GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 6,000-plus ton satellite that is expected to fall to Earth late Friday has gripped US media this week, and the frenzy of concern over where it will fall has extended to Italy. Civil protection authorities in northern Italy Friday told people the risk is greater in their area and they should stay home to avoid the possibility of falling debris.
Nasa, the US space agency, says the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is one of hundreds that return from space every year but this one is the size of a small van. Most of it will burn up during re-entry, but chunks weighing more than 150 kg could survive the fall. The odds of a person belong hit are nevertheless tiny, on the order of 0.03 percent. Italian authorities say the odds are 1.5 percent in the north of the country.
Civil protection authorities are warning Italians not to go near any pieces of the satellite they find, because they could emit toxic gases.
US media have made the story headline news all week. The satellite was launched in 1991. It has spent 7,317 days in space.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Standard and Poor’s downgraded Italy’s sovereign debt Tuesday 20 September by one notch to A/A-1, and it maintained its “negative” outlook. The move came as a surprise to markets, which expected Moody’s to downgrade Italy first, according to CNBC, but it has said it will wait a month to decide.
The S&P move had an immediate impact on the euro, which fell in trading. S&P remarked in its statement that it believes Italy’s National Reform Plan will have little influence on improving the country’s economic performance.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lashed out at the rating agency, saying that its assessments seemed “more dictated by newspaper stories than by reality”, according to Aljazeera.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The road to the St Bernard Pass and tunnel between Switzerland and Italy has been closed since Saturday night, following a landslide near the village of Bourg St-Pierre.
No one was injured when mud and rocks were washed down by torrential rains about 19:15 3 September.
Several thousand cubic metres of rock, gravel and mud blocked the road after the support walls gave way.
Road crews are working to clear the area, but it will take several days and the road is closed until further notice, say canton Valais police.
Trucks and other vehicles are being shifted to the Col de Forclaz via Chamonix and to the Simplon Pass, to link up with Italy.
Update 8 August, 07:30 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The European Central Bank late Sunday agreed to buy Spanish and Italian government bonds, Reuters reports late Sunday night 7 August, based on information from a “monetary source” and noting that the ECB will shortly issue a statement to that effect. “‘The Euro system will intervene very significantly on markets and respond in a significant and cohesive way,’” the source is quoted as saying. The move is designed to prevent the sovereign debt crisis, which has been aggravated by Friday’s downgrading of the US debt, from worsening the situation for Italy and Spain, two of the euro zone’s most exposed countries in the crisis.
Markets open Monday for the first time since the US credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s Friday 5 August. The euro jumped Monday morning as currency markets opened, following the late Sunday decision by the ECB.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Economist, Guardian, Financial Times, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The prosecutor in the case against two Italians and one Swiss from Ticino who are accusing of plotting to bomb an IBM nanotechnology research centre near Zurich has called for the trio to be given firm rather than suspended prison sentences, given that two of them have previous convictions linked to anarchy. They face at least three years in prison and fines of CHF15,000 each if convicted, reports ATS/Le Temps.
The court’s verdict is expected Friday 22 July.
The three have been under arrest since April 2010. Expert witnesses have testified this week that the explosive device the three had on them at the time of their arrest would likely have caused a rapidly spreading fire and death if it had been used.
The “eco-terrorists” as they are widely referred to, have refused to speak during their trial. They have admitted they belong to an anarchists’ movement. A small group of about 50 supporters has picketed outside the courthouse in Bellinzona, with placards calling for them to be freed and for IBM to be shut down and nano-technology to be eliminated.
Part of the cocaine haul (photo: Valais police)
SION, SWITZERLAND – A Swiss-Italian cocaine ring operating between Milan and canton Valais, mainly in the Val d’Anniviers and Goms Valley areas, was dismantled at the end of January, police say. The investigation continued for several weeks.
Seven people were arrested and five remain behind bars, one of them a Swiss man from Valais and the other four Nigerians, two of whom are residents of Italy and two of whom near Brig, where they have B permits.
