2 travel alerts changed

THE U.S. State Department has removed a stand-alone advisory citing drug violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and dropped its travel warning against Libya.

The public announcement on Mexico, which cited murders and kidnappings of Americans and urged them to be “especially aware of safety and security concerns when visiting the border region,” had been issued in January and renewed in April.

Mexican officials had publicly criticized the announcement.

The State Department recently withdrew the announcement from the roster it posts at www.travel.state.gov and rolled it into a consular information sheet on Mexico. It said drug-related violence had “increased dramatically” in border cities and that more than 45 U.S. citizens had been kidnapped or killed in the last year.

State Department spokesman James Lawrence said the announcement was pulled when U.S. officials decided the violence “was going to be a long-term thing.... The consular information sheets are seen as the long-term advice.”

“It’s not a political decision in any way,” he said. “We’re not burying anything.”

The department still maintains a public announcement on Libya, citing terrorist threats in the region.

The U.S. lifted its travel ban to Libya last year and dropped most trade and economic sanctions. But it still lists Libya as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Cheap sleeps in London

A chain of no-frills hotels was launched last week in London. Rooms at the first EasyHotel, 14 Lexham Gardens in West London start at about $35 per night.

The hotel has no public areas except a reception desk.

The 34 rooms range from 60 to 80 square feet. They have private baths, but only three have windows.

TV is on a pay-as-you-go basis, costing about $8.70 per 24 hours.

EasyHotel is the latest venture by entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose other travel companies include EasyJet airline and EasyCruise.

For more information, visit www.easyhotel.com.

Four for the road, classically

A new music collection from Sony Classical, designed to pop into your car’s CD player, celebrates four great drives: Pacific Coast Highway, Route 66, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Germany’s fast-paced autobahns.

Call it music to drive by.

The four CDs are specially mastered to be easier to hear above road noise, reducing the loud/soft contrasts that can make for bumpy listening.

Most selections are classical, such as Beethoven’s soothing “pastoral” Symphony No. 6 (for PCH), Rossini’s frenetic “William Tell Overture” (for the autobahn) and Copland’s folk-inspired “Appalachian Spring” (for the Blue Ridge Parkway). But there are a few pop tunes too, such as “Happy Trails,” sung by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (for Route 66).

You can find the CDs on the website drivetime.sonyclassical.com and at some Tower Records stores. To hear some selections, log onto latimes.com/drivecds.

-- Jane Engle