Female infanticide appears to continue
India’s census results were published Thursday 31 March, showing that the country is now the world’s second most populous, with 17 percent of the world population. India officially has 1.21 billion people, compared to China’s 1.34 billion.
India added 181 million new people, but the Guardian notes that the census commissioner told reporters in India that growth has slowed. “C Chandramouli, the census commissioner, told reporters in Delhi that the new count showed population growth in India had slowed. The 17.6% increase was down from 21.5% recorded in 2001.”
The child sex ratio has worsened in India in the past 10 years, the Times of India points out,”indicating that female feticide and infanticide remain rampant. Provisional data released by the census office for 2011 shows that the child sex ratio (0-6 years) has further declined to 914 girls for every 1,000 boys as compared to 927 in 2001.”
Links to other sites: Guardian, Indian Census Bureau, Times of India
The first photos released by police and the family in early February, shortly after the twins were declared missing
Update 18:55 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some 20 Swiss, French and Italian police met in Lausanne Wednesday afternoon 30 March with Swiss public prosecutor Pascal Gillerion to share their investigations into the disappearance of twins Alessia and Livia Schepp 30 January.
Despite intensive searches and knowing more details about the trail left by the father, police are still far from establishing the presence of the girls in several areas where the father is now known to have been.
One observer close to the investigations echoed the mood of the public in saying that “whether he did this intentionally or not, the scarcity of clues he left behind is astonishing.”
New details confirm father’s presence in many areas, but not that of his daughters
New details that have emerged, or been confirmed:
"The girls" are a long tradition that adds glamour to the Geneva Motor Show
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A fact of life seems to be that car shows require beautiful young women, and the Geneva Motor Show is no exception.
Women and cars: the mix looks like it could break an attendance record, with organizers saying the car show had 300,000 visitors by Sunday night 6 March, at the end of its first weekend.
The half-price entry after 16:00 has proven particularly popular.
During the week of International Women’s Day, GenevaLunch asked photographer Mr Kio to turn his lens from cars to women.
He decided to show the people who help sell new car models, rather than just the long legs and other physical attributes that many of the car show photographers focus on when trying to catch the glamour that is part of the show.
"The girls" at the Geneva Motor Show: Mr Kio's portraits in the GenevaLunch 2011 car show album
We’ve just added his new portraits to the Geneva Motor Show 2011 album on GenevaLunch.
Alessia, Livia and their father in 2010
Update 10 March: video added Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp has posted a video asking the public for help, after two new witnesses came forward. Vaud police said 7 March that the witnesses provided precise information about the presence in canton Geneva of a father and two little girls, one of them wearing glasses, who may well have been Mathis Schepp and his six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia. The trio were seen between 16:00 and 17:00 Sunday 30 January, and there is also evidence that his car, a black Audi A6, was seen in Geneva.
(story continued below)
Video from Missing Alessia and Livia Facebook page
Police are now seeking other witnesses in canton Geneva Sunday 30 January to help them pinpoint more precisely the father’s movements. Anyone with information is asked to please telephone the police at +41 21 644 4444 or to contact the nearest police station.
In Italy, police reportedly found a microchip Saturday 5 March from Schepp’s Audi navigation system, which will be sent to the US for the manufacturer to try to determine if data can be recovered from it. Police are hoping to obtain clues about the path the father took once he picked up the girls in Saint Sulpice, in Switzerland, Sunday 30 January.
The chip is reported to have been about 15 metres from the place where Schepp threw himself in front of a train in Cerignola, near Bari in southern Italy.
Background, GenevaLunch
Missing Alessia & Livia on Facebook
Click on image to view larger
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Update 16:05 Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Family, friends and those who have been involved in the search for missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp gathered at the Pierrette beach in Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, at 15:00 Wednesday 23 February for an hour-long solidarity walk.
The missing girls’ mother, Irina, met briefly with the 100 or so people who gathered, to thank them for their support and to accept white flowers from two little girls, before she returned to her apartment in tears (photos: 20 Minutes).
Mother describes the girls’ contrasting personalities
She granted an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della sera, which appeared Tuesday evening. She told the journalist that she “absolutely must find” the girls, that this has now become her life. She talked about sleeping little and waking up to the pain every day, taking painkillers and sleeping pills.
“Where are my children? There is such wickedness, such cruelty in what Matthias did that I still cannot believe it, Irina says.
French police confirm he left Corsica for Toulon alone
Missing twins: father announced he killed them, planned to take his own life
Update 12:00 Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The chances of finding Alessia and Livia Schepp alive appear to have sharply diminished, with the announcement Friday morning that the father sent a letter to the mother saying he had killed them.
The letter was one of eight addressed to her that arrived Tuesday of this week, 8 February, but the family and police in France and Switzerland agreed to keep the information private in order to encourage witnesses to come forward.
Girls location a mystery, but search focuses on Corsica
The mystery continues, of where the two missing children are located, Swiss police in canton Vaud told journalists Friday morning 11 February at a news conference, but French police have now confirmed that the “after arriving in Propriano with his daughters Tuesday 1 February, the father left alone on a ferry from Bastia to Toulon, in France, at 21:00. It appears likely that after this he drove to Italy by car, stopping in Naples before driving on to Cerignola, where he took his own life 3 February 2011.”
Letter sent from Cerignola, saying he intended to kill himself
The father’s letter indicated that he was in Cerignola, following the death of his daughters, and that he intended to commit suicide.
Police continue to ask for help in tracking the father’s movements from noon Tuesday 1 February to Thursday noon 3 February, in Corsica, Toulon and around Naples.
