The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, March 01, 1993, Page 2, Image 2
£—=_ NEWS DIGEST aas. Explosion will shut down World Trade Center for a week Businesses, banks scramble, relocate after explosion NEW YORK—The World Trade Center bomb blast will shut it down for at least a week, officials said Sun day as foreign banks, shippers, law firms and other tenants scrambled to set up shop elsewhere. New York’sneighboring commod ity exchanges planned to reopen Mon day, however, under a special exemp tion from safety officials. Butall other businesses in the landmark 110-story twin towers needed to relocate under desperately short notice. Fifty-thousand people work at the complex which gets an average of 80,000 daily visitors. Like a vertical city at Manhattan’s southern tip,it’s become critical to the region’s economy, with commercial tentacles that extend around the globe. The cost of the damage, reloca tion , and lost business was impossible to ascertain Sunday. Many businesses spent the weekend trying to grapple with the damage caused by Friday’s noontime explosion in an underground parking garage. The FBI said Sunday a bomb caused the blast, but would not speculate on who detonated the bomb, or why. The blast killed five people, in jured more than 1,000, knocked out the center’s emergency command center and spewed thick black smoke into the two towers and adjacent build ings, including one housing five com modity exchanges. Stanley Brezenoff, head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jer sey, which operates the complex, said the towers would stay shut more than a week until their safety is secured and essential services are restored. The two skyscrapers, the world’s second tallest buildings after Chicago’s Sears Tower, are home to more than 900 businesses — from Mrs. Field’s Cookies to Dean Witter, Discover & Co., to offices of the world’s largest bank, Dai Ichi Kangyo Bank of Japan. Officials at the exchanges, critical markets in the trade of basic resources like oil, gold and coffee, said Sunday they got special permission to operate from fire, police and city agencies. Jim Neal, general manager of the Commodities Exchange Center, said delay in opening the Futures Ex change, Commodity Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, Coffee Sugar & Cocoa Exchange and Cotton Exchange would have posod serious consequences. “It’s critically important to the world economy to open. The con tracts are worth in the billions of dollars,” Neal said. Cult slays four agents in firefight WACO, Texas — A gun battle erupted Sunday as law officers tried to arrest the leader of a heavily armed religious cult. At least four federal agents were killed and at least 14 others injured. Authorities had a warrant to search the Branch Davidians’ com pound for guns and explosives and an arrest warrant for its leader, Vernon Howell, said Les Stanford of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington, D.C. The fate of the people in the compound was not known. Howell, the current member of a cult that dates back more than 50 years, claims to be Christ. “They came right in, paiked right by the front door and made a frontal assault on the building,” said John McLemore, a KWTX-TV reporter who witnessed the shootout. “A couple of them were shot when they were inside,” he said. nr “They jumped out of windows and were dragged off to the side.” He said the building was riddled with bullet holes. Cult members and law officers negotiated a cease-fire about 45 minutes after the incident began. For the next several hours, ambu lances and helicopters removed the wounded. Bomb victims remembered for their respectable lives NEW YORK—Times were good for John DiGiovanni. He was working hard and enjoying his life. All things seemed possible— even a good season for the Mets base ball team. “He loved that team,” recalled his brother, Ernest DiGiovanni. “Lived and died with them.” Then, on Friday, John DiGiovanni parked his car at the World Trade Center. DiGiovanni, 45, of suburban Val ley Stream was among the five people who perished when a bomb exploded in an underground garage below the 110-story twin towers in lower Man -44 I’m so numb that I can’t feel anger, Ernest DiGbvanni, victim’s brother -9t - haltan. Authority, the trade center’s operator. Also killed in the blast were Steve . Knapp, 48, of New York; Monica L1 The FBI is blaming a bomb for the Smith, 34, of Seaford; Robert blast and investigators logged 40'calls Kirkpatrick, 61. of Suffem; and Wil- claiming responsibility, but Sunday it liam Macko, in his 40s, of Bayonne, could only be speculated who did it N.J. — all employees of the Por* and why. Ernest DiGiovanni believes his brother, a dental equipment sales man, Was making a call in the area and decided to park his car. DiGiovanni traveled