ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Two stolen Picasso paintings, Tête de cheval (Head of horse), 1962, and Verre et pichet (Glass and pitcher), painted in 1944, have been recovered in Serbia, Swiss authorities say. The artwork was on loan to a small museum in Pfaffikon, near Zurich, when they were stolen in February 2008. A Swiss prosecutor told broadcaster Schweizer Fernzehen that the artwork is now safe and Switzerland has officially requested their return through the Serbian government.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – A second black box from the Air France flight that went down over the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazel to Paris in June 2009, has been found. The French investigating office, BEA, announced Monday 2 May that both the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), found Monday and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), found Sunday, are whole, with the CVR’s chassis attached to the box. The FDR’s chassis was found separetely, last week.
The two boxes were found about a dozen metres apart, according to Le Monde (Fr). They are being kept in water to maintain them in a state that is as close as possible to that in which they were found until they can be safely examined.
The cause of the crash early into the flight, which cost the lives of 228 people, remains a mystery.
The boxes are said by investigators to be in “good shape” but it is not yet clear if the data can be retrieved.
The French transport ministry said Monday 4 April that it should be possible to identify several of the bodies in the large part of the plane which has been found in the sea off Brazil’s coast. The fourth search for the plane that went missing mysteriously 1 June 2009 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, turned up a large and intact part of the aircraft body over the weekend, putting to rest theories that perhaps the plane had exploded.
The crash killed 228 people and the black boxes were never found, but officials are now hopeful they might be uncovered.
Links to other sites: Le Monde (Fre) with initial photos, Reuters
Zug, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The father who disappeared with his two sons Monday 7 February and who became the centre of a major search operation suffers from “a serious medical problem” according to canton Zug police. He was hospitalized Wednesday and placed in a specialty clinic Thursday.
The two boys, 7 and 10, were surprised by their unplanned trip to Italy with their father but considered it an adventure and they are fine, according to police.
The missing trio was the focus of a major search at the start of the week, including the use of a Swiss military helicopter. People who are negligent are sometimes billed for the cost of searching for them, in Switzerland, but in this case it is not yet clear who will cover the costs and the army has said it will not charge the canton, which ordered its services, according to Swiss news agency ATS.
Zug, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in Zug are beginning to shed more light on the disappearance Monday and recovery Wednesday 9 February of a Zug father and his two sons, but the episode remains riddled with puzzles Wednesday evening.
The trio, who were reported missing by the mother of the boys, ages 7 and 10, after they and their father failed to return home from a late afternoon shopping trip. Police searched a nearby lake and the Swiss military were called in to search at night using an infrared system in a Puma helicopter, to no avail.
They were discovered by Italian police thanks to the Schengen alarm system for missing persons. They were at a roadside autostrada stop in Italy, south of Milan, where they had been stranded for some hours without fuel for their car or money or food.
The father is reported by police to have been in a somewhat “confused” state, but all three were healthy. The father’s motives in driving off remain unclear, but police earlier said the family had no known problems.
Zug police were en route to pick up the three late Wednesday.
Two brothers in Newfoundland, Canada, a year apart in age, separated and then adopted when young, have found each other after years of looking. They had been living on the same street for two years. Each began looking for the other for medical history reasons and knew that since they’d been adopted by families in the same part of Canada there was a good chance they would not be too far apart. Ironically, when the adoption agency phoned to give the name and address of the other brother to one of them, he was looking out his window at his brother’s house – but despite their physical proximity, the two had never spoken.
Links to other sites: The Western Star, Canada, The Globe & Mail, Canada
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/biological-brothers-find-each-other-across-the-street-after-30-years/article1522019/
Sion, canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 21-year-old Vaud man had the “extraordinary” chance to survive 17 hours after he was trapped by an avalanche near Evolene, say Valais police. He was conscious and suffered only mild hypothermia when he was found.
He was caught Saturday while skiing off-piste, but police point out that he was only 50cm under the surface, and a small amount of air passed through to the space he was able to free in front of his face. His family alerted police at 16:30 when he didn’t return, and a search team found an avalanche 50 metres wide and 150m long with a skier’s tracks that suddenly ran out under the avalanche, in the pas d’Arpilles area. They had to call off the search an hour after midnight, for safety reasons, then started again at dawn.
An Air Glacier helicopter flying over the avalanche as part of the search noticed that the snow appeared to be moving in one area, and searchers were able to dig him out there.
A 19-year-old British backpacker, Jamie Neale of North London, has been found after 12 days in the Australian Blue Mountains, safe but dehydrated and suffering from exposure. He had gone out for a day trip, leaving behind his passport and cell phone, and when he failed to return a search was undertaken. An Australian official says the youth was “very, very lucky” to survive. BBC, The Age
Thirteen bodies have washed up on the Tanzanian island of Mafia (map), along with debris, and they are thought to be those of victims of the Comoros archipelago crash of a Yemeni airliner in 1 July. Officials say DNA tests will be needed to identify them. The island is south of Dar es Salaam, not far from the mainland. BBC
