NEW YORK, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani reversed his decision Thursday to cut police and firefighters at the World Trade Center who are searching for the remains of the almost 4,000 people listed as missing in the rubble.
"The number of firefighters at "Ground Zero" will be 50," Giuliani said.
The mayor angered many in the New York Fire Department with his decision last week to cut the number of firefighters, port authority and police officers to 24 each citing safety concerns of the workers looking for remains among construction cranes and heavy machinery.
The firefighters' unions staged a demonstration about the cuts at Ground Zero last Friday because they feared the work at the World Trade Center would turn into a "scoop and dump" operation and human remains would end up in landfills.
More than a dozen firefighters were arrested after they stormed a police barricade at Ground Zero. Several police officers were injured and more firefighters were expected to be arrested.
However, city officials said Thursday they don't expect any more arrests from the demonstration. Police had used a videotape from a television network of the demonstration to identify firefighters in the scuffle with police. Of the 343 fallen firefighters in the attacks, 240 bodies or remains have yet to be recovered.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has threatened the American Red Cross to reconsider its position of using some of the millions collected in a special fund for the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 for other disaster relief or he will draft legislation prohibiting it.
"Donations made specifically in response to the Sept. 11 attacks must be used exclusively for the benefit of those who have suffered as a result of those attacks," Spitzer told a New York State Assembly hearing. "No victim should be left unassisted."
The Red Cross has said it will set aside $264 million of the more than $500 million raised for the Liberty Fund for infrastructure improvements, donation processing and disaster related needs.
A postal official testified in court that the use of compressed air to clean mail-sorting machines at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in Manhattan most likely was the reason anthrax spread to several other mail sorting machines. The New York Metro Area Postal Union has sued to have the center closed until the center is cleaned and tested again.
None of the postal workers at the facility have contracted anthrax but about 7,000 employees were given antibiotics as a precaution.
According to federal prosecutors in New York, a man who hoped to get deported back to his native India made up a couple of anthrax letters and said he found them in Grand Central Station in New York City. Nixon Saldanha, of Queens, faces five years each for two counts of making false statements to federal officials if convicted. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said Saldanha printed imitations of the anthrax-tainted letters that were sent to NBC and the New York Post.
New York City's Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said his office would review environmental tests on the dust coming from the World Trade Center to Stuyvesant High School located a few blocks away. He said federal, state and local government had all tested the air quality of the high school and that parents should have no cause for concern. However, concerned parents took it upon themselves to hire a private environmental firm to test the air inside and outside the school. Although the tests varied, tests indoors were found unacceptable seven out of 12 days and outdoor tests were found unacceptable six times.
About twelve New York Port Authority cafeteria workers who had worked at the World Trade Center were charged with stealing money after they allegedly received assistance from the American Red Cross. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said nine of the defendants are in custody and three are being sought.
According to Morgenthau, the New York Port Authority continued to pay the workers after the World Trade center collapsed and later reassigned them to other cafeterias by Sept. 17. The twelve are accused of getting from $550 to $2,420 in assistance from the Red Cross because they allegedly claimed they were unemployed because of the attacks.
An Australian man has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to recover $2 million he claimed he lost because his broker in the World Trade Center disappeared shortly after the buildings collapsed and allegedly took $108 million "to an unknown location."
In addition to recovering his $2 million, Dirk Karreman, of Queensland, is seeking $100 million in punitive damages from First Equity Enterprises. The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn confirmed it is investigating the missing broker and the missing money of more than 1,400 investors.
According to city officials:
-- 3,770 declared missing by police
-- 600 have been declared dead
-- 556 bodies have been identified
-- 434,070 tons of rubble removed
-- 10,739 tons of steel removed
-- 534,809 total tons of debris removed
(Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y. contributed to this story)
