But we have good local customers, so we can’t complain.”Many of those who do venture further afield into France and Belgium still pause at Cite d’Europe on the way back because of its proximity to the Channel Tunnel and ferries. Geoff Searis, 58, an engineer from Oxford, was returning from a weekend in Bruges He said: “We’ve had a great time. P&O confirmed that many shoppers were now venturing further afield from Calais. “The duty-free thing has obviously tailed off a bit, but people still come because they find more interesting specialist shops and good prices,” said a spokesman.But while Cite d’Europe is still booming, Calaisis slightly depressed, with trade only around the same levels as last year. “I aim to be fully booked each weekend, although it is difficult to predict, because everyone leaves it until the last minute.”According to both Eurotunnel and P&O, bookings are holding up well this season. Last weekend, Arras, which was holding its Christmas market and is only about an hour from Calais, and Le Touquet, were both very busy, despite heavy rain.” In the Belgian town of Bruges, easily accessible via Eurostar or by road, Michel Maertens, a spokesman for the local hotels, said he expected a 10 to 15 per cent rise in room bookings over the next two weeks. Boulogne boasts dozens of small, interesting shops in its Old Town, food markets and good restaurants, as well as an out-of-town hypermarket for bulk wine-buying, which makes it a plausible alternative to Bluewater or Brent Cross for shoppers from London.Diana Hounslow, from the tourism office for Calais agreed: “It is a bit too early for figures yet, but everything suggests it is going to be a very good season.

Towns easily accessible via the Channel Tunnel or Dover ferries, are competing for the British consumers, laying on special events, such as Christmas Markets, ice rinks and fairs.”We are confident this is going to be a very good year indeed, with trade up as much as 20 per cent over last year,” said Nick Stephens, spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce in Boulogne. And all despite the fact that prices are no longer as low as they once were.
All the signs are that, this year, business in towns such as Boulogne and Arras in France and Bruges, in western Belgium, will be up by between 15 and 20 per cent over last year. Amid the crush on Britain’s high streets today, traders will be watching anxiously for signs that Christmas trade has finally taken off. Also today, at the Carrefour hypermarche on the outskirts of Calais, the aisles will be heaving with British buyers.

The same story is repeated elsewhere in north-east France and southern Belgium: this weekend the hotels are almost full and the fromageries and boutiques will be enjoying a sales surge. However Angela Merkel, Germany’s new conservative Chancellor, sought to allay Polish grievances on a recent visit to Warsaw when she offered Poland the prospect of some form of participation in the pipeline project.. Moscow’s failure to route the pipeline through Ukraine has been interpreted as a punishment for the country’s orange revolution last year, which caused Kiev to break its traditional links with Russia.In Poland, newspapers have derided the deal as the “Schr?-Putin Pact”. Poland, in particular, has insisted that the pipeline was pushed through without either Warsaw or the rest of the EU being consulted.Poland and the Baltic states had hoped that the pipeline would be built overland, through their territories, enabling them to profit from lucrative transit fees. Germany receives a third of all its oil and gas imports from Russia.Michael Glos, the German Industry Minister, said the project provided an important framework which would enable German and Russian concerns to “develop their energy partnership”.However the project has been strongly criticised by Poland, the Ukraine and the Baltic states, which claim that it in effect cuts them off from the new Russian gas supplies that will stem from the pipeline.

It is scheduled to come on stream in 2010, when it will provide vast supplies of Siberian gas to meet a projected doubling of Europe’s gas demands over the next 10 years.
The project was agreed under a deal reached between Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schr? and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in September last year.Yesterday it was formally launched at a ceremony in the northern Russian town of Babayevo, when the first two sections of the pipeline were welded together.Alexey Miller, chairman of the Russian gas consortium Gazprom, which is the main shareholder, described the pipeline as a “great European project” and as a “new export route that will increase Europe’s energy security”.It was also announced that Mr Schr?, who was accused of timing the announcement of his pipeline deal with Mr Putin to boost his chances in Germany’s September general election, will take up a post on Gazprom’s supervisory board, where he will act as an adviser.The project, which involves the German companies BASF and E.on, will exploit Russia’s massive 48,000 billion cubic metre gas reserves, which account for at least a quarter of the world’s total supplies. The €4bn (£2.7bn) pipeline will join the Russian port of Wyborg with the German city of Greifswald. Construction of a 744-mile gas pipeline linking Germany and Russia under the Baltic Sea began yesterday despite protests from Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states which argue that they have been by-passed by the project. An urgent warning was issued by police yesterday morning after an adult female chimp broke free from its compound at Flamingo Land adventure park in Malton, North Yorkshire.
The severe fog meant that zoo staff could not see which direction it ran off in.Staff were scared that the chimp was “potentially dangerous” and should not be approached by members of the public.But the frenzy was soon over after a zoo marksman shot it dead two hours later.Animal rights campaigners criticised security at Flamingo Land Zoo following the chimp’s ecsape.The zoo was in the headlines this autumn when a council investigation into complaints concerning animal welfare resulted in the zoo banning three councillors from the premises.The Captive Animals’ Protection Society, an organisation campaigning to end the captivity of animals in zoos and circuses, said that an immediate inquiry must be launched into how the animal escaped and why she was shot dead..

He added: “Such people should be welcomed, not harmed, and their efforts should be endorsed.”Meanwhile, prayers were said yesterday for Mr Kember at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, as well as for Iraqi prisoners. Anas Altikriti, who has been sent by the Muslim Association of Britain to the Middle East to try to secure Mr Kember’s release, was also continuing discussions with Jordan-based Iraqis from the Sunni Triangle area of the country.Earlier, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, the Briton Moazzam Begg, had called for the hostages’ release. And on Wednesday the radical cleric Abu Qatada, who has been detained in Britain for two years, issued a video appeal for the safe release of the captives.. Apache Tomcat/5.5.25 – Error report HTTP Status 503 – Too many incoming HTTP requeststype Status reportmessage Too many incoming HTTP requestsdescription The requested service (Too many incoming HTTP requests) is not currently available.Apache Tomcat/5.5.25. A “dangerous” chimpanzee has been shot dead after it escaped from a family zoo.