9/11, Ground Zero | featured news

The plot of land known for a decade as "the pile," "the pit" and "ground zero" opened to the public Monday for the first time since that terrible morning in 2001, transformed into a memorial consisting of two serene reflecting pools ringed by the chiseled-in-bronze names of the nearly 3,000 souls lost.

A hacker broke into the Twitter account of NBC News and sent out a handful of false tweets about a suspected hijacking and a plane attack at ground zero just days before the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Days after the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama met New York firefighters on Thursday before a visit to Ground Zero to offer comfort to a city still scarred by the September 11 attacks.

After skirting the controversy for weeks, President Barack Obama is weighing in forcefully on the mosque near ground zero, saying a nation built on religious freedom must allow it.

Lawyers for the city and about 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero have negotiated a new settlement.

A federal judge rejected a multimillion dollar settlement for people sickened by ash and dust from the World Trade Center, saying the deal to compensate 10,000 police officers, firefighters and other laborers didn't contain enough money.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Friday rejected a legal settlement that would have given at least $575 million to the victims, saying the deal shortchanged ground zero workers whom he called heroes.

A settlement has been reached in the cases of thousands of rescue and cleanup workers who sued the city over damage to their health, according to city officials.