Fighters patrol New York's skies

Armed fighter jets are back in the skies over New York and Washington today as America prepares to mark tomorrow's anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks.

Awac radar aircraft will also be deployed and surfacetoair missiles are in place around the Pentagon.

The Pentagon refuses to say if the patrols - backed by heat-seeking Stinger missiles on the ground - are a response to a specific threat or a precautionary measure because of the anniversary, which sees President Bush flying from Washington to New York tomorrow for a service of remembrance.

Meanwhile, a message from the Queen will be carved into a memorial in New York today for the victims of the World Trade Center atrocity.

The Queen has given her approval after the widow of a Wall Street financier killed in the attack made a personal appeal to Buckingham Palace for permission to use the words: "Grief is the price we pay for love."

The phrase was in a message from the Queen read by Sir Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador, last September. It will conclude the text of a memorial by Josephine Alger, whose husband David was president of a company which lost 38 of its 55 employees.

The monument is carved into a pillar at St Thomas Church. It will be unveiled this evening at a service of remembrance for British victims, attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.