Status of World Trade Center site, 11 years later

New York: Eleven years after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the new multibillion-dollar World Trade Center once again dominates the lower Manhattan skyline. Hundreds of construction workers are at the 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site every day, and tourists snap thousands of photos of the two towers that are nearing completion.

Here is a look at the status of the trade center's major components, according to its developers:

- Most of the 8-acre (3.2-hectare) memorial quadrangle at the World Trade Center opened last year on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Since then, some 4.5 million people have visited the memorial, with its twin reflecting pools where the towers stood. But a museum being built in a cavern beneath the plaza is still incomplete. Work all but stopped last fall because of a funding dispute between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, but on Monday the two parties announced an agreement that will pave the way for its eventual completion. Joseph Daniels, president of the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, said that once construction resumes it will take more than a year to finish the job, meaning the museum might not open until 2014.

- One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, will open in 2014 on the northwest corner of the trade center site with 3 million square feet (280,000 square meters) of office space. Tenants so far include magazine publisher Conde Nast and the federal government's General Services Administration. The spire atop the 104-story building will reach the symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541.3 meters). There will be observation decks on the 100th, 101st and 102nd floors. The building without the spire has reached its full height of 1,368 feet (417 meters). It is expected to cost $3.9 billion by the time it is finished.

- The first office building to open will be the 72-story 4 World Trade Center at the southeast corner of the site. It has reached its full height of 977 feet (298 meters) and is scheduled to open in October 2013. Tenants will include the Port Authority, the bi-state agency that owns the trade center site and lost its headquarters when the twin towers were attacked.

- Just north of 4 World Trade Center is 3 World Trade Center, which is now an eight-story stub but will reach 80 stories and 1,150 feet (350.5 meters) when it's complete. Developer Larry Silverstein is required to lease at least 400,000 square feet (37,160 square meters) of space before finishing the building. Silverstein's team is projecting a completion date of 2015 or 2016.

- At the northeast corner of the site, 2 World Trade Center is up only to street level. The building is planned as an 88-story skyscraper but will not be built until the commercial real estate market picks up enough to fill it.

- The new transportation hub at the trade center will connect 13 subway lines and PATH trains to New Jersey when it opens in 2015. It will replace the temporary PATH station that was built after the Sept. 11 attacks. Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the station will serve 250,000 travelers a day. There will be two levels of retail space. None of the tenants has been announced yet. The cost of the transportation hub, originally pegged at $2.2 billion, is now expected to exceed $3.5 billion.

- A performing arts center planned for the site has been in limbo for years. A board of directors was named this year and was given the task of raising funds to build the center, which is to include a 1,000-seat theater.

- An underground vehicle security center and bus parking facility just south of the main trade center site will open in 2013.

From: NDTV

Agreement reached for New York's 9/11 museum's completion

New York: An agreement that paves the way for the completion of the Sept. 11 museum at ground zero was reached on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the terror attacks.

The memorandum of understanding between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the foundation that controls the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was announced Monday.

The museum was supposed to open this month, but construction all but ceased a year ago because of a funding squabble between the foundation and the Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center site.

Three powerful political figures became entangled in the dispute: The governors of New York and New Jersey control the Port Authority, while New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the foundation's chairman.

"By ensuring that no additional public funds are spent to complete the memorial and museum," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, "today's agreement puts in place a critical and long overdue safeguard to finally protect toll payers and taxpayers from bearing further costs, and, at the same time, put the project on a path for completion."

Bloomberg said the agreement "ensures that it will be restarted very soon and will not stop until the museum is completed."

"The museum is important to the families of those who died on 9/11 - they've contributed photos and memories of their lost loved ones, who deserve a thoughtful tribute," he said.

Earlier Monday, before the agreement was announced, Bloomberg was asked if the museum could be finished by 2013 if construction started soon.

"We have to do it safely, and we want to do it with the quality of work that will stand up to time," he said. "Whether it's doable by then, I don't know. ... To me, the date is nowhere near as important as the other two things. Third I would say you've got to do it within budget. You know, you can work 24 hours a day, with enormous overtime - in this day and age, there isn't the money for that. The date will be great whenever we get it. And nobody's going to remember whether it was one months or three months later."

The memorandum of understanding announced Monday addresses issues including coordination of the site and general financial terms but doesn't go into detail on specific levels of financing. The agreement outlines that the memorial will have six months' operating expenses on hand as net working capital and that it will give the Port Authority a security deposit equal to six months' utility expenses, but it doesn't say what those figures are.

It remains unclear how the foundation will cover the costs of running the museum, once it does open, although the agreement calls for the memorial and the Port Authority to work together to try for federal funding.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in a statement he was "gratified to be a part of a unified commitment and agreement with Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg to immediately resume around the clock construction at the 9/11 Museum."

The underground museum is to house such artifacts as the staircase workers used to escape the attacks. Visitors also will be able to see portraits of the nearly 3,000 victims and hear oral histories of Sept 11.

The memorial includes a plaza, where waterfalls fill the fallen towers' footprints. Almost 4.5 million people have visited it since it opened last September.

