I have two children, ages 7 and 1. Like "Solitary," I also enjoy time to myself, whether reading, writing or going for a hike.

When my son was born, I felt it was important to give him confidence and the ability to be self-sufficient. Therefore, we have him help us with chores like grocery shopping and encourage him to make healthy, responsible choices. When he was 2 and stopped taking naps, we told him he had to have "quiet time" and that reading to himself was one of the options.

As a result, our son is self-motivated, an avid reader and writer, and has an intellectual curiosity most adults don't have. He is teaching himself cursive writing and is interested in learning a foreign language.

We live in the Colorado Rockies, and getting rid of our TV set was one of the best things our family has ever done. Instead of tuning each other out, we enjoy conversation, creating and sharing our days together. I have never been happier as a father or husband.

I am concerned for people who are afraid of silence. I suspect it's a sign of sensory bombardment. The human mind needs moments of clarity brought on by reflection. -- DAD WHO GETS IT

DEAR DAD: Thank you for your letter. I received many thoughtful comments from people who identify strongly with "Solitary's" point of view:

DEAR ABBY: Your advice to "Solitary Woman" was good, but did not start soon enough. She should provide stimulating crib and playpen toys to teach her son at an early age that he can control some aspects of his environment. Having this ability is the key to enjoying solitude.

When my daughter was 7 weeks old, I attached a mobile fashioned from a white wire coat hanger and rainbow-hued origami cranes to her bassinet. I wiggled it and watched her smile at the moving colored birds. When the movement stopped, she became frustrated and began to whimper and kick and flail her arms. The paper birds moved again. She lay still and watched them. When they stopped the second time, she didn't whimper but just moved herself in the bassinet. She had learned she could control her environment.

As a toddler she could leave her playmates and pursue solitary activities in the quiet of her own room. I am convinced that her bassinet experience was the basis for learning to be happy by herself and with herself. -- SMART MAMA IN EL CAJON, CALIF.

DEAR ABBY: According to a journalist and mother who published a book on the topic, when an infant cries, wait a few minutes and listen before reaching out. This gives the baby time to learn how he feels with himself, and to deal with it emotionally. After five minutes or so, if the baby has a real need, then you can reach for him. Doing it too quickly prevents this crucial process of learning to be with oneself. -- ANOTHER SOLITARY CANADIAN

DEAR ABBY: As a teacher (now retired), I was always interested in personality types and how they affect learning and interaction with others. One way of dividing personality types is into introverts and extroverts. Introverts get their energy from quiet time alone; extroverts get energy from being with other people and sensory activities.

This is an inborn trait that cannot really be taught, and there are varying degrees of the introvert/extrovert characteristic along a continuum. Wise parents will learn their child's personality traits and tailor their parenting to help him/her have the best learning situations possible. -- MARY IN TEXAS

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To order "How to Write Letters for All Occasions," send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

The country, whose Socialist government has never seemed hugely enthusiastic about the free trade deal, will try to get other EU members to agree to the request but its chances looked slim. The EU Commission, which negotiates for the 28 member states, and Germany showed no signs of agreeing to a delay to the start of talks planned for the beginning of next week, which come after months of protracted and painful efforts to come up with a common European stance.

France was at the heart of those difficulties, insisting on protections for its film and other cultural subsidies.

Just Tuesday night, the Commission said the planned start of technical negotiations in Washington "should not be affected" by the surveillance scandal that has emerged in recent days. But France is again raising its voice in protest.

"It seems wise to us to suspend (the talks) temporarily, for a period of 15 days," French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told reporters Wednesday.

After reports that the U.S. National Security Agency bugged EU diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated its computer network, Vallaud-Belkacem said mutual trust is needed before launching talks on such a huge trade deal, expected to provide a boost to economies on both sides of the Atlantic by removing tariffs and other barriers to trade.

She said France will first "discuss with our European partners to take a joint decision."

Her boss, President Francois Hollande, had hinted at a threat to trade talks in unusually outraged comments Monday demanding that the United States immediately stop any such eavesdropping.

In Berlin, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert suggested Germany is sticking to the plan to start talks as planned, despite Germany's anger over the U.S. snooping allegations. Speaking to reporters earlier Wednesday, he said that "we support the Commission in its effort to begin the negotiations on July 8."

The Commission, too, insisted that the trans-Atlantic atmosphere needed to clear up for the talks to be successful.