throughout the Northeast for his work. “He was so consumed by work,” his brother said. “Always on the go.” The family bought the house in 1949, two years after DiGiovanni was bom. He went to school at Valley Stream Central High, where he played center field on the baseball team. He later graduated from Hofstra University and got married. After a divorce, he moved back in with his mother. Dark, fit and slender, DiGiovanni devoted nearly all his time to work, to a small circle of friends — and to the Mets. “He really had a zest for life,” his brother said. Ernest DiGiovanni, a film consult ant living in Lake Ridge, Va., was sitting in an New York restaurant Friday night watching news reports about the bombing when his wife called to tell him hisbrotherwasdead. As he rushed to care for his mother, Ernest DiGiovanni said he was not yet thinking about the dark forces that took such a bright life. “I’m so numb that I can’t feel anger,” he said. | Well Give You $10 j |To Start A Good Book j If you're looking for a checking account that fits your lifestyle, check with us. At Metropolitan Federal we offer seven different checking accounts to I suit your needs. Bring in this coupon and we'll deposit the first $10.00 into your new checking account. Stop into the Metropolitan Federal office in I I Downtown Lincoln and we'll get you started on a good book. ! ipl(J ! Toward Your New Checking Account The Heartland’s Bank” < .*■ Federal office luted Mow and well ocpusii IN1BIW t«i> mw UMnEMM i I aorount Offer expire* May 20,1993. ' . i.' » * • • . > . ; •"••• if I ,^n .1 .11 ^ ‘ • - A I l @ 238 South 13th • Lincoln (Downtown) • 473-3521 B* I I_I Leaflets miss mark in Bosma food supplies may miss, too Russia agrees to provide arms, missiles to Serbia, Serbian-controlled areas SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — The U.S. military launched a major relief effort in besieged eastern Bosnia, dropping a million leaflets saying airdrops of badly needed hu manitarian aid were on the way. But Bosnian officials said Sunday that some of the messages missed the mark. Local officials said resi dents feared the bundles of food and medicine also might not land in the intended vil lages. Ham radio operators in ——— . the beleaguered eastern town of Cerska were issuing urgent reports that rebel Serbs had overrun seven surrounding villages. In another development, the Observer news paper reported in London that Russia has agreed .* to supply $360 million worth of arms, including sophisticated missiles, to Serbia and Serb-con trolled areas of Bosnia and Croatia. Such an agreement would violate a U.N. arms embargo. The airdrop aims mostly to help Muslims suffering from cold and hunger in enclaves almost entirely cut off from relief for months, but they will also provide aid for Serbs and Croats. The aerial aid mission signals greater U.S. involvement in the war-tom Balkans. A 19 member U.S. government teamarrived in Zagreb, Croatia, on Sunday. It will spread out across Bosnia to identify shortfalls in aid deliv eries, a U.S. Embassy statement said. U.S. officials, who said last week that the drops could beg in as soon as Sunday, would say only that they would probably begin in the next day or two. They refused to be specific for fear that the planes might be fired on. Two giant C-130 Hercules planes returned! early Sunday to Rhein-Main Air Base in Ger many after releasing the leaflets at four points over Bosnia. They flew more than 10,000 feet above the Bosnian countryside under cover of darkness to minimize the risk posed by Serb anti-aircraft guns and shoulder-fired missiles. However, officials in some of the villages said Sunday that no leaflets had been found. If the leaflets missed their targets, that would illustrate the difficulty of making accurate drops from high altitudes. Fadil Heljic, a ham radio operator in the eastern enclave of Zepa. said “not one” leaflet landed on the town or 34,000 and people were “slowly losing hope.” “They ’re afraid that the airdrop bundles will end the same as the leaflets,” he said by ham radio in an interview conducted from Zagreb, Croatia. NelSra&kan Editor Chris Hopfensperger Night News Editors Stephanie Purdy 472-1766 Mike Lewie Managing Editor Alan Phelps Steve Smith Assoc. News Editors Wendy Molt LortStonea Assoc. News Editor/ Tom Maine III Art Director Scott Maurer FAX NUMBFR 479-17S1 Lincolrf NE1 MSS!fffi!/hSFSii!1i0?0> *pt*>t*,*d ** **• UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34.1400 R St., . •’HattosSSSS,SsJ~sssB£aa 47»«» «-- • Fiedle^43^78«2dy Fraday The Public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Doug Subscription price Is $50 for one year. Second^lass^aostagepidatUncSnjslE DallyNebra8kan>Nebra4KaUnion34,1400RSt..Lincoln.NE 68588-0448 ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1893 DAILY NEBRASKAN