The two from the Brig area were arrested for selling 2.7 kg of cocaine. The woman from Italy was caught in the act of hiding 210 g of cocaine “in her private parts”, police say, and the man from Italy was arrested the same day after being identified as the ringleader.
A 51-year-old Ghanaian man was arrested for selling the drugs they supplied, in the Brig area, and a 23-year-old Frenchman was also arrested, for selling the cocaine to young consumers in the Val d’Anniviers region.
The investigation began in October 2010 and led police to question 33 consumers, one of whom was arrested on other charges, a 20-year-old French youth who admitted to several car thefts and break-ins in the Val d’Anniviers.
EuroCity in Ticino (©2011 CFF)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – EuroCity trains between Geneva and Milan will take a few minutes longer during the coming week, the CFF rail company warns, and passengers will have to change at Domodossola, effective today, Wednesday 13 July.
Regular maintenance work showed up repairs that are needed to the inclined trains axles on some of the EuroCity trains and the work is expected to last until at least the start of next week.
The slightly damaged axles are not a security risk, the CFF says, but if left alone more costly repairs will be needed in the future. The cause of the damage has not yet been determined.
EuroCity direct trains between Geneva and Venice are not affected and will continue to use the ETR610 inclined rails.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – World stock markets slid early Wednesday 13 July as investors’ nerves were tested, first by Ireland Tuesday evening becoming the third Eurozone country after Greece and Portugal to have its sovereign debt given a junk rating, then by news from Italy that borrowing costs are at their highest level in a decade.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called on Italians Wednesday morning to make sacrifices, saying national unity is needed to reduce what he referred to as the country’s debt mountain. Parliament is scrambling to pass a deficit-reducing budget by Friday, before a European Union meeting on budgets.
The Financial Times reports that Moody’s downgrading Tuesday of Ireland’s debt is based on reasoning “similar to that used in Portugal’s downgrade to junk last week, a move that provoked a furious reaction from European policymakers who threatened new regulation of rating agencies.”
France is watching warily, with Le Monde saying markets are affected by “sharp concern” that the debt problem is moving beyond Greece, Portugal, and Ireland and is now threatening Italy and Spain.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Voters in Italy soundly rejected a three-part referendum in voting Sunday and Monday 12-13 June, handing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi a defeat that he acknowledged Sunday evening. The referendum asked Italians if they wanted to reject legislation covering three issues:
- a return to a nuclear energy programme
- privatization of water resources
- government officialls’ exemption from the obligation to appear in court if called to trial because of government duties.
Voter turnout was the largest in more than 15 years, 57 percent, despite Berlusconi’s appeal to citizens to boycott the opposition-sponsored referendum. The proposals were rejected by more than 90 percent.
Berlusconi himself currently faces three trials for corruption and one where he is charged with having sex with an under-age prostitute.
Links to other sites: CS Monitor, Deutsche Welle, Irish Times
Italian side of the Simplon pass, March 2011
Updae 19:00 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in canton Valais re-opened the Simplon road pass between Italy and Switzerland Friday morning after closing it for more than 24 hours following a fire in the Simplon rail tunnel. The fire broke out in a freight train early Thursday shortly after the train left Iselle, in Italy, heading for Switzerland. There were no injuries, but as of Friday afternoon smoke was still a problem in the tunnel and trains are being rerouted until at least Saturday noon.
The CFF rail companies has announced the following changes, until further notice:
Passengers from Basel, Geneva and Lausanne heading for Milan: take another route
Passengers travelling from Geneva / Lausanne to Milan’s Central station should take the EuroCity trains (EC) Genève – Lausanne – Milano Centrale and change in Brig + Domodossola. The CFF asks passengers to allow for a longer travelling time.
Passengers travelling from Basel SBB / Olten / Bern to Milano Centrale or vice versa should travel via Luzern / Zürich HB – Chiasso and allow for a longer travelling time.
