NEW YORK — Mourners across the country bowed their heads in silence today to mark the moments exactly six years earlier when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. The dreary skies created a grim backdrop, and a sharp contrast to the clear blue of that morning in 2001.

"That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as the first ceremony began. "Six years have passed, and our place is still by your side."

Construction equipment now fills the vast city block where the World Trade Center once stood. The work under way for four new towers forced the ceremony's move away from the twin towers' footprints and into a nearby park for the first time.

As people clutched framed photos of their lost loved ones, Kathleen Mullen, whose niece Kathleen Casey died in the attacks, said the park was close enough.

"Just so long as we continue to do something special every year, so you don't wake up and say, 'Oh, it's 9/11," she said.

BIN LADEN SHOWS HE'S STILL AL-QAIDA'S 'TOP GUN'

CAIRO, Egypt — Two messages from Osama bin Laden in a matter of days have revived the game of questions over his health and whereabouts, but they also made clear he is al-Qaida's propaganda "top gun," able to draw attention in the West and strike a chord among sympathizers.

In a new video released today, bin Laden's voice was heard commemorating one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and calling on young Muslims to follow his example in martyring themselves in attacks.

It came on the heels of a video released Saturday containing the first new images of the terror movement's leader in nearly three years. It showed him urging Americans to convert to Islam and railing against capitalism, globalization and democracy as failed philosophies.

Both releases on Web sites used by Islamic extremists may in part be an attempt to use bin Laden's charisma to win over supporters in an audience of growing importance for al-Qaida — Muslim converts and immigrants from Muslim countries living in the West, particularly Europe.

Militants from both groups have been implicated in several plots inside Europe in recent years, and the anti-globalization rhetoric could be aimed at giving disenchanted Muslims there further reason to join his cause, along with his traditional condemnation of U.S. policy in the Mideast.

ABIZAID CRITICIZES U.S. EFFORTS ON TERROR

ADELPHI, Md. — It will take three to five years before Iraq's government is stable enough to operate on its own, according to the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, who said the surge of American forces has not solved the country's broader problems.

In an interview with The Associated Press, retired Army Gen. John Abizaid also said that beyond attacking the global threat of terrorism with military strength, the United States has done a poor job of applying the economic, political and diplomatic means to fight Islamic extremism.

"I don't blame it on any people," Abizaid said today. "I just blame it on a bureaucratic system that has been unresponsive thus far to the challenges of the 21st century. We need to change that as a matter of national priority."

Abizaid retired in May after nearly four years as the top officer at U.S. Central Command, the war-fighting organization based in Tampa, Fla. that oversees military operations in a region stretching from central Asia to the Horn of Africa. He was in Maryland to speak at a conference on military logistics.

The United States must draw down forces in Iraq so the Iraqis can take control of their own affairs, Abizaid said.

GUANTANAMO DETAINEES DESCRIBE ABUSES

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Detainees flinging body waste at guards. Guards interrupting detainees at prayer. Interrogators withholding medicine. Hostility and tension between inmates and their keepers at the Guantanamo Bay prison are evident in transcripts obtained by The Associated Press.

These rare detainee accounts of life inside the razor wire at the remote U.S. military base in Cuba emerged during Administrative Review Board hearings aimed at deciding whether prisoners suspected of links with the Taliban or al-Qaida should continue to be held or be sent away from Guantanamo.

The Pentagon gave the AP transcripts of hearings held last year in a trailer at Guantanamo after the news agency sought the material under the Freedom of Information Act. Amid the tensions, they also show a few relaxed encounters between detainees and their guards and interrogators.

The military has said Guantanamo is relatively calm compared to last year. But a report released by the detention center last month shows mass disturbances are up sharply over 2006 and forced removal of prisoners from cells and assaults with bodily fluids are on pace to match or exceed last year's total.

The transcripts, obtained by the AP on Friday, illustrate the friction.

HATE CRIME CHARGES POSSIBLE IN W.VA ATTACK

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Authorities said today they are considering hate crime charges in the case of a woman who was tortured while being held captive for at least a week, and they are investigating the possibility that she was lured by a man she met on the Internet.

The victim was repeatedly called a racial slur while her captors sexually abused, beat and stabbed her, her mother said.

Six people, all white, including a mother and son and a mother and daughter, were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the 20-year-old black woman.

"I don't understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter's room at Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital. "I didn't know there were people like that out here."

Megan Williams, with a cast on her arm, spoke barely above a whisper.

"I'm better," she said.

DIABETES PILL CUTS ODDS OF STROKE, BOOSTS RISK OF HEART FAILURE

CHICAGO — The widely used diabetes pill Actos appears to lower a patient's chances of death, heart attack or stroke, unlike its beleaguered chief rival Avandia, a new analysis shows.

However, it also carries an increased risk of nonfatal heart failure, the analysis showed, confirming earlier studies. Heart failure is also a side effect with Avandia. Such problems led one diabetes expert to recommend that both drugs be considered second choices behind older, cheaper pills.

Heart failure "is a significant side effect," said Dr. Alvin Powers, director of Vanderbilt University's diabetes center. "No one would say that you should be on these drugs to prolong your life." He was not involved in the research.

Older drugs including Metformin are available in generic form and can cost less than 20 cents a day — 10 times less than Avandia and Actos. However, the older drugs can stop working and doctors may try newer pills instead of having patients resort to insulin injections.

When the older drugs lose effectiveness, Actos "is a drug that clearly I think is preferable," said Dr. A. Michael Lincoff, who co-authored the Actos study with Cleveland Clinic colleague, Dr. Steven Nissen.

KANYE WEST SAYS MTV 'EXPLOITED' BRITNEY SPEARS

NEW YORK — Kanye West blames MTV for Britney Spears' less than stellar performance at the Video Music Awards.

"Man, they were just trying to get ratings, and they knew she wasn't ready and they exploited her," the 29-year-old rapper said today on Sirius Satellite Radio's "The Morning Mash Up."

The network made a "bad move" by having the troubled pop star open Sunday's event in Las Vegas, said West, who feels he should have kicked off the show with "Stronger," the first single from his new album, "Graduation."

"They exploited her, they played me and I really don't mess with MTV," he said.

Spears, 25, looked unprepared while performing her new song, "Gimme More," to a bewildered audience of her music industry peers. She seemed nervous and, at times, stopped singing altogether.