New York City has agreed to pay six hundred and fifty million dollars in compensation to thousands of people who caught up in the immediate aftermath of the attacks in the World Trade Centre in September 2001. It will go to rescue and construction workers, who fell ill after rushing to the scenes of death and destruction surrounded by clouds of smoke and dust. The settlement would compensate more than 10,000 people. The money would come from a federally financed insurance fund of almost one billion dollars that the city controls.The agreement follows a long battle in the courts, but must still be approved by a judge and agreed to by the claimants.