Hotline
The CFF rail company hotline for updates, from inside Switzerland: 0800 99 66 33.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Silvio Berlusconi’s stronghold of Milan, his hometown, as well as Naples, appear to have elected leftist mayors in local elections, with a clear swing away from the centre-right that has been key to Berlusconi’s coalition government, in voting Sunday 29 May.
The first round of voting two weeks ago made it clear that the two cities might be lost to the prime minister, but Sunday’s voting, with the total not yet confirmed, appears to back this. Political analysts in Italy are scurrying to assess what this means for the leader and his party, but newspapers in neighbouring Italy are already focusing on Berlusconi’s trial for sex with an under-age prostitute, which resumes Tuesday 31 May.
Links to other sites: Corriere della Sera, CNN, Guardian,
Geneva customs officials destroy 24 Le Corbusier fake LC2,LC3 and LC4 chairs and sofas
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva consumers’ chance to buy cheap fake and illegal designer furniture took a beating 11 May. Twenty-four top designer name chairs and sofas would have had a shop sales value of CHF100,000 if they had been the real thing, but as fakes the copycat Le Corbusier and other name furniture would have been sold in Geneva for closer to CHF15,000 total.
Wednesday, in front of a crowd of journalists, Swiss Customs had a large bulldozer roll back and forth over the pile of confiscated goods until they were a flattened mass of cheap leather, twisted metal and plastic bits.
The counterfeit furniture was imported from China by what authorities say is a Geneva city centre well-known furniture boutique, whose name is not given because the case faces possible litigation. Nearly 80 percent of counterfeits that were seized in Switzerland in 2010 came from China.
The goods were seized 16 March by the Geneva Customs office on suspicion of fraud.
Italian license holder asked for fakes to be destroyed
Gianluca Armento of Cassina talks to reporters
Cassina, an Italian company which holds the exclusive worldwide licence to produce Le Corbusier furniture, was contacted by customs officials about the imports, and it asked that the fakes be destroyed. The importer also faces a fine, the amount of which has not yet been determined; if the shop is discovered to be a repeat offender, it risks being closed.
Customs officials and Cassina managers who were present Wednesday declined to say how much a fine might be: the number of copies, the history for importing fakes of the shop and other factors are part of the calculation.
The most likely scenario, says Cossina’s director, Gianluca Armento, is that his company and the importer will reach a private but legally binding agreement on the fine. The shop has not been caught importing fakes in the past, but is suspected of doing so, one customs officer told GenevaLunch.
Fake designer furniture a growing problem
The public destruction of the goods is designed to send a message to importers, who, according to Armento, are aware of what they are buying, and to consumers, who may not be. The problem of fake designer furniture is growing, with Armento and the customs officials who hosted the media event Wednesday agreeing that it is now an industry of at least €500 million a year.
Swiss customs officials are working closely with several industries, including furniture makers, to be able to better spot likely counterfeit products. Customs seized iimported bulk goods, not counting pharmaceuticals and precious metals, 2,741 times in 2010, compared to 470 in 2007, 1,176 in 2008 and 1,622 in 2009. The value of the goods (calculated as the value of the real product) was CHF4.7 million in 2009 and CHF7.21m in 2010.
Most of the fakes come from Italy, says Armento, but there is a new twist, and the Geneva seizure is a good example: Italian fake designer manufacturers are cutting their own costs by bringing in underpaid Chinese workers or having all but the finish on the furniture done in China. “They’re avoiding paying social costs in Italy and finding manufacturers in China who don’t pay them, so they’re really exploiting Chinese workers. They’ll do anything to lower costs. They just finish the pieces in Italy.”
Copies are illegal – forget what the salesman says
The designer copy business sparked debates in Italy for several years, but Michel Bachar, head of communications for the federal customs office, says there are clearcut intellectual property issues and consumers should not be fooled by sales people who say copies are legal.
