near Ground Zero where the Twin Towers were knocked down by two of the hijacked jetliners. He'll observe moments of silence at 8:46 and 9:03 this morning Eastern time, the times when the jets hit. Later in the day, the president will be in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where another of the hijacked planes slammed to the ground. And he'll lay a wreath at the Pentagon, which was also a target that day. Tonight he'll address the nation from the Oval Office. Bush says he wishes he could somehow "make whole" the families still grieving, but he says the anniversary provides fresh resolve in trying to prevent terrorists from striking American again.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Members of Congress will mark today's fifth anniversary of the Nine-Eleven attacks with another bipartisan gathering on the steps of the Capitol building. Five years ago, dozens of lawmakers gathered there and sang"God Bless America" to show that the government was intact and unified. Lawmakers will put aside their differences over national security to do that again this evening. Attendance might be a little lower than it was five years ago.Many lawmakers are back home campaigning for reelection and attending local events marking the anniversary. Many lawmakers think the hijackers of United Flight 93 intended to crash the jet into the Capitol or the White House. The plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when the passengers fought back.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U-S soldiers serving in Afghanistan have taken time today to remember Nine-Eleven. Afghanistan's Taliban regime had given safe haven to attack-mastermind Osama bin Laden and was toppled by U-S troops weeks later. At the main U-S base in Kabul today, soldiers unveiled a plaque commemorating the Nine-Eleven victims and laid a wreath in front of it. Among those speaking at the memorial service was a soldier who was in the Pentagon when a hijacked plane crashed into it on that day five years ago. Staff Sergeant Alicia Watkins says what stays with her is resilience of the American people despite the horrors of the day. The commander of U-S forces in Afghanistan says there has been progress since the invasion. Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry acknowledges the recent upsurge in violence but says he doesn't think it will hamper reconstruction. Eikenberry says U-S troops will remain in Afghanistan until"the Afghan people tell us our job is done."

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A mini bus has exploded near an army recruiting center in central Baghdad. The Defense Ministry says at least 16 people were killed and seven hurt. No word yet on whether it was a suicide attack but mini buses often are used in such attacks. This morning's attack on the recruiting center follows a series of other attacks overnight. At least nine people were killed. Among them were four oil refinery workers whose bus was attacked by gunmen. Two employees of a Baghdad telephone exchange center were killed when gunmen opened fire this morning. Also today comes word of the death of another U-S soldier. His patrol came under small arms fire north of Baghdad last night. An unofficial count by The Associated Press shows that at least two-thousand-667 members of the U-S military have died in Iraq since the war began.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein's genocide trial has resumed in Baghdad after a 19-day break. Saddam and six co-defendants face a possible death penalty for the killings of tens of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in the1980s. The offensive leveled hundreds of villages and saw the widespread use of chemical weapons against their people. In grim testimony last month, Kurds told of entire families wiped out. They remembered survivors plunging their faces into milkto end the pain from the blinding gas or fleeing into the hills on mules as military helicopters fired on them. Saddam is still awaiting a verdict October 16th in the first of his trials. It covers the killings of 148 Shiites in the 1980s. Conviction in that trial also carries the death penalty.

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) - It's going a busy day for the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis. They're getting set to link up with the international space station to deliver a key addition to the orbiting outpost, a huge truss assembly. It's equipped with two large solar wings, and on Earth, weighs 17 and a-half tons. The Columbia disaster three years ago had put construction work on hold. The Atlantis mission is the first of 15 flights planned to finish the job. Hoisting the truss into place and hooking it up will take three spacewalks by four of the Atlantis crew over the next week. Since its flawless liftoff Saturday, the shuttle has encounteredonly some minor problems with a speed brake and some cargo bay door switches. But a mission manager says it has been "a really good start" to a "really complex mission."

HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) - Bermuda is under a warning as Hurricane Florence barrels toward the tiny British territory. Florence is only the second hurricane of the season. And it's closing in on Bermuda with 80-mile-an-hour winds. Forecasters are warning of large, battering waves and up to a-half foot of rain. Shopkeepers and homeowners spent the weekend boarding up windows and doors. One closed flower shop hung a sign saying, "BackTuesday." The hurricane is expected to veer away from the U-S coast as it turns northward, although forecasters have been advising that the Eastern Seaboard is likely to get high surf and dangerous ripcurrents. And storm forecasters are tracking a new system. The Atlantic depression has winds of 35 miles-an-hour. If it hits 39, it would become Tropical Storm Gordon.