“There are still people coming to the Lakes and wandering about but they are not staying because the fells are closed,” said John Walker, of the Cumbria Crisis Alliance.Bookings at the Wood View hotel in Austwick, near Settle, the epicentre of a foot-and-mouth outbreak, were down 90 per cent “That’s the story everywhere around here I’ve written this year off,” said the landlady, Jenny Suri. “Normally I am having to turn people away on bank holidays.”But there was one bright spot when donkeys returned to the seafront at Weston-super-Mare. Owners called off a strike protest over the use of the beach by pleasure helicopters when the pilots agreed to move their operations.As the number of foot-and-mouth cases begins to tail off, there was concern that city-dwellers still thought that the countryside was off-limits. Peak District National Park’s chief ranger, Sean Prendergast, said: “I’m not sure if we managed to get the message across that the vast majority of the park is now open as usual.”.

The United States may have created it but the Netherlands will tomorrow take the drive-through to new, hazier, heights when the Dutch town of Venlo pushes ahead with plans to cater for drug tourists on four wheels. The United States may have created it but the Netherlands will tomorrow take the drive-through to new, hazier, heights when the Dutch town of Venlo pushes ahead with plans to cater for drug tourists on four wheels.
Plans for two drive-throughs to deal with soaring demand for soft drugs go before civic leaders tomorrow night and officials expect little opposition.Already dubbed “McDope”, the idea is designed to relieve the pressure on the small border town which has become a mecca for dope-smokers from across the German border. “The local political parties are quite positive,” said Elke Haanraadts, the town planner in charge of the project, which is designed to control the town’s drug problem and who expects the meeting to be a formality. “It has been a long process and all the discussions are finished.”Ms Haanraadts said it is impossible to gauge the number of people who visit Venlo each day to buy soft drugs but it often runs into “thousands”. Officials in Venlo estimate that about five million people live within an hour’s drive of the Dutch town.Although the Netherlands has not legalised the supply of marijuana it does tolerate its sale for personal use and licences “coffee shops” which offer it. Belgium has taken a similar liberalising step but the same is not the case in Germany, where drugs laws are much tougher.In theory Venlo has only five licensed coffee shops where customers can buy and smoke their favourite varieties of marijuana and hashish from among dozens on display.But there are a further 60 illegal shops which have sprung up to soak the massive demand and, according to municipal officials, produced a range of problems including a trade in harder drugs. By siting the drive-throughs outside town and closer to the German border they hope to reduce activity in the centre as tourists order their joints “to go”..

The European Union’s foreign policy chief urged political leaders to resume talks to end Macedonia’s crisis yesterday, but as he did so, government forces shelled ethnic Albanian strongholds to drive rebels from the Kosovo border area. The European Union’s foreign policy chief urged political leaders to resume talks to end Macedonia’s crisis yesterday, but as he did so, government forces shelled ethnic Albanian strongholds to drive rebels from the Kosovo border area.
Javier Solana flew in for meetings aimed at ending a political deadlock that has blocked the work of Macedonia’s recently formed national unity government.Last week the main ethnic Albanian parties signed a peace agreement with the militants, angering Slavic partners in the cabinet and triggering fears that the government could fall apart.The Slavic politicians insist that the ethnic Albanian leaders should publicly renounce their deal with the rebels. The deal reportedly provided that the rebels would stop fighting in exchange for amnesty guarantees and the power to veto political decisions on ethnic- Albanian rights.As yesterday’s talks went on, Macedonian army helicopter gunships and artillery pounded rebel positions in three villages in the north. Thousands of villagers have fled the fighting but thousands more are believed to be trapped by the onslaught.The rebels from the so-called National Liberation Army took up arms in February, saying they want more rights for Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians who make up as much as a third of the population.. Turkey is digging in for a confrontation over European defence plans, dealing a blow to British efforts to solve a simmering row over the relationship between the European Union’s new rapid reaction force and Nato. Turkey is digging in for a confrontation over European defence plans, dealing a blow to British efforts to solve a simmering row over the relationship between the European Union’s new rapid reaction force and Nato.
One the eve of an unprecedented meeting in Budapest between Nato and EU foreign ministers, Turkey is demanding a full say over any EU military operation in areas close to its borders.Onur ?men, the Turkish ambassador to Nato, said although his country was outside the EU it needed “to participate, not only to be consulted” over key decisions to deploy the EU rapid reaction force close to its frontiers. Today, Nato’s 19 foreign ministers hold their first formal meeting with EU colleagues to discuss plans for a 60,000-strong force to be operational for peace-keeping duties by 2003.The EU has offered Ankara consultations before and after key decisions on EU defence, insisting that only members of the EU can have the final say.Turkey may not be a member of the EU but is a big player in Nato and has rejected that as insufficient, using its clout within the transatlantic alliance to block a deal giving the EU guaranteed access to Nato planning facilities.Mr ?men said Turkey’s position was special because “13 of the possible 16 scenarios for future crises” which might cause the EU defence force to be deployed are in its sphere of influence.

