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Updated September 12, 2001, 9:46 a.m. ET

World mourns terrorist attacks on U.S.

LONDON (AP) — Church bells pealed, flags stood at half-staff, and conferences, concerts and sports matches were canceled Wednesday as countries contemplated a world utterly changed by the deadly terrorist attacks on the United States.

"Apocalypse Now," proclaimed the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. "Doomsday in America," ran a headline in the Jordanian daily al-Aswaq, which denounced the attacks.

The Amsterdam-based newspaper Trouw characterized the events as "a new sort of evil."

"This evil roughly woke the American society out of its dream of invulnerability," it said.

Addressing his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II told Americans that "those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say."

Many nations offered solidarity.

"In the darkest hours of European history, America stood close with us," European Commission President Romano Prodi said, referring to U.S. intervention during the two World Wars. "Today we stand close by America."

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke Wednesday to President Bush and said he had consulted leaders in Russia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union. "We all agreed that this attacks was an attack not only on America, but on the free and democratic world," he said.

"It demands our complete and united condemnation, our determination to bring those responsible to justice, and our full support for the American people at this time of trial."

Stock exchanges, including those in London and Madrid, suspended trading for a minute at 8:45 a.m. EDT -- 24 hours after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center.

Mourning bells rang out in Austria and the Czech Republic. Portugal declared two days of mourning.

At the American Embassy in Berlin, hundreds of bouquets of flowers lay against a temporary security cordon and burning candles dotted the sidewalk. A banner hung nearby, calling for a measured U.S. response: "No revenge please, No World War 3."

Leon Linnartz, 51, a professor of political science, said Berliners have special solidarity with Americans. "We have not forgotten" U.S. support during the city's years under Communism, Linnartz said.

German-based media giant Bertelsmann announced it is contributing $2 million to help the families of the New York firefighters and police officers killed in the attacks.

In Calcutta, India, the Missionaries of Charity, an order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa, offered special prayers for the dead.

In Abidjan, the capital of the West African nation of Ivory Coast, Muslim stall keepers offered condolences to passing Americans.

In Geneva, European soccer's governing body UEFA postponed its matches for this week -- the first time the soccer body had postponed all its matches en masse.

"The scale of this tragedy and the pain and sorrow which it brings should cause us all to reflect," Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner in a statement.

Companies at the Frankfurt International Auto Show canceled or scaled back press events Wednesday, though the show remained open.

Pop star Sting canceled a concert scheduled for Tuesday night near Florence, Italy.

In Jordan's second-largest newspaper, ad-Dustour, columnist George Haddad counseled against jumping to conclusions about who was responsible.

"Among the Americans themselves, there are highly extremist organizations, which are against the present American regime," Haddad said, referring to the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people.

In a front-page editorial, the pro-government Egyptian newspaper, al-Akhbar, argued that Israel was to blame for the attacks.

"The answer to the question of who is really responsible for this bloody tragedy is promptly and without any hesitation Israel, for whose sake Washington has sacrificed all its values and interests," al-Akhbar said.

The attacks were a warning "against the dangers of reluctance to ... resolve the problem of the Palestinian people and those people who linger under injustice," it said.