City counters con men with its own memento

The families of the more than 5600 victims of the World Trade Center attack will each receive a wooden urn with dirt from the mass graveyard.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday that the city had settled on the idea after hearing reports of con men peddling phoney mementos from Ground Zero to family members.

His announcement came as a New York court declared 41 of the trade center missing legally dead. All worked at the Cantor Fitzgerald bond trading firm, which lost 700 employees.

The process of obtaining a death certificate for a missing person has been hastened from a few years to a few days for the benefit of the victims' families. The move came after officials acknowledged that it could take months to recover and identify victims of the fiery disaster and that some of the dead might never be found.

Mr Giuliani said that 1202 families whose relatives were still missing in the ruins had applied for death certificates.

After nearly a week of bickering, the state and the city struck a deal to jointly oversee the distribution of the more than $US600 million ($1.47 billion) in contributions collected for the victims and their families.

Meanwhile, a pet cat has been found alive after 18 days without food in an apartment almost destroyed when the twin towers collapsed.

Rescuers found Precious, a Persian, in the remains of the apartment she had never left just a block from the remains of the towers.

The cat had eye injuries and burned paws. Precious had also lost two pounds (900g) - and one of her nine lives.

The cat's owner, DJ Kerr, said: "It's unbelievable. It's a miracle. I can't believe she's alive."

DJ Kerr and husband Steve had left their apartment in a seven-storey building in Liberty St, across the road from the World Trade Center, for a long weekend when the terrorists struck.

Their loft had its sheet glass windows blown out and was filled with metal, dust and smoke. They have been told it will be nine months before they can move back in.

They had given up their pet for dead until rescuers responded to reports of a cat crying on the roof of the building. They used a recovery dog to corner the cat and bring her to safety.

She was taken to a SPCA van which had been treating search and rescue dogs for exhaustion and exposure.

SPCA chief Roy Gross said: "This is the first good story we've heard.

"She has sores on her mouth from drinking out of puddles. She's dirty and dehydrated and her eyes were injured, but she's going to be okay."

DJ Kerr said: "She lost two pounds and her little paws are burned on the bottom because the top of the building was so hot, but she's going to live.

"I gave her her favourite food - sliced turkey. She was eating so fast because she was starved to death, and she's drinking a lot of water.

"But she's so happy, she's just purring."

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