Albany Democrat-Herald from Albany, Oregon • 23

SECTION (I EnvironmentC3 BusinessC6 EditorialC8-9 Mid-Valley Sunday February 17, 2002 EM. In Brief sfteps mip PGiinDnrjBrfiiDinios pinssisini Five people killed in grenade blasts several miles from American base. By Jim Gomez The Associated Press TABIAWAN, Philippines Grenade blasts ripped through a market and a movie theater in the southern Philippines on Saturday, killing at least five people as more U.S. troops arrived under tight security to join a growing American force on a new front in the campaign against terrorism. The blasts one a few miles from a base where U.S.

military personnel are staying underscored dangers they could face while advising and training Philippine troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group U.S. officials say has been linked with al-Qaida. Two C-130 transport planes with 30 to 40 special forces troops aboard flew in from Okinawa, Japan, the second landing on a darkened runway in Zamboanga city with its lights extinguished. It was unloaded with the engines running and then took off again. Job, an island 75 miles southwest of Basilan where an Abu Sayyaf faction has a presence, killing at least five people and injuring more than 40 near a crowded market, authorities said.

Hours later, a grenade exploded at a movie theater in downtown Zamboanga, the region's largest city, injuring at least five people watching "The Lord of the Rings." The theater is about 4 miles from the Philippine military's Southern Command headquarters, where the U.S. personnel are staying. See PEUPHfiES on C2 The soldiers are joining 250 Americans already in Zamboanga for a six-month exercise focusing on Basilan, an island about 20 miles south of Zamboanga where the guerrillas have been holding an American missionary couple captive for months. The U.S. contingent is to grow to 660 in the coming weeks, including about 160 special forces troops who are the only American personnel allowed to travel to Basilan.

An advance team flew to the island Saturday to get set up at a Philippine army camp. One grenade exploded at dawn on ii m.m win I 'I 'Hgfc, mi Associated Press Katherine Smith's burned car sits in a garage at the FBI office Thursday in Memphis, Tenn. Was mysterious death linked to terrorism? Crash kills woman about to testify against six men charged with trying to obtain false identification but evidence suggests the crash was no accident French say adieu to the franc Seven-centuries-old currency goes out of circulation tonight. By Elaine Ganley The Associated Press PARIS The first French francs bought freedom for King Jean le Bon, held hostage by the English in 1360. But by midnight tonight the franc won't even buy a cup of coffee.

Without fanfare or tears, France is preparing to say "adieu" to its old currency, to be fully replaced by the euro Monday. The French franc has been circulating side-by-side with the euro since the new currency was introduced Jan. 1 in 12 European countries. But on Monday, the franc will cease to be legal tender for purchases. Those left in the backs of drawers can be cashed in at banks for euros until June 30.

Procrastinators can change coins at the Bank of France for another three years, and notes for another 10 years. More than 95 percent of cash payments are already being made in euros, Finance Minister Laurent Fabius said this past week. So quickly have the French adapted to the new money that when franc coins roll across the zinc countertop at the Veronese Cafe, "We say, 'Hey, I've, seen that somewhere Caldagues said. The first franc, a gold coin, was ere- ated in 1360 to pay off ransom to the English to free King Jean Le Bon, held for four years during the 100 Years-War. The franc was later eclipsed by the ecu and other currencies, to be permanently revived in 1795.

In France, alas, there was little grieving for the old currency. "The two currencies were a real hassle," said Danielle Boyer of the St. Philippe du Roule cafe on the Right Bank of the capital. "It will be a big holiday once it's over." Two-thirds of franc notes have already been collected and destroyed punched with holes, then ground to shreds or carted into the mountains of central France to be burned in inciner- ators owned by the Bank of France. It's an ignoble end for bills that carry beloved symbols of France, like the The Little Prince," the children's book character, who appeared on the sky blue 50 franc note.

Tw polls published today show that up to half of French had no regrets about losing the national currency 61 percent of those polled by the IFOP firm and 51 percent of those polled by ILM DraftWorldwide About 41 percent of the French have squirreled away some francs as souvenirs, according to the IFOP poll. Explosion kills three in Israeli mall KARNEI SHOMRON, West Bank A suicide bomber blew himself up in a pizzeria in a shopping center crowded with Israeli teen-agers Saturday, killing himself and two others and wounding 27 people, six of seriously. The blast occurred in an open-air mall in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, marking the first time a settlement was targeted in such a bombing. The day's violence began earlier Saturday when four Palestinians were killed, three in a gunbattle with Israeli troops and one in a car explosion that Palestinians blamed on Israel. The Islamic militant group Hamas said it would retaliate for the blast, which killed a Hamas leader.

A radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for Saturday's mall explosion. The claim came in a phone call to the Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera. The mall blast went off shortly before 8 p.m. in the Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron in the West Bank. "I heard a large explosion and I saw everyone running away," said Rachel Cohen, owner of a flower shop near the Eizza restaurant.

Cohen said er husband, who uses a wheelchair and couldn't flee the scene, was injured in the blast. Egyptian man sentenced for lying NEW YORK An Egyptian man who flew to Kennedy International Airport a week after Sept. 11 with a fake pilot's uniform and license has been sentenced to six months in jail. District Judge Charles Sifton said Friday that imposing a longer sentence would improperly punish Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk since prosecutors, though suspicious of his terrorist ties, had not proven Kishk intended any wrongdoing. Kishk, 21, was found guilty last month of making false statements in federal court.

A jury acquitted him on a separate count of trying to impersonate a pilot. Kishk arrived at Kennedy International Airport Sept. 19 on a commercial flight from Spain that originated in Cairo. During a routine search of his luggage, immigration agents discovered a fake Federal Aviation Administration document giving him medical clearance to pilot aircraft, prosecutors said. Investigators said they also found a homemade pilot's uniform and a forged certificate from a Florida flight school.

Kishk denied that he planned to attend flight school, and said he had intended to go to business school. His lawyer said that he was an aspiring pilot who had wanted to impress a girlfriend. After recall, 60,000 need re vaccination RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -As many as 60,000 Brazilians may hive to get revaccinated against Hepatitis A after the company that makes the vaccine Mid some doses weren't potent enough, a health official said Saturday. Merck 4 Co initiated an international recall of the vac cine Nov. It after tests showed some dosrt that had been sold to patients didn't provide enough protection against the Lver disease, the Food and Dm Administration said on its Web se.

The taoce as recalled from Braid starting Dec 4. A spcikesnua for the White house Station, -based pfarmacfytical company coo-L-nH Merck recalied tarn VAQTA vacciae that had been packaj-d a synrxes that proUem was do! related Ce tacts that as packaged si vuis Re am VJi he dl ret lav ar rxrra'-ws ee Eiarr rt sets are jds tvrtrm. TV reti3 sis averted krvtzx. srtTral E-jtt Asas Tf-e As sac Ptm 3 49, a state driver's license examiner. Smith had been scheduled to be arraigned last Monday on federal charges of helping five Middle Eastern men from New York obtain fake Tennessee driver's licenses.

One of the men, authorities say, drove from New York to Memphis on Sept. 11. And one of them, at the time of his arrest, was carrying in his wallet a pass to the trade center dated Sept. 5. By Allen G.

Breed and Bill Poovey The Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. -Shortly before 1 a.m. last Sunday, witnesses saw flames erupt from the back seat of a 1992 Acura Legend as it crawled along a two-lane road skirting farm fields in the little Tennessee town of Pipcrton. The driver breathed in the flames, her lungs searing, as the car veered off the road and came to rest against a utility pole near the Mississippi state line. There were no skid marks or furrows in the grass to indicate the driver had hit the brakes.

A witness rushed up and Mohammed Fares, left, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad. center, and Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin arrive at the Federal Building for a court appearance Wednesday in Memphis. Tenn. was this a series of bizarre coincidences? The possibility of a really interesting story exists here," FBI Agent George W. Bokis said last week, brushing soot from is hands as he walked away from the charred vehicle impounded in a garage.

Then again, he said, it could turn out to be a hole lot less than people On the morning of Feb. authorities say, a gray Dodge Durango and a white Toyota Avakm arrived in Memiihis from New York and parked the motor vehicles office. pulled open the car door, but the driver was not moving. She appeared to already be dead. When the first volunteer firefighters arrived, the car was engulfed in flames.

From the very beginning, it didn't look right, said Steve Kellett, chief of the Piperton Volunteer Fire Department, The car had been moving too skm ly for the accident to cause much damage. The wooden pole was barely dented. The radiator was pushed in a few tank had not ruptured. The cardboard packaging for a replacement headlamp in the trunk was barely scorched. What could have caused a fire so severe that it cooked the passenger compartment of the sedan down to the frame, burned the driver's arms and legs off, and left her charred beyond recognition? If someone had been trying to make this death look Lke an accident, they had done a lousy job Police began investigating the death as a homicide.

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