New York — Overwhelmingly and not surprisingly journalists around the world chose the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States and the ensuing war on terrorism as the top news story of 2001, according to a survey by The Associated Press.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had immediately been judged an overwhelming story. "Apocalypse" was the headline in Britain's Daily Mail of the following day, the major Spanish daily El Pais put out a special edition, and the world's broadcasters covered the tragedy minute by minute.
Brooklyn firefighters George Johnson, left, and Dan McWilliams, center, both of Ladder 157, and Billy Eisengrein of Rescue 2 raise a flag at the World Trade Center in New York in this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo. The attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., were voted the top story of 2001 by national and international journalists.
The attacks also directly touched people around the world; expatriates and immigrants from at least 26 countries were among the nearly 3,000 World Trade Center victims. In Bangladesh, phones in newspaper offices were jammed the day after as people tried to learn the fate of the 250,000 Bangladeshis working in the New York metropolitan area.
In the survey of 75 newspaper and broadcast subscribers to the AP in 24 countries, the journalists chose a related story, the anthrax scare, as second among the year's top 10 stories. Third and separated by just 1 percentage point from No. 2 was the renewed violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
All but four of the 75 who replied to the survey chose the attacks and war on terrorism as the top story. Those naming other events did so mainly on the basis of regional importance Yugoslav editors saw the arrest of former President Slobodan Milosevic as the top story. His arrest placed No. 5 in the overall survey.
The lack of dissent in naming the top story of 2001 can be seen by contrasting the same poll in 2000. That year, the extended U.S. election battle between George W. Bush and Al Gore was picked as No. 1, but the stories named were so varied that the election was listed as the top story by only 20 of the 50 journalists surveyed.
1. Sept. 11 attacks.
2. War on terrorism.
3. Anthrax fears.
4. Recession in the United States.
5. Bush inauguration.
6. Execution of Timothy McVeigh for bombing of federal building in Oklahoma.
7. Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
8. U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont quits Republican Party and becomes an Independent, tilting control of the Senate to the Democrats.
9. Power crisis in California.
10. U.S. tax cut.
Top international stories
1. Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and subsequent war on terrorism.
2. Anthrax fears.
3. Middle East violence.
4. George W. Bush takes office as U.S. president.
5. Milosevic arrested, taken to The Hague.
6. World economy weakens.
7. Europe hit by mad cow and foot-and-mouth diseases.
9. Rising power of the European Union, introduction of common currency.
10. A statistical tie: Unrest at G-8 summit and massacre of Nepalese royal family.
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