He rejected claims that his position may be counter-productive and might strengthen the hand of France, which would like to distance the EU defence policy from Nato and create a separate EU planning facility.Turkey claims that at the Nato summit in Washington in April 1999, it was promised the “fullest possible involvement of non-EU European allies in EU-led crisis response operations, building on existing consultation arrangements within the Western European Union [the now-defunct defence body of which Turkey was a full part]“.The European Union’s position, outlined in the Treaty of Nice agreed in December last year, does not give Turkey a role as a participant. The US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is now expected to visit Ankara after this week’s meeting.. The Bush Administration may offer new financial and other incentives to Moscow in an effort to persuade Russia to lift its objections to its missile defence project, US strategists have disclosed. The Bush Administration may offer new financial and other incentives to Moscow in an effort to persuade Russia to lift its objections to its missile defence project, US strategists have disclosed.
As well as direct military aid, the US could be prepared to offer joint anti-missile exercises. It may also propose buying Russian S-300 surface-to-air missiles, which could be integrated into a joint missile defence programme to protect Russia and Europe.Even as these ideas were being floated yesterday in the columns of the New York Times, the prospect of the US missile defence project ­ “son” of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” ­ coming to fruition very soon appeared to receding, fast.Missile defence is seen as one of the earliest victims of last week’s upending of Republican power in the Senate, along with oil-prospecting in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, and several other producer-friendly aspects of Mr Bush’s energy programme.The leader of Senate Democrats, Tom Daschle, who takes over as majority leader when Congress reconvenes on June 4, warned at the weekend that the Republicans would now find it more difficult to push through Mr Bush’s agenda.He said that Democrats would support more research on missile defence ­ the position taken by the former President, Mr Clinton, last autumn ­ but would not back any move to deploy. “The President has said he wants to deploy, and I think that is a premature decision and we certainly wouldn’t be prepared to do that,” said Mr Daschle.While Mr Bush has sometimes allowed that Congress might defeat his proposal to open up the Alaska reserve for prospecting and said that he was prepared to look elsewhere, he has been adamant that missile defence is the shape of America’s future.

And while he has promised “consultation” with Russia, China and US allies in Nato, he has given no real hint of any readiness to compromise.With the likely arrival of Carl Levin as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Joseph Biden at the helm of the Foreign Relations Committee, missile defence will not be given an easy ride. Both are sceptical about its effectiveness and worried about the political fall-out in Europe and Russia.The new confidence of Democrats was illustrated in Lithuania, where a visiting Democratic Senator, Richard Durbin, told reporters that there were many in Congress opposed to missile defence. “Many of us question its reliability,” he said on the fringe of a Nato Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Vilnius.Moscow said that it had not received any US offer to buy its missiles, but would have the appropriate committee consider the idea if it did. But the defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, said that the S-300 was intended for use against aircraft, not missiles. “So I can’t link this to the current disagreement on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.”Both Russia and the US agree that deployment of a missile defence system would breach the ABM Treaty of 1972.