Fire death, drunk driver victims, high speed chase part of busy weekend emergency services work
Strong winds coupled with frigid temperatures whipped up icy flames on the lake surface Monday morning
Lake Geneva views of opposite shorelines obliterated by heavy waves and two metre high tongues of icy mists Monday 6 February
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A new record low temperature for this winter was set in canton Graubuenden’s Engadine region, in Samedan this weekend: -35.1C.
The death toll from the cold in Europe, now estimated to be over 300 people, continues to rise.
In Switzerland, the icy weekend kept police and firefighters busy, and Touring Club Suisse (TCS), the automobile club, had a record 23,000 calls to help motorists.
Trains are running slow in several areas as the CFF rail company deals with icy lines and other cold-related problems.
Burst pipes caused flooding Saturday and Sunday, notably in Geneva and Lausanne, reports TSR. The head of Swissgrid, which manages the Swiss electricity supply, told NZZ in Zurich this weekend that the country risks blackouts in coming days because the system is pushed to its limits.
A main SSR (public broadcasting) emitter on top of Säntis mountain gave way under pressure from heavy snow, according to 24 Heures, and is using emergency power.
Vernier drunk driver crashes into trio
Police in Geneva were called to Vernier Saturday night where a 25-year-old man with a two-week old grudge against a nightclub worker left the establishment on Chemin des Batailles and got into his parked car, then drove into three young customers of the club, narrowly missing the club employee.
He had been drinking in several night spots and his alcohol level was measured at 1.69 after the accident, according to Geneva police. His victims were a 20-year-old Geneva man who lives in Vernier who was treated at the nearby Hopital de la Tour and two women who were taken to the cantonal hospital. The 19-year-old woman, who is Bolivian and lives in Rolle, is being treated for several facial injuries and the 18-year-old for a broken leg.
The driver continued and crashed into a number of rental cars parked nearby. He is under arrest for attempting to cause severe bodily harm and on other charges, and his license has been lifted.
Lausanne police chase ends in three captured
A car in Lutry with four people suddenly took off Friday when police stopped it and led area police on a high-speed chase as far as Chemin Campagne Pierraz-Portay in Pully, where the passengers took off on foot. Two were caught and arrested, along with the driver, when police discovered a quantity of goods stolens from homes in the Lausanne region. The car had Belgian plates and the two Algerians and one Iraqi were from Belgium, ages 32-35. Police are looking for their partner.
One dead in Martigny fire
One person died and another was saved by firefighters from a second floor balcony of an apartment building early Saturday 4 February when a fire broke out.
The identity of the victim is being established, say canton Valais police.
The first floor apartment was unoccupied. The cause of the fire, at 01:15, is being investigated.
Pair tracked in Paris, may have been seen on A40 in Annecy
Missing mother and daughter, spotted at Bursins autoroute gas station Thursday 26 January
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND / PARIS, FRANCE – Mizué Bachelard and her seven-year-old daughter Hanaé may have been seen in Annecy, Swiss police said Friday. The mother and child disappeared Thursday evening 26 January and have been tracked to Paris. Police in Paris have opened a “worrying disappearance” investigation and police in canton Vaud, Switzerland, have opened an investigation for “putting the life of another in danger”.
A police team from Lausanne is in Paris working closely with French police.
The mother, 35, is described by police as “psychologically fragile”.
The mother and daughter were possibly spotted Thursday 3 February at 02:30 in the morning on the A40, in an autoroute toll booth area, but they say they can’t rule out or be certain the pair seen were Bachelard and her daughter.
French police have traced the woman to Paris Friday 27 January when she appeared at Éditions Albin Michel, 34 bd Edgar Quinet in the 14th arrondissement at 08:30. She had sent the publisher a manuscript by post. At 09:40 that morning she took money from a cash machine on the rue de Sèvre in the 6th arrondissement. The mother and daughter were wearing the same clothes they had on when they were seen at a gas station in Bursins, canton Vaud, Switzerland, the night of Thursday 26 January.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Vaud police at +41 21 644 4444.