They are rife on the Internet, but, Armento points out, it is impossible to judge quality online, and this is the consumer’s greatest protection: the licensed products use better quality materials and the hidden structure conforms to specifications set by the designer.
The 24 pieces of furniture included, for example, copies of the LC2 and LC3 chairs and sofas, and the LC4 chaise longue, designed by Le Corbusier working with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, in 1928. They quickly became cult objects as emblems of modern design, and they were often copied.
Le Corbusier designated the license holder
Furniture designer Cassina opened its doors in Italy, near Milan, in 1927. In 1964 the “Cassina I Maestri” (Cassina Masters) collection was born and the company acquired the rights to products designed by Le Corbusier, Jeanneret and Perriand. Le Corbusier himself granted the worldwide exclusive license to Cassina in 1964.
Le Corbusier’s real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret. The Swiss designer and architect was from the Swiss town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds, which will celebrate his 125th birthday in 2012.
Consumers should check the quality
Raymond Pfaff, country manager for Cassina, says that consumers shopping for the real thing need to know how to check for quality differences. In the case of the Le Corbusier pieces destroyed Wednesday, the shoddy workmanship of the curved metal joints and the and mediocre thin leather used made it quickly apparent that these were cheap copies.
The value of designer pieces to the owner, says Pfaff, lies not just in the look of the iconic pieces and what they represent in the history of design, but in the fine quality of the materials and their durability, their timelessness.
Diligent customs officials are catching some of the fakes, but it’s a daunting task, says Pfaff, with Italian fakes coming via truck into Switzerland, without any mention these are designer name pieces of furniture, and from The Netherlands if they are shipped to Europe from China.
The non-profit Stop Piracy organization was recognized by the Swiss government in 2009, and the group of 40 organizations that are members, has been working closely with Swiss Customs, training staff to spot counterfeit goods, among other projects.
Details of drama gradually coming to light, Europe may see more refugees
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A boat carrying 600 people fleeing Libya foundered shortly after leaving the country’s capital Friday 6 May and the number of people lost is still unknown, according to UNHCR‘s (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming. Almost 2,400 people, including many women and children, arrived on five boats at the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa the weekend of 7-8 May. The IOM (International Organization for Migration) has also been monitoring the situation closely, and the two Geneva-based humanitarian agencies say details remain murky for now.
Survivors and family members reported to UNHCR before Friday’s disaster that other vessels fleeing Libya have been running into problems, and there are as many as 800 people unaccounted for.
Europe is new goal for those desperate enough to escape by sea
Since the Libyan crisis started, Europe has received fewer than 2 percent of those escaping the conflict, with most people escaping to Egypt and Tunisia, but this latest in the long string of unsafe sea crossings highlights a shift – an increasing number of people risking the dangerous journey by sea.
More than 11,000 migrants of various nationalities have arrived in Italy from Libya since the crisis started in mid-February.
“All five boats needed rescuing by the Italian coastguard and maritime police, with one boat running aground close to the Lampedusa shore. Yesterday three bodies washed ashore, thought to have been passengers from the boat that ran aground,” says Fleming.
Migrants who witnessed the accident Friday and who were waiting on land changed their minds about getting to Italy by sea, but Libyan soldiers and officials fired their guns indirectly to force them onto a waiting boat, the IOM reports.
The vessels used by people fleeing Libya are often not seaworthy and overloaded. UNHCR first appealed in early April to European countries to establish more reliable and effective mechanisms for sea rescue.
“We reiterate that call today,” Fleming says. The UNHCR is also calling for all Mediterranean shipmasters to provide aid to people in distress. “UNHCR urges states, commercial shipping companies and others present in the Mediterranean to consider that all boats leaving Libya for Europe are likely to require assistance.”
