New York City: TV network smuggles uranium into country

While some news organizations have tried to sneak material through airport screeners, ABC News thought bigger: The network smuggled depleted uranium into New York.

ABC conducted its operation to test how authorities are guarding against the possibility of a nuclear “dirty bomb” attack. Correspondent Brian Ross’ investigation will air as part of ABC’s Sept. 11 anniversary coverage.

ABC said it borrowed 15 pounds of depleted uranium from an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, to send on its journey. The network said it consulted with experts to make sure it was safe; the Customs Service said such material has less radiation than a typical chest X-ray.

Ross carried it by train from Austria to Istanbul, Turkey. The contents clearly marked, it was packed in a container with wooden horse carts and terra cotta vases and shipped to New York. Through it all, the depleted uranium went undetected.

Washington, D.C.: Artists aspire to design memorial at Pentagon

Nearly 2,500 individuals or groups have registered their intent to take part in an international competition to design an outdoor memorial honoring victims of the Sept. 11 attack at the Pentagon.

Registrations have been made by people from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as well as 50 other countries on six continents. Sept. 4 was the deadline to register.

The Army Corps launched the competition in June, identifying as the location for the memorial a 2-acre parcel near the site where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, resulting in 189 deaths.

Five finalists will be selected in October. A winner will be selected in December.

New York City: Governor presents medals to Guardsmen

Gov. George Pataki on Sunday paid tribute to New York’s National Guard members, handing out medals designed to honor those called to duty in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

At the New York City armory, Pataki told about 400 Guard members their service in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center was crucial to the state and the city’s security and recovery.

Since Sept. 11, more than 15,000 of the 23,000 members of the New York National Guard have been called to active duty. They were deployed to provide security around the World Trade Center site, at New York City airports, bridges and tunnels, at nuclear plants and along the Canadian border.

The New York Defense of Liberty Medal was created for all the New York Guard members called into action since Sept. 11. Those guardsmen who served at least seven days in Manhattan will also receive a WTC decoration to pin to the medal’s ribbon.

Egypt: Bin Laden’s top aide a no-show at seminar

Nearly everyone was skeptical, but many including a dozen TV news crews and a brigade of reporters went just in case.

Ayman al-Zawahri, a top deputy of Osama bin Laden in hiding for months, possibly in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan, had been invited to address a conference Sunday in a downtown Cairo hotel by any means possible.

The hosts on the conference on Islamic political movements had hoped al-Zawahri would explain his role in the Sept. 11 attacks either by posting a statement on the Web, sending an e-mail or calling. But the Egyptian doctor sent no word.

Doing so would have run too much of a risk of exposure to U.S. or Egyptian authorities, al-Zawahri’s great-uncle and former lawyer said.

“With the new technology, they could have located him had he tried to get in touch,” Mahfouz Azzam said. “It would have been suicidal.”