President George W Bush said on Friday, in an interview with financial news network CNBC, that the September 11 passenger-revolt against hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first counter-blow to "World War III". "I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III. It was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognise the danger and save lives." Bush lamented that bad news from Iraq was drowning out what he called good news on the country's economy. "The problem is that we're in war, and sometimes it's hard for people to get a positive message about the economy when they're troubled by... scenes of violence on the TV screens. " That the US economy had created 138,000 new jobs in April, he said, was "an indication that this economy's still strong".