New York City

Workers at ground zero planning final day at site

Rescue workers and city officials calculate the last load of World Trade Center debris will be hauled out in late May or early June, and a ceremony is being planned to mark the completion of the work.

Less than 90,000 tons of debris remains at the bottom of the giant crater after nearly nine months of toil since Sept. 11, when the twin towers were reduced to 1.7 million tons of burning rubble 10 stories high.

Representatives of the Fire Department, the Police Department, the mayor’s office and other agencies will meet today to settle on the final day and decide how to commemorate it.

Afghanistan

Army general to take over command of most U.S. troops

An Army general will be sent to Afghanistan soon to oversee most of the U.S. troops operating there, the Pentagon announced.

Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill will head Combined Joint Task Force 180 (Afghanistan), military officials said. The task force will have its headquarters in Afghanistan and oversee all U.S. military operations in the country.

Army Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, has been directing the war in Afghanistan from his headquarters in Tampa, Fla. He decided to delegate some of those duties to McNeill so Franks could have more time to focus on issues in the rest of his command area, which stretches from Pakistan to Iraq.

New York City

Prosecutors file action in police torture case

Prosecutors asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to reinstate obstruction-of-justice convictions against three officers in the 1997 stationhouse torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.

Prosecutors submitted the request to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which earlier this year threw out the convictions against Charles Schwarz, Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder for lack of evidence.

The main attacker, Justin Volpe, admitted he sodomized Louima with a broken broomstick in a fit of rage. Volpe is serving 30 years.

JERUSALEM

Incursion damage estimated

Israeli’s military offensive last month against Palestinian areas of the West Bank resulted in $361 million in wrecked roads, squashed cars, broken computers and destroyed buildings, along with about eight times that amount in indirect damage, according to a report released Wednesday by donor countries and international agencies.

According to the group’s report, the West Bank city of Nablus suffered the greatest direct damage, estimated at $114 million, with almost half of that linked to destruction at cultural sites.

The West Bank cities of Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem each suffered heavy damage, ranging from $23.8 million to $82.7 million.