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French terror suspects in phone contact, want 'martyr' death
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DAMMARTIN-EN-GOELE, France (AP) — French security forces struggled with two rapidly developing hostage-taking situations Friday, one northeast of Paris where two terror suspects were holed up with a hostage in a printing plant and the other an attack on a kosher market in Paris.

The two brothers suspected in a deadly terror attack Wednesday were cornered by police Friday inside a printing house in the small industrial town of Dammartin-en-Goele. One lawmaker said they told negotiators they "want to die as martyrs."

Hours later, a gunman seized an unknown number of hostages at a kosher market in eastern Paris, France's anti-terrorism prosecutor said. A police official, who was not authorized to speak to the media about the events, told The Associated Press there were several hostages and wounded in the kosher market.

Police SWAT squads descended on the area near Paris' Porte de Vincennes neighborhood and France's top security official rushed to the scene. The attack came before sundown when the market would have been crowded with shoppers.

France has been high alert for other attacks since the country's worst terror attack in decades — the massacre Wednesday in Paris that left 12 people dead at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. But French officials could not confirm reports of a link between the hostage-taker at the kosher market Friday and the two suspects holed up at the printing house.

French security forces had poured into Dammartin-en-Goele near Charles de Gaulle airport after the two terror suspects hijacked a car early Friday in a nearby town.

One of the men had been convicted of terrorism charges in 2008, the other had visited Yemen. A U.S. official said both brothers — 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi and 34-year-old Said Kouachi — were on the American no-fly list.

"They said they want to die as martyrs," Yves Albarello, a local lawmaker who said he was inside the command post, told French television station i-Tele.

At least three helicopters hovered over the town, and authorities appealed for residents to stay inside. Charles de Gaulle closed two runways to arrivals to avoid interfering in the standoff, an airport spokesman said.

Authorities evacuated a school near the CTF Creation Tendance Decouverte printing plant around midday Friday after the suspects agreed by phone to allow the children safe passage, town spokeswoman Audrey Taupenas told The Associated Press. About an hour later, an AP reporter counted nine large, empty buses headed toward the area, apparently to evacuate the children.

Taupenas said there appeared to be one hostage, a number confirmed by a police official on the scene who was not allowed to discuss the operation.

A man who said he had his car stolen early Friday told Europe 1 the first man who approached him was armed with machine gun and the second man had a gun "with a kind of grenade at the end."

Tens of thousands of French security forces have mobilized to prevent a new terror attack since the assault on Charlie Hebdo, which decimated its editorial staff, including the chief editor who had been under armed guard after receiving death threats for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. He and his police bodyguard were the first to die, witnesses said.

Cherif and Said Kouachi were named as the chief suspects after Said's identity card was left behind in their abandoned getaway car. Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said both suspects had been known to intelligence services before the attack.

Louis Zenon, a 14-year-old who lives close to siege site, watched as helicopters hovered over closed-off industrial area.

"There is a lot of fear," he said, adding everyone he knew was staying home with their doors and shutters closed. "We're scared. The schools are being evacuated."

A senior U.S. official said Thursday the elder Kouachi had traveled to Yemen, although it was unclear whether he was there to join extremist groups like al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based there. Witnesses said he claimed allegiance to the group during the attack.

The younger brother, Cherif, was convicted of terrorism charges in 2008 for his links to a network sending jihadis to fight American forces in Iraq.

Both were also on the U.S. no-fly list, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said. The American officials also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss foreign intelligence publicly.

Nine people, members of the brothers' entourage, have been detained for questioning in several regions. In all, 90 people, many of them witnesses to the grisly assault on the satirical weekly, were questioned for information on the attackers, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

A third suspect, 18-year-old Mourad Hamyd, surrendered at a police station Wednesday evening after hearing his name linked to the attacks. His relationship to the Kouachi brothers was unclear.

The Kouachi brothers, born in Paris to Algerian parents, were well-known to French counterterrorism authorities. Cherif Kouachi, a former pizza deliveryman, had appeared in a 2005 French TV documentary on Islamic extremism and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for trying to join up with fighters battling in Iraq.

Charlie Hebdo had long drawn threats for its depictions of Islam, although it also satirized other religions and political figures. The weekly paper had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, and a sketch of Islamic State's leader was the last tweet sent out by the irreverent newspaper, minutes before the attack. Nothing has been tweeted since.

