The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 12

The Guardian Wednesday March 10 1999 lenley on a mayoral bid to clean up city's polluted heart A view of the Seine from Alexandre bridge. The Paris mayor, Jean Tiberi, has launched far reaching plans to stop motorways dominating the riverbanks photograph, denis thorpe buildings fronting the river, the continued renovation of the city's 36 bridges at a cost of some 40 million and a new lighting programme designed to display the quays and bridges at night. But despite the almost presidential grandeur of the vision painted by Mr Tiberi banned. In some places the road surface available for cars will be nearly halved, from 60ft to 32ft, by the year 2001. Perhaps the most far-reaching change being planned is a complete redesign of the monumental Place de la Concorde, in theory the grandest and most harmoniously designed square of the French capital propriate the Seine, rediscover its river." Among the measures planned over the next four years are a continuous eight-mile walkway along the Seine from the Pare Andre Citroen in the east to Bercy near the Gare de Lyon in the west, as well as a two-mile riverside walk in the Bois de Boulogne.

Extra cycle paths are to be built along the river within the city boundaries. Water transport will be dramatically improved, with the city's fleet of waterbuses expanded and the number of landing stages increased. The tourist bateaux-mouches will pick up coachloads of visitors at new reception centres outside the city centre and even carry commuters in from the suburbs. But the most important measures involve a big reduction in road traffic volumes along the Seine's congested banks, particularly in the 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements the Left Bank. "Right now, the river banks there are simply roads, and very busy roads 1 i av V.

I JrX. -J rbs jf 53i, fe1 fc ijLllll" i i i lit Arizcuren Ruiz: accused of planning fatal ETA attacks The Spanish interior ministry accuses Mr Arizcuren Ruiz, aged 40, of causing eight deaths in attacks between 1984 and 1992, and Mr Gallastegui of being involved in the 1996 murder of a Socialist politician. The other three worked for ETA support arms. The arrests came less than a week after Spain's interior minister asked his French counterpart to act against ETA leaders, most of whom MAYOR nf Paris. Jean Tiberi, yesterday unveiled a 160 million package of measures aimed at returning "the heart and soul of the most beautiful city in the world" to the capital's residents and the millions of tourists who visit each year.

Mr Tiberi was referring to the river Seine and its banks choked with fumes and traffic. Sharply reversing a trend started by President Georges Pompidou, who declared to cries of outrage in the 1970s that Paris had to adapt to the era of the motorcar and personally ordered sprawling six-lane expressways built along much of the riverbank, Mr Tiberi said the time had come for the car to take a back seat to the city. "The Seine is the city's lifeblood," the mayor said. "People visit it, people sail on it, people live on it, lovers, poets, travellers stroll along its banks at least, wherever they can and booksellers and shopkeepers work beside it. It is time for Paris to reap- VVf ''vK' 'VC' That's why plans which will be completed just in time for the next municipal elections not everyone was pleased.

"It's just window-dressing," said Martine Billard, a Green party Paris councillor. "As long as he doesn't tackle those monstrous expressways, the whole project is a half measure." live in France. They also coincided with the arrival of Spain's prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, in Paris for talks. "This action shows that France and Spain share a common approach in these matters," Mr Aznar said. All six had been under close surveillance this week and were armed, police said.

Spain is to seek extradition of at least four of them, including Mr Arizcuren Ruiz. But the arrests exposed divisons between Madrid's political parties and Basque regional-nationalist forces. "These arrests bring us closer to a lasting peace," said Joaquin Almunia, secretary-general of the Socialist Party. However, Basque nationalist leaders accused Madrid of jeopardising chances to negotiate a lasting peace. There have been no big terrorist attacks since the truce, but street violence and threats against politicians of Spain's ruling conservative People's Party have continued.

IS but in practice a terrifying lesson in Parisian driving habits. Mr Tiberi said he aims to reduce traffic in the 18th-century square between the Tui-leries Gardens and the Champs Elysees by as much as 80 per cent, returning one of Paris's most historic sites to the pedestrians who cur .1 1. J.J at that: the pavements are narrow, there is nowhere to park and shops are dying," Mr Tiberi said. Over the next four years, car traffic will be restricted, pavements will be widened, cycle paths and bus lanes will be laid down and most nonessential access to riverside neighbourhoods will be 1 www.whsmith.co.uk WHSMITH AND JOHN MENZIES HIGH STREET STORES Hi rently huddle nervously around its edges and only occasionally attempt to dodge the 10,600 cars that speed across it every hour. Accompanying the structural measures is what Mr Tiberi called "the aesthetic aspect" of his project: the compulsory cleaning of hundreds of privately owned Adela Gooch in Madrid in France have arrested the suspected mUi-tary chief of the Basque separatist group ETA, and five other members of the organisation.

The move the first round-up since ETA declared a ceasefire in September came as Spain's prime minister started a visit to Paris. The main detainee, Javier-Arizcuren Ruiz, ranked third in ETA's hierarchy, is suspected of planning terrorist attacks and ordering the 1995 failed assassination attempt on King Juan Carlos. He was arrested with three other suspected activists as they left a hotel in Paris yesterday morning. Two other ETA members were arrested when police raided a flat. Mr Arizcuren Ruiz was accompanied by Mikel Zubi-mendi, leader of ETA's youth movement Jarrai, along with Jesus Maria Puy Lucumberry and Irantzu Gallastegui So-dupe.

Hews in brief Arrests urged SERBIA issued fresh arrest warrants for eight leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army yesterday, including three members of their team negotiating peace with Belgrade. It accused them of murder, kidnap and attacks on Serb troops and police, the official Yugoslav news agency, Tan-jug, said. The Serbs' move was apparently intended to intimidate KLA representatives before the new round of talks next week in Paris. Meanwhile, the US envoy to the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke, said he would warn Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic that Washington expected a change in his uncompromising position in the next few days. AP, Belgrade.

I dg costs COSTA RICA has complained to the United Nations budget committee that the world body was spending $150,000 (94,000) a year on a security dog when it was short of cash. But the assistant secretary general, Toshiyuki Niwa, defended the sum spent on having the dog sniff out suspect packages in a complex where security is a serious concern. AP.New York. Prehistoric free om sage THE WoUemi pine, thought to have been extinct for 200 million years until it was discovered near Sydney in 1994, is to be sold as a 10 pot plant. The first plants are not expected to be up for sale until 2005, due to their slow rate of growth.

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