■ United states
`Full account' promised
The independent commission on Sept. 11 is marking the second anniversary of the attacks by promising "a full and complete accounting" of the events of that day. The 10-member, bipartisan commission is halfway through its 18-month inquiry into the causes and lessons of the terrorist attacks. It is reviewing millions of pages of government documents, many of them not available to a joint House-Senate committee that probed intelligence failures that led up to the attacks.
■ United states
Terror risk increased
More people now think the war in Iraq has increased the risk of terrorism in the US than think it has reduced that risk, a major shift on this issue since mid-April, say new polls released almost two years after the Sept. 11 attacks. In April, almost six in 10 thought the war in Iraq had reduced the risk of terrorism in this country, twice the number who thought it made the risk higher. But in the ABC News poll, about half, 48 percent said the war increased the risk, while 40 percent said it reduced the risk.
■ Germany
Conspiracy theories popular
Conspiracy theories on the Sept. 11 attacks are gaining ground in Germany two years on, with books claiming that the US government was behind the atrocities climbing bestseller lists. Thanks to a handful of new "non-fiction" works in bookstores, wild accusations have gradually become part of public debate amid a sizeable minority in Germany, home to the so-called Hamburg cell that in 2001 produced three of the suicide hijackers. Although each book has a different take on the events of that day, they share the premise that the US government planned the kamikaze jet attacks or allowed them to happen to advance a radical foreign-policy agenda.
■ United Kingdom
Rally to honor hijackers
Extremist British Islamic group al-Muhajiroun is set to hold a rally in London today dedicated to the hijackers who killed more than 3,000 people in the US nearly two years ago, the London-based Observer newspaper said. The controversial conference -- to be held at Finsbury Park mosque in north London -- will be closely monitored by police and the security services and is expected to attract hundreds of young British Muslims, The Observer said. Al-Muhajiroun, who dubbed the hijackers "The Magnificent Nineteen," was investigated by police after senior figures admitted acting as "spiritual advisers" to two British suicide bombers who died in Israel earlier this year, The Observer said.
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