Europe's biggest environmental headache for a decade appears to have been solved by the simple, if cynical, ruse of towing the stricken oil tanker Prestige from Spain to Africa. As European countries demanded that the ageing tanker, described by environmentalists as "a chemical time-bomb", be taken away from their coasts before it sank and released its deadly cargo of 70 000 tons of fuel oil, the Dutch salvage company in charge of the rescue operation began towing it south.