A statement issued by Vaud police Friday morning notes:
“Investigations in Switzerland are now focusing on the family’s environment and the private and professional life of the father, in order to support and provide new elements to French investigators. The search to find the twins is currently centred on Corsica. Canton Vaud Police are sending two criminal investigators this weekend to Corsica to work with French investigators. At the same time, Swiss police are working with the French national police to organize an international meeting next week to establish the current status of the investigation.”
The mother and her immediate family left Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, Thursday, to get away from the media crowds that have stayed outside her home all week.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police canton Vaud have set up two hotlines for anyone with information that might help them find the missing six-year-old Schepp twins, Alessia and Livia.
Swiss hotline +41 21 644 82 31
Numéro vert in France 08 05 01 07 07.
Italian news reports say no child seats, no clothing for girls found in car
Update 15:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A new aspect in the investigation into the disappearance of twins Livia and Alessia Schepp has surfaced Tuesday 8 February: the father mailed some €5,000 to the mother, in bills of €50, the money he took out of several bank machines in Marseille, France 31 January.
“There wasn’t any letter with the money. This has us worried because the theory that he might have paid someone to take care of the children no longer holds,” Valerio Lucidi, the girls’ uncle, told journalists in front of the mother’s home in Saint Sulpice.
Lucidi is the brother of the girls’ mother.
The money was mailed in several packages from Cerignola, Italy, the town where Matthias Schepp died 3 February, throwing himself in front of a train.
The six-year-old twins were last seen 30 January in Saint Sulpice, with their father.
No clothes, no child seats
Italian news agency Ansa reports police in southern Italy as saying Monday that they found no child seats, no clothes for the girls in the car. There is media speculation as a result that either the girls never left Switzerland or the father erased evidence they were with him.
European law calls for child seats up to the age of 12.
St Sulpice man, Canadian, dies under train in southern Italy, twin girls missing
International police alert for witnesses, information: +41 21 644 82 31 or the nearest police station
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two six-year-old twin girls are missing and police in Switzerland have issued a missing persons bulletin for them after their father was found dead in the far south of Italy.
The body of Matthias, the father, a St Sulpice man in his forties, was discovered in Bari, Italy at 23:00 Thursday 3 February, after a train passed over him. Police there are trying to determine if his death was an accident or suicide. The man, who was Canadian, left Switzerland Sunday with his six-year-old twin daughters, at the end of a weekend with them. The girls’ parents were in the process of divorcing. The father had taken them over the Christmas holidays, without incidence.
Swiss police issued a Schengen system SIS international alert 30 January after the trio failed to return to St Sulpice. Police investigations showed the father passed by Annecy, France, near Geneva, then Marseilles 1 February. French and Italian police have been actively working with Swiss authorities, but there has been no news of the girls.
Description of the girls
Alessia: 115 cm, long blond hair, medically corrected glasses with bordeaux-coloured titanium frames, last seen wearing a red, white and pink striped tee-shirt, blue jeans, white jacket with beige lining and black boots.
Livia: 115 cm, long blond hair, last seen wearing a green tee-shirt, a purple ski jacket, bluejeans, Adidas white and pink sports shoes, medically corrected glasses with orange titanium frames.
Description of the father
Average weight, 180 cm tall, blond hair thinning at the front, wearing glasses. Was last seen wearing a smart sports outfit and driving an Audi A6 with Swiss license plates.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Prix de Lausanne opened in Lausanne Tuesday evening with an announcement that tickets for the final selection performance Sunday are sold out.
The international dance competition, which has grown in stature in recent years but also in popularity as a hometown event, began with its usual flourish. Eighty-one handsome young dancers, ages 15-18, from 20 countries were selected from a record 226 applicants from 36 countries.
They are surrounded for the week by nervous tension, excitement and a crowd of enthusiastic followers. Given hometown crowds who can’t be in Lausanne for the competition, the Prix de Lausanne blog and particularly the collection of videoblogs are already proving popular.
This is the first year that more boys than girls have been selected. Japan has the largest single contingent, 16 students, with China following with 14 students.
Several of the selections are open to the public, for CHF10 (children 7-15 free) and CHF20 for Saturday’s events. The finals can be watched live (streamed) Sunday starting at 15:00.
Title: Expanding your Horizons: nurturing girls’ interest in science, technology, mathematics and science
Link out: Click here
Description: First European conference inviting 400 11-13 year old girls from public and private schools to nurture interest in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology
Start Time: 9:00
Date: 14 Nov 2009
End Time: 16:00
Sponsored by the Geneva Women in International Trade (GWIT)
A day of hands-on workshops and speakers with women who excel in the non-traditonal fields for girls who show an interest.
Register on-line on the Expanding your Horizons site, further information on the event at expandingyourhorizons@gwit.ch
Prix de Lausanne 2009
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – For the first time ever more young men than women will compete in the Prix de Lausanne dance competition 26-31 January. A record number of dance students, ages 15-18, tried out for the competition in October, most by video: 226 candidates (153 young women and 73 young men), representing 36 nationalities.
The cut leaves 81 young dancers, from 21 countries, who compete for scholarships and invitations to pursue studies in some of the world’s top classical dance programmes.
Children are slowly returning to school during August in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, scene of fighting in recent months. The CS Monitor in a feature about schools re-opening even though the buildings have often been destroyed, refers to “tenuous signs of a return to normalcy.” The Monitor says 80,000 girls are among the children whose educations were interrupted first by a Taliban ban early in 2009, then by fighting between Taliban and government forces.
Ten villages in Niger have agreed, after months of discussion and reflection with the help of Unicef, to renounce genital cutting for the village’s girls. The practice has fallen dramatically in recent years, now done on only 2 percent of the country’s girls, but in western Niger it is still common. The decision will allow Unicef to step up its work in another 10 villages, the UN organization says.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Girls “working” in veterinarian offices, at international organizations, at federal offices, and even at GenevaLunch. It is not child labour, but rather part of the eighth National Girls Day.
