New York's 9/11 Museum pulls controversial item from gift shop

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National September 11 Memorial Museum gift shop has pulled an item that provoked cries of protest for its insensitivity: a U.S. shaped ceramic cheese platter marking the three spots where the hijacked airplanes went down, it said on Thursday. "The commemorative tray that is meant for display, not serving, has been removed," a spokesperson for the museum said in an email. The new museum in lower Manhattan won mostly positive reviews from local media and those with personal ties to the attacks alike when it opened earlier this month, after years of delays and controversy. But the museum's gift shop, which sells items such as fire department apparel and rescue vests for dogs, has come under criticism from some family members of those who died in the attacks as well as the first responders who worked in the rubble of the fallen twin towers. (Reporting By Edith Honan: editing by Gunna Dickson)