The IOM hopes to continue evacuating migrants from Misrata to help prevent more disasters. With funding from the Australian, British, German, Irish and US governments, and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office, the IOM says it has already evacuated more than 6,000 people from Misrata to Benghazi.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Italy’s woes with finding a solution to the rubbish dilemma in Naples have not ended: Sunday night the government sent in military troops, for the second time in three years, to remove increasingly smelly piles from the streets. Firefighters are reported by Italian media to have put out 28 fires that started in rubbish heaps, over the weekend, which the BBC reports have been started by angry residents. AFP says 4,100 tons of uncollected garbage are sitting in the streets, although CNN says there are 2,000 tons while some Italian media say 3,000 tons.
Italy drew down the wrath of the European Commission in 2009 after failing to find a solution to the problem, which made headlines in 2007 and 2008. The EC said that if it did not literally clean up its act there would be financial repercussions.
The underlying problem is a lack of incineration facilities and overflowing landfill sites. Residents want the rubbish hauled out but no home or alternative has been found. The company that collects it argues that the problem is not collection but that once collected, there is nowhere to take it. Meanwhile, city officials are trying to disinfect the rotting heaps.
Links to other sites: BBC, Corriere del Mezzogiorno (It)
Escalating violence by Syrian government against its citizens drawing sharp rebukes
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States Wednesday 27 April in Geneva initiated a special session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Syria. France announced that it has called in the Syrian ambassador for an explanation of his government’s attacks on its own citizens, along with four other European governments: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Late Wednesday news agencies received a statement that 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the city of Banias, scene of protests, have resigned over deaths this week and the violence used on protesters.
Syria was accused by US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, representative to the UNHRC in Geneva, of “the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests last week.” Donahoe stated, in initiating the special session, that “we strongly condemn the killing, arrest and torture of hundreds of Syrians by the Syrian authorities. It is entirely appropriate that the Human Rights Council condemn willful government violence against peaceful political protestors. At the Special Session we expect Human Rights Council members to call on the government of Syria to meet its responsibility to protect its population and stop these attacks.”
photo: Xavier Haepe / wikipedia (flickr.com/people/vier)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Union’s frayed edges were showing Tuesday 26 April as governments and their citizens absorbed the newly published figures for sovereign debt and deficits, some worse than expected, while Italy and France called for reforms of Schengen rules in the face of massive immigration from North Africa.
Eurostat, the statistical office for the European Union, published 2010 figures for the euro area and the 27-member area, showing the five countries with the largest deficits (budget spending outstripping revenues) in terms of percentages of GDP (gross domestic product) to be: Ireland (32.4%), Greece (10.5%), the United Kingdom (10.4%), Spain (9.2%) and Portugal (9.1%). Greece had agreed not to let its deficit go deeper than 9 percent, the BBC points out.
Deficits on the whole decreased in 2010 compared to 2009 while debt and GDP increased, says Eurostat.
Five countries above 90%, debt ratio to GDP
Government debt (amount owed long-term by the government) declined as a whole but the debt ratio to GDP remained at significantly high levels for several countries.
“Fourteen Member States had government debt ratios higher than 60% of GDP in 2010: Greece (142.8%), Italy (119.0%), Belgium (96.8%), Ireland (96.2%), Portugal (93.0%), Germany (83.2%), France (81.7%), Hungary (80.2%), the United Kingdom (80.0%), Austria (72.3%), Malta (68.0%), the Netherlands (62.7%), Cyprus (60.8%) and Spain (60.1%).”
US, Swiss debt ratio compared to European ratios
The US debt, by comparison, is about 97 percent of GDP, a fact emphasized by the warning issued by S&P’s 18 April on the federal debt.
Switzerland’s federal debt was about 20 percent of GDP in early 2010, and with communal and cantonal debt added in, it stood at about 40 percent, well below the G20 average (closer to 100) and the average of most of Europe. Reuters, in December 2010, reported that Bern “expects Switzerland’s overall public debt to fall to around 37 percent of gross domestic product according to international standards next year [2011], less then half of the rate predicted by the OECD for the euro zone.”
