Bringing, sharing and explaining the news that stunned the world

CHICAGO - United States newspapers rushed out extra editions yesterday with news and pictures of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

"HORROR" shouted the Washington Times' banner for its four-page extra edition. The Washington Post also put out an afternoon edition, headlined, "Terror hits Pentagon, World Trade Center."

"When war came to America," the Times newspaper blasted, typifying the mood of the British press.

"Doomsday America," headlined the Independent, while the front page of the Financial Times was dominated by a full-page photo of the New York skyline billowing smoke and flames.

"This was an act of war, wicked in its meticulous planning and brilliant in its appalling execution," the Daily Telegraph wrote.

As the dust settled in Lower Manhattan, Britain's media focused their attention on how the hijackings were allowed to happen, who was responsible and what would be the response of President George W. Bush.

American broadcasters brought home the sense of shock powerfully. CNN had a reporter on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange who had just come running in as the Trade Center collapsed outside. There was terror in her eyes.

Her make-up was a mess. "Maybe you can see my clothes are covered in white," she said. This wasn't misplaced personal pride. It was the best way she could think of to illustrate what had happened.

The BBC's man in New York, Steve Evans, in a voice with the strain clearly audible, reported from the base of the building on how he had felt it shake when the first plane struck. His image of the vast structure looking "like a broken toy" was wonderfully instinctive and apt.

Jeremy Thompson anchored Sky News with the authority and calm the situation demanded.

He considered the thousands who must have died in New York and said: "It just didn't bear thinking about."

Internet usage in the US was heavy as Americans were desperate to fill in the spaces of the horrifying news that stunned a nation.

For most Americans online, however, all they got when they needed information the most was a lame hourglass cursor on their PCs or a spinning beach ball cursor on their Macs.

"This is the day the internet grew up," said Rob Batchelder, an internet infrastructure specialist at the Gartner Group in Stamford, Connecticut.

The web's news sites were gridlocked in lockstep. MSNBC.com? Nothing. CNN.com? Nothing. Same for ABC.com, CBS.com, BBC.com and many others.

In what amounted to the first test of the hugely popular worldwide web under wartime conditions, people found they had been sold a bill of goods when the likes of Bill Gates had pledged a future of perpetual, always-on "information at your fingertips."

- AGENCIES, INDEPENDENT

Full coverage: Terror in America

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Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims

These numbers are valid for calls from within New Zealand, but may be overloaded at the moment.

United Airlines: 0168 1800 932 8555

American Airlines: 0168 1800 245 0999

NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: 0800 872 111

US Embassy in Wellington (recorded info): 04 472 2068

Online database for friends and family