41.   The Kurdish rebel leader detained in Rome was questioned Monday by a French magistrate investigating extortion attempts against Kurdish residents in France.

42.   The man accused of firebombing a crowded subway car in an extortion attempt could not have committed such a crime, his wife insisted Tuesday.

43.   There had been no reports of extortion attempts against the store, he added.

44.   Two Russians accused of firebombing a home as part of an extortion attempt face a new charge of possession of an explosive device.

45.   First Lady Amelita Ramos publicly denounced what was considered a thinly disguised extortion attempt last year, but the culprit was never caught.

46.   A small but lethal amount of potassium cyanide was placed in a shopping mall in central Japan in an apparent extortion attempt, police officials said Wednesday.

47.   Both sides are observing unilateral Christmas ceasefires, but the NPA torched a bus in Cebu last week in an extortion attempt.

48.   The victims of extortion attempts were usually butchers selling ritually slaughtered meat.

49.   The syndicates sometimes resort to kidnapping when their extortion attempts fail.

50.   Twenty-six other Christian farmers have been killed since January in Bual for supposedly resisting the extortion attempts, Detoyato said.