Pope Francis said a prayer and laid a white rose at the slabs of names of victims by one of the two reflecting pools. He then met with several relatives of first responders who died in the attack, as well as former New York City Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. More.

Comedian and late night host Jon Stewart is joining hundreds of firefighters to push for the renewal of a bill to compensate first responders who grew ill working at ground zero in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Stewart will also be joined from politicians from New York on Capitol Hill in Washington in support of the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides treatment and compensation to 9/11 first responders.

While most students were sleeping this morning, Najum Junaid was awake at 7:30 a.m. arranging miniature American flags across the Voorhees Mall lawn. The ""9/11: Never Forget Memorial"" on Voorhees Mall taking place today has been assembled by students involved with the College Republicans for the many years. “A lot of colleges don’t take the time to remember (Sept. 11) with any events. It’s important for our organization to host the '9/11: Never Forget' project so we can remember history and remember what happened,” Junaid said.

Often when we are reminded of horrific events, unless personally involved, we pause for a moment and think about the event that has been brought to our attention, again, and move on to what we doing or thinking before such a reminder. So, possibly, this could be the case with the 9/11 terrorists' attack on the World Trade Center 14 years ago today. I say "possibly," except for meeting Edith Ludnick. Her youngest brother, Gary, was in his office at the building hit by Osama Bin Laden's orchestrated plane crash on September 11, 2001.

With his head bowed during a moment of silence outside the White House, President Barack Obama set the tone Friday for a nation marking a dark day with solemn ceremonies. Fourteen years ago Friday, terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and smashed two into New York's World Trade Center. A third jetliner rammed into the Pentagon outside Washington while a fourth one crash-landed on an empty field in Pennsylvania. More.

The weeks that retired NYPD Detective Barbara Burnette spent at Ground Zero after 9/11 - shoveling away debris, first searching for survivors in the thick air and then sifting through the toxic wreckage to find the dead - have come to haunt her in ways far beyond the emotional trauma. More.

Gordon W. Felt stood perfectly still, his head bowed slightly, as he listened to the frightened voices of three long-dead victims of Flight 93, their final words captured on answering machines just before the plane crashed into a reclaimed strip mine on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. “That’s tough. That’s powerful,” Mr. Felt said, tears falling from his eyes during a visit to the new $26 million visitor center and museum that documents in wrenching detail the crash, which killed 40 passengers and crew members, including his brother Edward Porter Felt.

The city of Atlanta is joining the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) to host a 9/11 stair climb on Saturday, August 29 at 9:10 a.m. at The Westin Peachtree Plaza in downtown Atlanta. Participants will climb the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs, the same number of floors as the World Trade Center. Registration is $35 and the event is open to the public. More.