Some planted trees to remember fallen compatriots. Others laid wreaths. Some simply mourned quietly at memorial services.
Across the world, people and governments marked the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Thursday with prayers, promises to continue fighting terrorism, and reflections on the changes that have been wrought internationally.
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair (search) and his Cabinet stood to observe a minute's silence in memory of the more than 3,000 victims.
Later, Princess Anne planned to open a garden of remembrance near the U.S. Embassy dedicated to the 67 British people who died in New York's World Trade Center. A twisted metal girder recovered from the Twin Towers is buried beneath the garden.
"It's particularly important to us because many families, my own included, had no remains returned to us," said Jim Cudmore, who lost his 39-year-old son, Neil, in the attacks.
At Yokosuka Naval Base just south of Tokyo, U.S. military personnel held a wreath-laying service. In Baghdad, the U.S. administrator for Iraq and the commander of American forces joined about 100 civilians and soldiers for a moment of silence at Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace in Baghdad.
L. Paul Bremer and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez bowed their heads as a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace."
"Let us attune our hearts to the voices crying out from Sept. 11, 2001, compelling us to eradicate terrorism in our world and restore justice and dignity to creation," U.S. Army chaplain Col. Frank Wismer said.
At the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines, U.S. Charge d' Affaires Joseph Mussomeli laid a wreath by the mission's flagpole, where the American flag was at half-staff.
In Australia, hundreds of expatriate Americans and volunteers planted some 3,000 trees in a Sydney park in remembrance of the dead, who included at least 10 Australians.
"It's painful, but it's pain you have to lock away and get on with your life," said Antony Milne, a manager of the World Trade Center's Windows on the World (search) restaurant who moved to Australia after the attacks.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard (search) said the battle against terrorists would not end anytime soon.
"This war against terrorism is likely to go on for years and nobody can regard themselves as beyond the reach of terrorism," Howard told Sky News Television. "We need to find ways of further cooperation, particularly at a police and intelligence level."
Howard spoke a day after an Indonesian court sentenced the convicted mastermind of October's Bali bombings to death by firing squad.
The blasts killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and was the worst terrorist strike since the Sept. 11 attacks. Authorities blamed the Bali bombings on the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group.
Top Russian officials paid homage to the Sept. 11 victims, saying Russia's solidarity with America was born from shared experience.
"The day on which the black cloud of dust from the collapsed skyscrapers overcast the blue sky over New York will go down in world history," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov (search) said in a statement.
Moscow has portrayed its battle against rebels in Chechnya as part of the international struggle against terrorism. Russian authorities have blamed Chechens for suicide bombings and other attacks that killed more than 150 people in and around Chechnya and Moscow from May to August.
In Brussels, Belgium, the 15 European Union governments issued a joint statement reaffirming their "close solidarity" with the United States and other countries hit by terrorism and their "great determination" to combat terrorism through the "broadest possible international cooperation."
They noted "significant results" achieved so far, including the arrest and trials of suspects, the disruption of terrorist cells and the freezing of assets and sources of funding.
In China's Muslim northwest, the regional Communist Party secretary seized the occasion to warn that separatists in the country's Xinjiang region were getting training from international terrorists, including at "several training camps in Pakistan."
In Muslim-majority Pakistan, about 100 students and teachers at a small Christian school in the central city of Multan lit candles and observed a minute's silence to mark the anniversary.
"A handful of people are terrorizing the world using the name of religion," said the Rev. James Channan, director of the Pastoral Institute, a Christian seminary.
Islamic militants in Pakistan have been blamed for attacks against Christian and Western targets throughout the country in the past two years.
Neighboring India, which has accused Pakistan of fomenting terrorism, declared Thursday to be Anti-Terrorism Day.
In Afghanistan, people on Kabul's streets reveled in the changes since the United States ousted the Taliban regime.
"It's much better now that the war is over," said Leila Ahmadi, 25, who returned to Kabul with her family five months ago.
Across Japan, people paid their respects at memorials to the victims, including 24 Japanese.
"The threat of international terrorism still remains serious," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said. "Japan will further strengthen cooperation with other countries and continue to tackle the problem."
In South Korea, police beefed up security at airports, military bases and embassies.
In Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, people entering the world's tallest buildings, the Petronas Twin Towers, had their bags checked, but no extra security was in place.
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