Louis Majesty at sea (photo: Louis Cruise)
A Louis Cruise ship with 1,350 passengers and nearly 600 crew on board, the Louis Majesty, was hit by what the company has called “rogue waves” of up to eight metres, off the northeast coast of Spain. Two people were killed and six injured, with windows broken in the saloon and water taken on board. The ship has pulled into Barcelona, but will later continue its voyage to Genoa, Italy. The captain says there were winds up to 100kph in the area.
Links to other sites: BBC, El Pais (Spa), Louis Cruise
Finn the bear getting antibiotics. He and his intruder are both recovering 25 November.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 25-year-old man mauled by Finn, a four-year-old bear at Bern’s new bear park, has told authorities he was trying to retrieve a plastic bag, according to Swissinfo. The mentally handicapped man has lived at a home in the town of Koeniz for some years and has been allowed to spend Saturdays walking around Bern on his own, as he has not been considered to be a danger to himself or others. The man sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Finn, who attacked the man when he entered the bear’s enclosed area, was shot by a policeman, but the park announced Wednesday 25 November that Finn is doing better, although another day is required to see if he will need surgery:
New bear park in Bern, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 25-year-old man who was injured when he climbed the wall of the new bear park in Bern, then slipped, is in stable condition after he was attacked by one of the bears. Finn, the nearly 4-year-old male who injured him, was wounded by gunfire from a policeman who was trying to save the young man, and the bear is in serious condition, according to Bernd Schildger, the head of Dählhölzli, the animal park of which the bear pit is a part. If Finn survives, which is not yet clear, he will not be put down, says Schildger.
Police have not been able to determine why the man, who is mentally handicapped, decided to climb the wall, where he crouched for a moment before falling four metres into the bears’ den.
African roads are the world's worst, for numbers of accidents (image: WHO, click on image to view larger)
Geneva / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roads kill 1.3 million people every year – some 3,000 people a day – and the United Nations estimates that the number will rise by 60 percent in the next few years. Half of those who die are pedetsrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Switzerland’s transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, told the first ministerial level world conference on road safety, which opened in Moscow Thursday 19 November, that deaths and injuries can be reduced if safety regulations are increased and enforced. He pointed out that Switzerland has reduced its road traffic deaths more than fourfold since 1971 despite a large increase in traffic during that time.
Leuenberger, who presided over one of three key discussions at the United Nations WHO conference, says that safety education campaigns are essential, but they can’t hope to compete with James Bond style advertising on the part of the automobile industry.
The latest in a string of attacks in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province that have targeted military, police and intelligence services took place early Friday 13 November in Peshawar, where a gunfire was followed by a bomb blast at the Inter-Services Intelligence’s provincial headquarters. Ten people died, at least 60 are wounded and several are believed to be buried under the rubble of the building, according to government officials. In another attack in the province’s Bannu District a suicide bomber drove into a police station and killed six people, injured 23.
Lara Gut, skier, out with injuries for much of the 2009-2010 season
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss skier Lara Gut, age 18 and the surprise hit of the 2008-09 ski season, was successfully operated on at the Ile hospital in Bern, but she will not be able to ski for at least three months, her team manager has announced. Gut suffered injuries in a major crash during training in September. The surgery is designed to provide maximum movement in the hip and she is now starting four weeks of physical therapy.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss television TSR (Fre) late Thursday carried an update which raises more questions concerning the much-publicized story of a Saudi tourist who was badly injured and then robbed in Geneva, appearing to give credence to initial police reports that the man had not been randomly attacked, but had fallen. The report notes that the man had spent several thousand francs in a rue du Rhone discotheque in the centre of Geneva during the evening, was witnessed by several people to be drunk and aggressive, and he had possibly been involved in a fight.
Sion, Valais (Le Nouvelliste/ats, Fre) – A group of seven French people touring on snowshoes near the Cleuson dam lake, where they walked from Siviez, were caught Wednesday 11 February by an avalanche at 13:20.