Government spending decreased in 2010 in the two zones as a whole, while revenues were essentially static: “Government expenditure in the euro area was equivalent to 50.4% of GDP and government revenue to 44.4%. The figures for the EU27 were 50.3% and 44.0% respectively. In both zones, the government expenditure ratio decreased between 2009 and 2010, while the government revenue ratio remained almost unchanged.”
British military spending data questioned
Two countries prompted “reservations”, Romania and Great Britain, the latter for concerns over its reporting of military spending: “Eurostat is expressing a reservation on the quality of the data reported by the United Kingdom, due to uncertainties on the time of recording of military expenditure. The United Kingdom does not record military expenditure on a delivery basis, as required by the relevant Eurostat Decision of 9 March 2006.”
EU figures compared to Switzerland, USA
The warning by S&P’s 18 April on the US federal debt underscored it’s
Schengen rules don’t fit current situation, France and Italy argue
France and Italy, which have been at odds over how to handle large numbers of North Africans flowing across Europe’s southern borders, joined forces Tuesday on the occasion of a French-Italian summit. Leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi have jointly sent off a letter to Brussels, they said, underscoring their commitment to the Schengen agreement on the free movement of people but insisting that the agreement needs to be reformed.
They did not specify what this would involve, but they cited the exceptional circumstances caused by events in North Africa, according to Le Monde (Fr).
Complete table, by country, from Eurostat
The Greek dilemma, Economist, 26 April 2011
Italian PM told foreign press he would not stand again for election
Will he run or won’t he: Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, appeared to make it clear to foreign reporters at a dinner 12 April that he will not run for re-election after his current term runs out in 2013. The Guardian and the Wall Street Journal reported that he mentioned Angelino Alfano as his likely successor to head his PDL party. But the PM’s party and his personal spokesperson Paulo Bonaiuti now say Berlusconi’s words were “over-emphasized” and that “it’s better to keep in context statements made in a relaxed chat at the dinner table. They’re not the sort of thing you can report in such an incontrovertible manner. Nothing has been decided.”
Alfano is Berlusconi’s justice minister and the man who drafted a bill that will halt some of the Italian leader’s multiple court cases. Berlusconi is currently standing trial for having paid sex with an under-age girl but other cases involving corruption are in the wings.
One of the cases that will be stopped after Alfano’s bill was passed last week involves charges that the prime minister bribed his British lawyer, David Mills. The bill is designed to speed up Italy’s notoriously slow and backlogged court cases.
The Guardian reports that “one result is that action will not now be taken against builders, officials and property developers suspected of responsibility for deaths that occurred during the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. More than 300 people died – many in buildings allegedly constructed with sub-standard materials.”
Links to other sites: Corriere della sera (Eng), Guardian
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Italy has reacted angrily after France stopped trains at the Ventimiglia-Menton border for several hours Sunday 17 April, to prevent North Africans entering the France. Italy has given temporary visas to thousands of Tunisians, according to the BBC, in the wake of the overthrow of Tunisia’s government, despite both Italy and France stepping up measures to stem the flow of immigrants from North Africa. The visas issued by Italy allow them to travel throughout the Schengen area, Italy says, under European Union rules, but France argues that they must show they can support themselves.
The Italian ambassador in Paris was instructed by his foreign minister to tell the French government of the “strong” protest by Italy to the halt, undertaken by the prefecture in France’s Alpes-Maritimes region. Italy insists the temporary visas are in line with EU regulations.
Italy has been negotiating with Tunisia over terms for repatriating illegal immigrants, including how to keep the returns low key to avoid too much publicity.
16 refugees drowned, 5 went missing just 2km from Yemen’s shores
The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva last Friday issued sharp words to ships at sea who ignore troubled refugee boats, after the latest incident in which 16 people drowned and five went missing after an overcrowded boat from Somalia sank off the coast of Yemen. The survivors say they appealed to a passing cargo ship that ignored them. The UNHCR has previously said the number of such incidents, in the Gulf of Aden but also in the Mediterranean, may be increasing and Friday it appealed to shipmasters “to uphold the longstanding tradition of rescue at sea and helping vessels in distress.”
