Nationwide Sept 11 memorials planned

OHIO (AP):

Ministers will honour emergency responders in Sunday services and, in some cases, bless their vehicles, as Ohioans commemorate the September 11 terror attacks at religious services, prayer gatherings, football games and with a corn maze.

Near Hamilton in southwest Ohio, part of a giant corn field at the Niederman Family Farm has been cut with an outline of the World Trade Center twin towers and the date of the attacks, along with the words 'Always Remembered Never Forgotten'.

"It was just a reminder for us that there are people that are living with the results of this day every day of their lives," said Bethann Niederman, whose husband, Bob, designed the maze.

"We wanted to let others know that we hadn't forgotten," she said.

That's the idea behind many events planned throughout Ohio.

Governor John Kasich is slated to speak at a solemn ceremony at the Statehouse on Friday, and a handful of religious groups are co-sponsoring an interfaith prayer service there two days later, on the anniversary. Nearly 2,300 American flags will be displayed on the Statehouse lawn to represent US citizens who died in the attacks.

A memorial featuring a beam from the World Trade Center will be dedicated September 11 in Urbana, honouring a local graduate who was a flight attendant on one of the planes that crashed in New York.