Heiligendamm, Germany - Police helicopters forced a hot-air
balloon to land Friday when it attempted to invade the aerial
exclusion zone at the G8 summit on Germany's Baltic coast.
The environmentalist group Greenpeace mounted the flight, hanging
a yellow banner underneath the blue-and-white balloon's gondola
saying 'G8 act now,' overstamped with the word 'failed.' The balloon
took off from near the port city of Rostock.
Three police helicopters approached the balloon, creating strong
air turbulence which forced the balloon and its two occupants to
land, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said.
The air space around the summit venue at Heiligendamm was closed
to all traffic Friday, with 18 key nation leaders at the resort.
G8 leaders agreed Thursday to consider plans to halve harmful
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but set no fixed goals. Most
environmental organizations have criticized the deal as insufficient.
On the ground, a blockade at gates in the perimeter fence around
the summit venue was lifted Friday, with protesters heading to a mid-
day rally in Rostock, 25 kilometres distant, but 50 picketers
remained at the main gate.
Protesters had defied a legal ban, streaming through fields on
Wednesday to gather at the fence.
Riot police, who had been waiting for them, let them stay and
allowed the blockades to proceed, but used horses, water cannons and
plastic clubs to keep at least one of the gates open at all times.
Farmers in the area demanded Friday compensation from the
government for trampled crops.
Mecklenburg West-Pomerania farmers' union president Rainer
Tietboehl said the police were responsible, since they had shoved
demonstrators into the fields while clearing roads.
State officials said no decision had been taken yet on the demand,
but in principle the protesters should pay, since they trespassed on
the farmland on the first day of the protests.
Greenpeace said protesting boat crews who had invaded the summit's
marine exclusion zone on Thursday were recovering from bruises,
cheerful that they had gained so much attention and bore no grudges
after losing a high-speed chase on the Baltic Sea.
Karsten Smid, a Greenpeace spokesman, said the environmentalist
boatmen thought it was 'unfortunate' that an inflatable police boat
had overshot one of the protesting power-boats during the pursuit.
'We'd like to offer the police a training session on better ways
to stop protesters,' he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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