World's leaders offer their words of condolence

Astonishing terrorist strikes in the US quickly reached a global audience yesterday, with many around the world watching live coverage as both World Trade Center towers collapsed.

Audiences were transfixed by the awful images from New York and Washington.

Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday expressed condolences to the victims of the terrorist attacks in the US.

Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪), director of the Public Affairs Office of the Presidential Office, said that Chen was informed of the incident immediately after the news was announced when he was presiding over the regular weekly meeting among officials of the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan and the DPP in the evening.

Chen instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to immediately extend his condolences to the victims and their families.

Taiwan's National Security Council was convened yesterday evening and Deputy Prime Minister Lai In-jaw (賴英照) announced that the TAIEX would not open today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the American people over the terrorist attacks, calling them "terrible tragedies," the Kremlin press service said.

"This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today," said Prime Minister Tony Blair, who canceled a speech at a trade union conference. "It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life, and we the democracies of this world are going to have to come together and fight it together."

President Jacques Chirac of France, in a nationally televised statement, called the attacks in the US "monstrous" and expressed his solidarity with the American people.

"France has just learned of these monstrous attacks, there is no other word for it, that have hit America," Chirac said from Rennes, in the western region of Brittany.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his top aides followed the events at his seaside office in Gaza City, gathered around a TV set.

"I send my condolences to the president, the government and the people for this terrible incident," said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "We are completely shocked. It's unbelievable."

The leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, denied yesterday that his group was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"We are not responsible for this type of terror attack. We are against it," said Qais Abdel Rahim, the head of the DFLP in the West Bank.

In Berlin, Foreign Ministry officials huddled in a crisis meeting.

Virtually all German TV channels switched to live coverage. "This is pure mass murder," one commentator said.

"My government condemns these terrorist attacks to the utmost," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"Italy is at the side of the United States," Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi told Bush in a telegram. "The international community must respond together to this abhorrent act."

In Thailand, Suranand Vejjajiva, a spokesman for the office of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said they were watching the news in disbelief.

The world on alert

US

The Federal Aviation Administration diverted transatlantic flights headed for the US to Canada after an earlier grounding of all flights.

The government closed its border to Mexico.

Canada

The transport ministry shut down all airports in the country except those to allow planes diverted from the US to land.