Description
Mizué Bachelard is 160cm tall, thin and “wispy”, with chestnut hair (she often wears it tied with a band) and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing a pink pullover, checkered pants or pyjama-style bottoms, and a brown-beige coat.
Her daughter is 120cm tall, thin, with chestnut hair and light blue eyes.
She was wearing a red and white striped pullover, dark pants and a blue jacket with a hood.
Car: blue Nissan Micra car, Vaud license plates VD 551’987 .
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Trains in both directions between Martigny and Sion will not be running again until Friday morning says the CFF rail company, after a heavy load fell from a bridge near Riddes, damaging contacts on the lines.
A bus service will replace local traffic but travellers between Geneva or Lausanne and Brig, including anyone going to resorts in the area, will have to travel via Bern.
Major Swiss highway programme changes announced
Annual highway tax/sticker to jump from CHF40 to 100 by 2015
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The roadworks weren’t welcome at the time, but the switch in Morges from two to three lanes during rush hour, using emergency lanes, has been such a success at reducing traffic jams that the Federal Highway Office plans to set up the same system in Geneva and Lausanne.
The measure is part of a series of highway improvements announced by Bern Wednesday 18 January, with the focus on shifting 378km of cantonal roads to the national highway system by 2014, to better needs today that are the result of a series of urban developments over the past five decades.
Morges again has special treatment, with the office adding a Morges bypass to the list of projects to be developed sooner rather than later, to ease the growing congestion in the Crissier area. The cost: CHF220 million. Details of a likely bypass, published in 2009, call for a larger loop from Morges Ouest (west) to Ecublens.
The A1 around Morges was given three lanes in 2009, for rush hours
The package includes traffic flow improvements for Coppet-Le Vengeron, at a cost of CHF175m.
The number of kilometres driven on Swiss autoroutes has doubled since 1990. Recent studies show a 34 percent increase in 2010 in the number of hours of traffic jams, to 15,910, compared to 2009 In the next 18 years, some 400km of autoroute will regularly suffered congestion.
The Morges area switch to three lanes during rush hours has improved traffic flow, the highway department says, lowered the accident rate by 15 percent in general and 80 percent locally, and it has also brought about a 20 percent reduction in pollution next to roads: CO, CO2 and NOx emissions.
Bern and Winterthur will see their emergency lanes changed in the near future, with Geneva and Lausanne, but also several other areas including stretches along Lake Zurich, scheduled for later.
Automatic signals to reduce speed for better traffic flow to go from 85km to 400km
Hazelnut, Basel, 3 January 2012 (photo: MeteoSwiss pollen forecasts)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Massive amounts of snow cover the Jura and Alps, but on the Lake Geneva region plains the weather has been clement, and for hay fever sufferers that translates into the hazelnut trees budding. Where the air is dry, pollen is already being released.
The amounts are small but measurable near Geneva, MeteoSwiss’s pollen map shows, but by tomorrow in Ticino, with flowering already occurring Thursday 12 January, the rating will go up to “average”, as they have done in some very locally confined areas, such as Buchs in eastern Switzerland.
Flowering of troublesome pollen-bearing plants has been happening earlier since the 1990s, says the national weather service but traditionally this happens anywhere from December to March depending on the combination of a number of factors. Hazelnuts are now forecast to flower 24 January in Geneva and Lausanne, a full two weeks earlier than the average.
MeteoSwiss is now offering a daily pollen forecasting service, in French, German and Italian, with maps showing the daily situation for the main varieties that cause problems. A smart-phone application is free of charge.
SportAccord has produced a video on integrity in sports gambling
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – SportAccord, an umbrella organization for 105 Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations, Wednesday 11 January kicked off its new programme to fight match fixing worldwide.
The programme offers a set of generic tools, free of charge to international sports federations, their athletes and officials, to raise awareness about responsible sports betting behaviour.
The special unit dedicated to sports integrity was set up in 2010. It announced today that “the international sports movement has recognized that the fight against the manipulation of results is an absolute priority and therefore, with the support and expertise of the WLA (World Lottery Association) and the EL (The European Lotteries), the Global Programme has been developed.”
