European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 28, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 b the stars and stripes saturday december 28, 1991italians steer around Odd even edict Rome apr major italian cities Are betting they can lower dangerous Winter pollution Levels by limiting the number of cars on the Road a Odd numbered License plates one Day even the next. This government game of Auto Roulette runs counter to italians View of driving As a divine right and has kept police Busy writing up thousands of citations. At least 11 italian cities have imposed Alt mate Day driving rules this Winter on High pollution Days including Rome Milan Naples and Turin. Venice even ordered restrictions on the motorboats plying its canals. The Lagoon City sold fashioned hand paddled gondolas Are exempt however. Some motorists have tried to evade the Odd even Rule by using paint tape or mud to cover or alter the last number on their plates. Such Dodges reflect the traditional flouting of traffic Laws in a country where most sidewalks double As parking lots and where the right of Way on chaotic streets appears to be determined by courage alone. But losing at the latest traffic game can be costly. Fines Range from $44 for driving around with the wrong plate to $888 for altering plates. One Day alone this month police in Rome wrote a record 12,983 citations. Environment minister Giorgio Ruf folo is behind the restrictions. He has pressured the cities to reduce dangerous Levels of Carbon monoxide Fulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide which cause health risks and eat away at Public monuments. Ruffolo maintains the rigid Odd and even enforcement can lower pollution Levels 20 to 30 percent. Italians Arentt so sure. Quot the Only effect is there is less traffic fewer people moving around fewer customers for the shops a said Hebe Koifman the owner of a leather goods store in Rome. Many italians with two cars can defeat the rules if the cars have Odd and even plates. Others arrange to borrow a car with the Correct plate. Thousands obtain exemptions because of work or political clout. A it is a useless temporary measure to combat pollution a said Maurizio Cor Tessi a roman taxi Driver. Quot but it has been Good for taxi  Italy has been slow to impose Lon term measures. Only one car in 100 has a catalytic converter that allows it to Burn less polluting unleaded gasoline. Under european Community regulations All cars sold after Jan. 1, 1993, will have the converter. But old cars will still spew noxious fumes and the average italian car is on the Road for 14 . Leaving Subic Bay by end of 92 Manila Philippines apr the Navy will leave the Subic Bay naval facilities by the end of 1992, a philippine official said Friday ending nearly a Century of american military presence in this former Colony. Subic is the largest american military base in East Asia and together with the recently closed Clark a constituted the United states largest overseas military installation. Subic s strategic value had been called into question this year by the decline of soviet and chinese military threats in the Region and by the damage the bases sustained during the eruption of mount Pinatubo last summer. President Corazon Aquino a chief aide Franklin Dri Lon made the closure announcement at a news conference after he and . Ambassador Frank Wisner failed to Iron out differences blocking a lease Extension. A main Point of Contention was the Philippines ban on nuclear weapons at the facility. Drilon said the announcement would not preclude further talks after a new government takes office june 30. But a . Official in Manila the Philippines capital said that the United states had no intention of continuing the talks and that some equipment was already being removed from the base. He said the withdrawal would be accelerated Quot very very  in announcing the withdrawal Drilon said Quot the Friendly and cordial relations Between the United states and the Philippines will  despite the decline in Subico a strategic value . Officials said the facility a location excellent deep water Harbor and storage capability had made it a valuable military asset. It contained the Navy a largest warehouse overseas. Americans military presence in the Philippines began in 1898 when the United states seized the islands from Spain. Until this year there were six . Military installations in the country. Clark a the other major . Base was closed last month after officials determined repairs caused by the Volcano would be too costly. Four smaller installations were returned to the Philippines earlier this year in Hopes of winning an Extension for Subic and Clark. . Officials would not say when major units would be removed. But . Sources speaking on condition of anonymity said it would probably be accelerated after the bases schools for dependents end their academic year on june 12,1992. Subic a 60,000-acre base 50 Miles West of Manila has about 5,800 troops and 4,500 dependents. Closing of the base will Cost thousands of filipinos their jobs. Most of the 300,000 residents of Olon Gapo adjacent to Subic rely on the base for their livelihood. Bombs Lone casualty a worker inspects damage to a statue in Seville Spain on thursday after a bomb blast severed the statue s Arm. No one was injured in the explosion. The Basque separatist group Eta has said it plans to disrupt expo 92, an exposition in the City opening in  s 90th birthday stirs German sentiments Berlin apr German Media and officials paid tribute Friday to Marlene Dietrich on her 90th birthday calling the Berlin born actress the Only world Star to emerge from Germany. Dietrich left Germany for Hollywood in the 1930s, already a Star from her sultry role As Lola Lola in the Blue Angel and As a fervent anti nazi she took . Citizenship. She has lived for years As a Recluse in Paris. Walter Schobert director of the Frankfurt film museum wrote in the National daily die Welt that some germans have never forgiven Dietrich for switching allegiance and performing for american troops in world War ii. Quot Many do not want to accept that her engagement in the War was nothing other than her form of loyalty and love for her old Homeland. It is High time to understand that a Schobert wrote. Dietrich was Quot the Only world Star that Germany produced Quot he wrote. When she returned to perform in Berlin in 1960, there were pickets carrying signs saying a Marlene go Home and some editorials still matted her a traitor though her performance was universally acclaimed and she took 11 curtain Calls. Federal Interior minister Rudolf setters sent her a birthday Telegram praising her a fascinating acting  Seiters recalled that her name graces a Hall in the old Potsdam film studios where she worked before leaving Germany a and this preserves the memory of you and of a significant piece of German film  radio stations played her recordings Friday and three of her films were shown on television along with a documentary on her life by Maximilian Schell. Several newspapers printed appraisals of her career noting she had retained a link with German language and literature despite her break with her native country. A we retain beside her films and her songs a voice wounded lonely and Strong a wrote Der Tage Spiegel a Berlin  Leader vanishes from Public View Amsterdam Netherlands a less than 24 hours after the real Mikhail s. Gorbachev resigned As soviet president his statue mysteriously disappeared from Madame Tussaud a Wax museum police said. Employees at the museum in the Center of Amsterdam reported the statue As missing at noon thursday about an hour after opening time police spokeswoman Ellie Floral said. The statue was in the museum when it opened she said. A we think its been stolen but no one saw it happen a Floral said adding there had been no Ransom demands or claims of responsibility. The museum was crowded with Holiday tourists when the figure was taken from a room of former world leaders where he stood beside Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The Wax works moved him there last week in anticipation of his resignation. Before that he stood beside president Bush and other current political leaders in the main exhibition Hall