Eight journalists, two police officers, a maintenance worker and a visitor were killed in the attack.

Charlie Hebdo planned a special edition next week, produced in the offices of another paper.

Authorities around Europe have warned of the threat posed by the return of Western jihadis trained in warfare. France counts at least 1,200 citizens in the war zone in Syria — headed there, returned or dead. Both the Islamic State group and al-Qaida have threatened France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim population.

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Raging wildfires in South force evacuations in Tennessee
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Fires blaze on the hills above Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Tuesday morning. Bruce McCamish Photography | The Covington News

ATLANTA (AP) — Raging wildfires fueled by high winds forced the evacuation of thousands of people and damaged hundreds of buildings in a popular resort town on the border of the Smoky Mountains National Park as National Guard troops arrived early Tuesday to help overwhelmed firefighters.

Rain had begun to fall in some areas, but experts predicted it would not be enough to end the relentless drought that has spread across several Southern states and provided fuel for fires now burning for weeks in states including Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.

The storms appeared to be taking aim at the nearly 28,000-acre Rough Ridge Fire in north Georgia and the nearly 25,000-acre Rock Mountain Fire that began in Georgia and then spread deep into North Carolina.

In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, officials said hundreds of homes and other buildings, including a 16-story hotel, were damaged or destroyed by flames. And preliminary surveys indicated that Westgate Resorts, with more than 100 buildings, and Ober Gatlinburg were both likely destroyed, according to a news release Tuesday morning.

Emergency officials ordered evacuations in downtown Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and in other areas of Sevier County near the Smoky Mountains while crews continue to battle the blaze, which also had crept to the edge of the Dollywood theme park. About 14,000 residents and visitors were evacuated from Gatlinburg alone, officials said.

No deaths have been reported, though several people were hospitalized with burns, emergency officials said in the news release.

Officials say there are about 1,200 people sheltering at the Gatlinburg Community Center and the Rocky Top Sports Park. Several other shelters have opened to house those forced from their homes. TV broadcasts showed residents streaming out of town just as rain started to wet roads.

Workers at an aquarium evacuated because of the wildfires were concerned about the thousands of animals housed there. Ryan DeSears, general manager of Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, told WBIR-TV the building was still standing and all workers had been evacuated late Monday. However, he said workers were anxious to return to check on the well-being of the 10,518 animals.

The rain forecast "puts the bull's-eye of the greatest amounts right at the bull's-eye of where we've been having our greatest activity," said Dave Martin, deputy director of operations for fire and aviation management with the southern region of the U.S. Forest Service.

The projected rainfall amounts "really lines up with where we need it," Martin said Monday. "We're all knocking on wood."

After weeks of punishing drought, any rain that falls should be soaked up quickly, forecasters said. It will provide some relief but won't end the drought — or the fire threat, they said.

Drought conditions will likely persist, authorities said. The problem is that rainfall amounts have been 10 to 15 inches below normal during the past three months in many parts of the South, authorities said.

"I think we racked up deficits that are going to be too much to overcome with just one storm system," said Mark Svoboda, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.

"I would say it's way too early to say 'Yes, this drought is over,'" Svoboda said. "Does it put a dent in it? Yes, but we have a long ways to go."

The rain also brings danger because strong winds at the leading edge of the storms can topple trees and limbs that can kill and injure firefighters, he said.

In Mississippi, trees were reported downed Monday in nearly 20 counties across the state. Sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts of more than 50 mph were reported and more than 2 inches of rain fell in some areas.

Power outages peaked at more than 23,000 statewide in Mississippi. Powerlines downed by winds sparked grass fires in four counties, said Greg Flynn, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The storms moved across Alabama on Monday night and fell on Georgia during the overnight hours. High wind warnings were issued for mountainous areas in northern parts of Georgia.

In South Carolina, the stormy forecast was giving hope to firefighters battling a blaze in the northwest corner of the state. The South Carolina Forestry Commission hopes to contain the Pinnacle Mountain fire by the middle of next week.
More rain was expected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
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Fuller reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Rebecca Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Amy in Jackson, Mississippi; Beth Campbell in Louisville, Kentucky; and Jack Jones in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.