Doggone!: There are an estimated 50,000 dogs...

Doggone!: There are an estimated 50,000 dogs in the city of Lhasa, Tibet, including 10,000 strays. To cope with the canines in a land where dogs were once revered as messengers of Buddha, authorities have built the first dog hotel.

Breaking the Ice: The Soviet Union’s atomic-powered ice breaker Rossiya has taken scientists and tourists on the first Arctic cruise to the North Pole, according to the Soviet news agency Tass.

Passengers were taken a short distance by helicopter to Hayes Island in the Arctic Ocean over a period of several hours, Tass said. The island is the site of the largest observatory in the far north.

Tourists had the opportunity to view polar bears and visited the bathhouse and homes on the island, where researchers from Canada and France recently studied the ozone layer.

A Glass-Bottomed Boat?: Tom McClean recently became the first man to cross the Atlantic in a “bottle” when he arrived in Falmouth, England, after a harrowing 37-day journey from New York.

McClean made the 2,950-mile voyage in the 37-foot, bottle-shaped Typhoon Atlantic Challenger with the aim of raising $950,000 for charity. It was his fifth solo Atlantic crossing.

The Rockets’ Red Glare: Providing yet another reason that this is not the time to be visiting India’s Kashmir Valley, Moslem rebels recently fired rockets into two hotels in Srinagar, including the Broadway, a modern four-star hotel often frequented by tourists.

No one was hurt in the shellings, but it was the first time rebels had attacked a hotel housing civilian guests.

The rebels view the establishments as “defense installations,” an argument given credence now that a dozen hotels in the city have been taken over as barracks for security forces.

Tourism in the Himalayan valley has dropped from 250,000 visitors in the first seven months of last year to 1,200 people through July this year, officials said.

Talking Turkey: Conrad Hotels, a subsidiary of Hilton USA, will open a 672-room luxury hotel, the Hotel Conrad Istanbul, in December, 1991.

The hotel is being built on a six-acre site on Ylidiz Avenue overlooking the Bosporus.

Licking the Problem: Moscow, which often boasts of having the world’s best ice cream, has a shortage in these waning days of summer.

Ice cream kiosks on street corners and in city parks have been displaying “no ice cream” signs, although they continue to sell souvenirs, marshmallows, chocolates and other candies.

Ice cream is still available at foreign outlets, such as the Baskin-Robbins stores in the Rossia Hotel and on the Arbat pedestrian mall, or the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Pinguin.

But lines are long and prices are high for Muscovites who have always taken pride in their own ice cream, which they buy in paper-wrapped slabs or on sticks, rather than in cones.

Officials said the shortage has been caused by two of the three ice cream-making factories in Moscow being closed for repairs this summer.

Forwarding Address: The offices of the Consulate General of France and the French Cultural Services have moved to the Oppenheimer Tower, 10990 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300, Los Angeles 90024. The telephone is (213) 479-4426.

Jogging Escort: To allay the fears of New York visitors who would like to run through Central Park but worry about being mugged, a new hotel in midtown Manhattan is offering escort runners for hire.

For a fee of $35, Penny Baxter, jogger-in-residence at the Hotel Macklowe, will escort hotel guests on a run through the park at any hour between dawn and dusk.

The service, the newest in hotel offerings, comes about a year after a brutal attack on a young female investment banker running alone in the park.

Baxter, who has a degree in exercise physiology and a corporate fitness background, said middle-aged businessmen had shown the most interest in the jogging service so far.

“Since last April, people are more fearful of running in the park,” said Debbie King of the New York Road Runners Club, referring to the 1989 Central Park jogger attack.

“We are considering doing something similar with hotels throughout the city,” said King, adding that despite growing fears about the dangers of Central Park, crime in the 843-acre park has actually dropped 25% from a year ago.

For more information, contact the Hotel Macklowe, 145 West 44th St. (between Broadway and 6th), New York 10036, (212) 768-4400.