Leander Paes-Radek Stepanek storm into US Open Final

New York: India's Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic reached the US Open men's doubles final on Thursday when Marc Lopez, playing with Spanish Davis Cup teammate Marc Granollers, retired.

Fifth-seeded Paes and Stepanek, the Australian Open champions, were level at 6-6 in the first set when Lopez called it a day after needing treatment on his left calf.

They will face either second-seeded Americans Bob and Mike Bryan -- the champions in 2005, 2008 and 2010 -- or the Pakistan-Dutch pairing of Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer in Friday's final.

"I feel sorry for Marc. We all come here to entertain you and they are great guys," said Paes.

"I have a great partner. He really pushed me today and pulled the whip out, which is probably what I needed. We are looking forward to the final."

Lopez's injury will be a worry for Spain ahead of their Davis Cup semi-final against the United States in Gijon from September 14-16.

The champions have already lost top singles player Rafael Nadal, who will miss the tie with a knee injury.

Bill Clinton made racist remarks about Barack Obama in 2008: Report

New York: Former US President Bill Clinton had taken a racial jibe at Barack Obama in 2008, saying "this guy would have been carrying our bags", a report claimed on Monday.

Mr Clinton allegedly made the racially insensitive remark to Senator Ted Kennedy as he tried to convince the liberal to endorse his wife, Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama's rival, for the Democratic nomination, according to The New Yorker.

Only days before he will nominate President Obama for re-election in the November 6 presidential polls, the report claimed that in 2008 the former President had reportedly said: "A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags."

The reported comment was similar to the one attributed to Mr Clinton in a 2010 book.

"A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee," Mr Clinton was quoted as saying in Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.

Mr Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte isn't until Wednesday night, but the former President is getting attention for remarks he has already made, the New York Post reported.

Mr Clinton has, for example, on earlier occasions called Mr Obama "incompetent" and "an amateur" who has no clue about how the world operates, according to an article in Sunday's Post by Edward Klein, author of The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House.

"Obama doesn't know how to be president," Mr Clinton told friends and political advisers last year, the article added.

"He doesn't know how the world works," Mr Clinton had said. Mr Klein said Mr Clinton had convened a meeting at his Chappaqua, Westchester, home to urge his wife to challenge Mr Obama for the 2012 nomination.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr Obama's Secretary of State, rejected the advice, Mr Klein said.

Bill Clinton has not commented on the issue. Mr Obama advisers had tried to keep the former president off the big stage this week, according to Mr Klein, wanting to relegate him to a minor, non prime-time speaking role. But Bill Clinton threatened to boycott the convention unless he was given a prominent role.

Mr Obama's chief political strategist, David Axelrod, argued that Mr Obama needed Mr Clinton more than Mr Clinton needed him, according to Mr Klein.

From: NDTV

Sania Mirza, Leander Paes out of US Open mixed doubles

New York: It was a forgettable day for the Indians at the the US Open with both Sania Mirza and Leander Paes losing their respective mixed doubles matches.

Sania and her mixed doubles partner Colin Fleming were knocked out of the US Open in the quarter finals. The Indo-Brit duo lost to fourth seeded pair of Kveta Peschka and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 7-5 in just over an hour. This loss ends Sania's campaign at the 2012 US Open.

Paes and partner Elena Vesnina were also knocked out in the quarters by the seventh seeded Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 7-6, 7-5.

The Czeck duo needed only 103 minutes to finish off the game. But it's not all bad news for Paes as he still has a chance in the quarterfinals of the Mens Doubles event.

Time, CNN reinstate Zakaria after plagiarism review

New York: Time magazine and CNN said on Thursday they were reinstating journalist Fareed Zakaria after suspending him last week for plagiarism.

Time said in a statement that it believed Zakaria made an "unintentional error" in what was an "isolated incident" in a recent column on gun control for the magazine that he took from another writer.

"We look forward to having Fareed's thoughtful and important voice back in the magazine with his next column in the issue that comes out on September 7," Time said in a statement.

Cable news channel CNN said that after a thorough internal review of Zakaria's work on his Sunday TV shows, blogs and documentaries, "we found nothing that merited continuing the suspension."

"Zakaria has apologized for a journalistic lapse. CNN and Zakaria will work together to strengthen further the procedures for his show and blog," CNN said. It said Mr Zakaria's public affairs program "GPS" will return on August 26.

Time said last week that it was suspending Mr Zakaria for one month after the respected journalist issued a public apology for borrowing from an April New Yorker essay about gun control in a column he wrote for his publication.

CNN put no time limit on its suspension after Mr Zakaria wrote a blog post on CNN.com that was similar to the Time column.

Mr Zakaria studied at Yale and Harvard, was managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, then editor of Newsweek International for 10 years before moving to CNN in 2010.

His suspension followed a separate plagiarism scandal involving New Yorker staff writer Jonah Lehrer, who resigned on July 30 after admitting he made up quotes from singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in his book "Imagine: How Creativity Works."

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