"For such a comprehensive and ambitious negotiation to succeed, there needs to be confidence, transparency and clarity among the negotiating partners," it said in Tuesday's statement.

On Wednesday, the EU trade commissioner's office said it is sticking to its position.

It's unlikely that France could block the talks on its own. Last month, the Commission was given the mandate from all members to start the talks after striking a deal with France about keeping the movie and television business out of the negotiations to shield Europe's audiovisual industry from Hollywood.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said hinging the start of talks on such political issues as the eavesdropping scandal would amount to the EU shooting itself in the foot. The EU, he said, was entering talks out of self-interest, not to be subservient to the United States.

A free trade pact would create a market with common standards and regulations across countries that together account for nearly half the global economy. A recent EU-commissioned study showed that a trade pact could boost the EU's output by 119 billion euro ($159 billion) a year and the U.S. economy by 95 billion euros ($127 billion). For Europe in particular, that extra growth could be crucial to help pay high public debt and bring down unemployment, which is at record highs.

_____

Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

PRIZREN, Kosovo (Reuters) - Kosovo has launched a campaign to seize wild bears held in restaurants and private zoos, responding to concerns over dwindling numbers in the Balkan country's mountainous border areas.

Authorities have so far traced at least 15 caged bears held in restaurants to help lure customers, to the outrage of animal rights activists.

Ministry of Environment officials say the number of bears in the wild in Kosovo has fallen below 100 due to the destruction of their natural habitat and illegal hunting.

On Wednesday, police officers and animal experts from an Austrian non-governmental organization called Four Paws raided a small private zoo in the southwestern town of Prizren.

They removed two brown bears, known as Ari and Arina, from a 20-sqm metal cage, next to a restaurant selling burgers and pizza. The owner also held wolves, dogs, sheep, cows, snakes and 60 other species, charging 50 cents per visitor.

"It's like taking a child from its father," complained the owner, Salih Shehu. "I know I'm going to lose customers because whoever came spent most of their time with the bears."

He said the bears were given to him as a gift a decade ago by United States soldiers, part of a NATO peacekeeping force in the former Serbian province, after their mother was killed by poachers.

Authorities have set aside a rural area outside the capital to hold the bears.

"In Kosovo there are a lot of bears kept illegally in cruel conditions," said Heli Dugnler, founder and president of Four Paws.

"We give these bears a new life, a new chance by offering them a huge area of nature where the bear can live normally in grass and trees and not in concrete."

Ari and Arina were released into the sanctuary on Thursday.

Kosovo remains one of the poorest corners of Europe, five years after it declared independence from Serbia and more than a decade since a 1998-99 war that left the territory a ward of the United Nations.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Matt Robinson and Angus MacSwan)

In a 5-4 ruling with the court's five conservative justices in the majority, the court said Coy Koontz could pursue a property rights claim against the St. Johns River Water Management District.

The legal issue was whether the agency's action constituted a "taking" subject to compensation, under the so-called takings clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said a government may not condition a land-use permit on an owner giving up the use of some property absent a "nexus" and "rough proportionality" between the demand and the effect of the proposed land use. He said this applied even if the permit were denied, and the demand was for money.

"So long as the building permit is more valuable than any just compensation the owner could hope to receive for the right-of-way, the owner is likely to accede to the government's demand, no matter how unreasonable," Alito wrote. "Extortionate demands of this sort frustrate the Fifth Amendment right to just compensation, and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine prohibits them."

Joining Alito's opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

The decision was the culmination of a more than 18-year battle by Koontz and his late father over the development of their nearly 15-acre (six-hectare) parcel of land.

After Florida designated much of the parcel as protected wetlands, Koontz proposed to develop about a quarter of it and dedicate the rest for conservation, only to have local officials insist that he pay money to protect wetlands elsewhere.

Koontz said no, and a trial court awarded him $327,500 for being unable to use his property. Florida's Supreme Court then threw this award out, saying that because St. Johns never issued a permit and Koontz never spent money, "nothing was ever taken."

Justice Elena Kagan dissented from Tuesday's decision, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Kagan said the majority "threatens to subject a vast array of land-use regulations, applied daily in states and localities throughout the country, to heightened constitutional scrutiny. I would not embark on so unwise an adventure."

The case was sent back to Florida courts for further proceedings.

The case is Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 1447.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Will Dunham)