Links to other sites: BBC, Le Monde, Courriere della sera (Eng) and Courrierre front page (Ita)
Italy’s Berlusconi in court circus is under way, with one of the four court cases in which he is a defendant opening, then adjourning today, the first in what is widely expected to be a series of legal maneuvers. The BBC reports that about 20,000 pages will be reviewed as part of the case where the Italian prime minister is accused of having sex with an under-age prostitute. He is charged with corruption in one of the other cases; he denies both charges and has said they are politically motivated.
Links to other sites: BBC, Los Angeles Times
LA Times video
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:
Alessia, Irina and Livia Schepp
Update 28 March Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The maternal grandfather of missing twins Alessia and Livia has posted a letter on the family’s Facebook page, harshly criticizing the chief Swiss investigator for raising the possibility the children might have been murdered by their father.
He also takes Vaud police to task for not responding quickly enough Sunday night 30 January, the evening Matthias Schepp and his six-year-old daughters disappeared.
Pascal Gilléron, chief investigator in canton Vaud in the case of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, told a Fribourg newspaper in an interview 25 February that officials are now considering more closely the possibility that the six-year-old girls’ father killed them.
Vaud police investigators have scheduled a press conference Wednesday late afternoon, following a meeting with their French and Italian counterparts.
Open letter from twins' maternal grandfather (click on image to enlarge)
The children disappeared, with their father, 30 January from their village of St Sulpice near Lausanne, and while many of his steps have been traced, the thread for the girls’ movements was lost.
The three-country investigation will move back to Switzerland next week, he told La Liberté, to confirm information already gathered by police in Switzerland.
He added that it appears nearly certain the children were not killed in Switzerland. The chief investigator in France some weeks ago suggested the possibility that the father threw the girls overboard, off the ferry, between mainland France and Corsica.
The twins’ mother, Irina Lucidi Schepp, still holds out hope that her children are alive. She thanked supporters and volunteers in a new video Wednesday 23 March.
International sports, Six Nations rugby
Twickenham, London (GenevaLunch)- England put on a solid but uninspired performance to get past Scotland 22-16, 13 March. The English team have dominated their games this season but were held 9-9 at half-time and never really got going in the second till a try by Tom Croft. The win leaves the team top of the Six Nations race and if they beat Ireland in Dublin 19 March it will mean a Grand Slam.
Italy scored their first ever Six Nations win over France, winning by 22-21 with Bergamasco kicking 17 points. The French trainer responded by dropping six players for the final game against Wales, and stated that some had played their last game for France. Wales were lucky to beat Ireland 19-13 when the Welsh scored from a quick but illegal throw in from a line-out.
Links to other sites: Six Nations, L’Equipe
Possible links to two women not confirmed
Twins reportedly did not arrive in Italy with father
Missing Swiss twins, Alessia and Livia Schwepp, age 6, 115 cm tall, blond hair
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The paucity of confirmed information continues in the search for missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, as Italian police in the Foggia district tell Italian media that the father’s GPS car navigation system has provided no new clues. The GPS was found in pieces around the train tracks in Cerignola, southern Italy, some 150 metres from where the girls’ father, Matthias Schepp,committed suicide.
Italian news agency Ansa reports that Italian prosecutor Vincenzo Russo confirmed that initial research to piece together information from the GPS has turned up nothing, but the bits and pieces have now been sent to the manufacturer in the hope of discovering more about the father’s travels.
Russo also told Ansa that he can now confirm the children did not accompany their father when he arrived in Italy. He provided no details but says that despite the mother’s conviction the girls are alive, hope is fading.
Swiss police say no link to rumoured connections with missing woman
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Irina Lucidi Schepp, the mother of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia, appeared on the Italian television programme “Domenica cinque” Sunday, on channel 5, saying that she cannot believe a man who loved his daughters could kill them, and until she sees them she will find it hard to accept that possibility.
