World watches in horror as terror unfolds

LONDON, SEPT. 11. Astonishing terrorist strikes in the United States quickly reached a global audience on Tuesday, 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. Some European airlines cancelled flights to the U.S. and recalled planes already in the air.

The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, expressed condolences to the American people, calling the attacks `terrible tragedies,' the Kremlin press service said.

The British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, said who cancelled a speech at a trade union conference, said ``this mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. 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.''

Mr. Blair summoned his senior Cabinet Ministers for an emergency security meeting.

Calling the attacks `monstrous', the French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, expressed solidarity with the American people in a nationally-televised statement. ``France has just learned of these monstrous attacks, there is no other word for it, that have hit America,'' he said from Rennes, in the western region of Brittany.

Arafat offers condolences

The Palestinian leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat, and his top aides followed the events at his seaside office in Gaza City, gathered around a television set. ``I send my condolences to the President, the Government and the people for this terrible incident,'' he said. ``We are completely shocked. It's unbelievable.''

PLO faction denies hand

The leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a radical PLO faction, denied on Tuesday that his group was behind the attacks. ``We are not responsible for this type of terror attack. We are against it,'' Mr. Qais Abdel Rahim said in the West Bank. Earlier on Tuesday, the West Bank office of the Qatar-based TV station, Al Jazeera, received a call from a man who claimed responsibility on behalf of the DFLP.

Germany condemns

In Berlin, Foreign Ministry officials huddled in a crisis meeting. ``My Government condemns these terrorist attacks to the utmost,'' said the German Chancellor, Mr. Gerhard Schroeder.

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

The Czech President, Mr. Vaclav Havel, said in a statement that he was shocked by the attacks and was closely watching the news.

In the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, people scrambled for news of relatives and friends in New York, where an estimated 2 million Puerto Ricans live.

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

- AP, AFP

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