Ground Zero, September 11 | 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.

A long-delayed bill that would provide health care to emergency workers and others who became ill after working on ground zero passed mostly along party lines.

The developers of an Islamic cultural center that would include a mosque near Ground Zero have rejected Gov. David Paterson's offer to help them find a different site. Paterson said today the group is apparently committed to building in the proposed site.

Republicans attacked President Barack Obama on Sunday for his comments on a controversial plan to build a Muslim cultural center in New York, saying he was "disconnected" from the nation in an election year.

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.