She also told her Italian interviewers that several riddles or mysteries remain. She saw a woman’s coat at the home where the husband from whom she was separated lived, but she has no idea who it belongs to, and the woman has not returned to claim it. She has asked those who knew her husband if he was having an affair and the answer appears to be no.
Swiss police said several days ago they have no evidence Matthias Schepp was involved with another woman.
Italian media have been suggesting the Schepp may have in some way been involved with a 27-year-old woman who has been missing from canton Fribourg since 25 January, five days before the father and his twin daughters disappeared. Eric Cottier, Swiss magistrate for the case, who was also interviewed for the Italian TV programme, says he doesn’t believe so.
Italian police are also reportedly checking a pen that may have been acquired by the father on his return from Corsica, found near the place where he died, to see if there is evidence the children handled it. They continue to try to glean information from the shattered GPS navigation system from Schepp’s car.
Cottier and police in canton Vaud continue to insist that all possibilities remain open, however, including the possibility that the twins never left Switzerland.
Matthias Schepp committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train in Cerignola, southern Italy, 3 February.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), Il gironale (Ita)
Matthias Schepp’s treasured tape recorder may have been found in Italy
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in three countries have issued no new reports Wednesday morning 16 February on their progress searching for missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp. The mother, Irina Ludici, in an interview with 20 Minuten in German, mentions questions that have been raised, notably about the father’s presence in Lyons.
Matthias Schepp, was close to the airport in Lyons, France, not the logical route to take to Marseille or the one most likely proposed by his GPS navigation system. This is also the end of the trail of his cell phone. The girls’ mother is quoted by 20 Minutes as asking “We’re wondering if Matthias met an accomplice at the airport”.
The online daily notes that this might explain who was watching the girls while the father went into a travel agency in Marseille alone to buy three tickets for the ferry to Corsica.
20 Minuten also reports that a tape recorder, an older model that the father always kept with him, was found by Italian police, but this has not been confirmed officially.
Police from the three countries investigating the disappearance of the two six year olds are meeting today in Marseille to compare notes.
In other reported developments, none of them confirmed by investigators:
- French television TF1 reports that French police continue to search beaches in Corsica and spent Tuesday 15 February combing the area at the northern end of the island
- Macinaggio is reported by several media to have piqued police searchers’ interest, based on reports by a man in his 60s who claims to have seen Matthias Schepp with a blond woman in the passenger seat, in a parked, muddy car with Swiss license plates, near the harbour
- Police in Corsica are also checking wells and ancient furnaces among the ruins in Macinaggio, according to 20 Minutes.
- Ansa, the Italian news agency which has been closely following the story, reports that there have been no new elements.
The hamlet of Brignano Gera d’Adda near Bergamo in northern Italy has been swearing, so watch your step or at least your mouth when you pass through. Italy used to consider taking the name of God in vain a small crime, but it relaxed the law in 1998.
Now the village priest near Bergamo, fed up with hearing too many swear words, has taken his complaint to the town council, which has “has passed an ordnance prohibiting profanity ‘in all commercial and business activities, public and private’”, reports news agency Ansa.
“It condemns ‘anyone of any religion, ethnicity and provenance’ whose swearing imprecates against God or other religious figures like the Madonna.”
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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.
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.
Irina Lucidi Schepp, was interviewed by TSR 9 February outside her home n Saint Sulpice, her first public appearance since the girls went missing
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of the missing Swiss twins, Alessia and livia, appealed directly to people in Switzerland, France and Italy Wednesday evening 9 February to give police even the smallest scraps of possible information they might have about the two blond six year olds.
Irina Lucidi Schepp appeared first on TSR in Switzerland, live on the evening news, then on a nightly news bulletin in France and a longer programme in Italy.
The family has added the appearances to the Facebook page created to help the search, which is mainly in Italian.
French TV appearance, Irina Lucidi
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.