Other SportAccord activities include an online video portal, The Sports Hub, organizing multi-sports games, and special activities centred around doping-free sport, as well as sports’ social responsibility and sports’ integrity.
Lausanne-Geneva train traffic to grow 35% in next three years
View from the rails, Lausanne, 20 December 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The additional CHF90 fine that went into effect 11 December for CFF rail travelers taking the train without a ticket has resulted in half a million francs in additional revenue in 10 days, according to Zurich’s NZZ newspaper 21 December. The CFF’s spokesperson Lea Meyer told NZZ that most passengers are nevertheless traveling with tickets: on average one person is fined for every two trains, some 800 fines a day.
The company said when it announced the sharp increase in fines (in addition to the price of the ticket passengers must pay) that the goal was not to bring in income so much as to reduce the inefficiency and high cost of ticket-takers issuing tickets.
Major extensions to Lausanne station moving ahead
In other Swiss rail news, the CFF in the past week acquired three buildings next to the station in Lausanne, as planned, that will the station to add new lines and double the rail capacity between Geneva and Lausanne by 2025.
The CFF told GenevaLunch this week that traffic on the line is expected to see a 35 percent increase by 2015, in just three years, due to the population growth in the region.
The company had 25,000 travelers a day on the line in 2000 and it has already doubled to 50,000 daily this year. By 2025 it will reach 100,000 a day.
Take precautions, especially around the holidays, with home break-ins on the rise
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The number of dusk break-ins around Lausanne and along the La Côte stretch more than doubled from 1 October to 12 December, compared to 2010, say Vaud police, pointing in particular to organized groups of North African and Balkans origins who have been operating in the area.
Geneva police also cite a steady increase in recent years in the number of break-ins but also simple burglaries and last week they began distributing reminders to all homeowners in the canton of precautions to observe.
There were 530 home break-ins in Vaud, compared to 225 a year earlier, during the same period. The increase for the first three months of 2011 compared to 2010 was only 10 percent, say police.
Take precautions: checklist
The number of home burglaries rises every winter when the nights are longer but given this year’s sharp increase the police are urging people to remember to take preventive measures, particularly with the holidays coming.
IOC President Jacques Rogge, YOG Ambassadors and the Innsbruck 2012 YOG mascot Yoggl at the Olympic Museum (photo ©2011 CIO / Richard Juilliart)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, one of the region’s most popular tourist attractions, will close 30 January for 20 months for major renovations. Entrance to the museum, which has 200,000 thousand visitors a year, is free from 1 December to 29 January.
During the renovations a CGN Lake Geneva boat docked in Ouchy will house a temporary, smaller museum.
The International Olympic Committee is investing CHF55 million to modernize the museum, which opened in 1993.
It will be enlarged, from 2,000m2 to 3,000m2, thanks to its research centre moving to a neighbouring building.
The restaurant will have a green roof and the museum will be equipped with at least 300 screens. The museum will be developing two new areas for school group visits.
The new-look museum will re-open in November 2013.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Hundreds of construction workers went on strike in Geneva and Lausanne as well as other parts of Switzerland Friday 25 November. The workers gathered in the city centres to protest the collapse of collective contracts talks. The talks ended 2 November without an agreement between unions and the Société suisse des entrepreneur; the current contract ends 31 December.
Tunnel-FET technology set to take over from field effect
Tactile screens also on the way
Adrian Ionescu of the EPFL nanoelectronic devices lab
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Computers, cell phones and other electronic devices could be using 100 times less energy starting in just six years, an EPFL researcher in Lausanne writes in a special issue of Nature devoted to transistors, published Tuesday 22 November.
The key: moving from today’s field effect technology to tunnel-FET technology.
Adrian Ionescu is head of the Guardian Angels mega research project, a finalist for a European Union one billion grant. The project aims to design ultra-miniaturized, zero-power electronic personal assistants for a variety of applications, including healthcare.
Tunnel-FET technology is one of the first major stages in the project’s roadmap.
“For research and industry, the power consumption of transistors is a key issue. The next revolution will likely come from tunnel-FET, a technology that takes advantage of a phenomenon referred to as ‘quantum tunneling’, the Lausanne polytechnic institutes says in a statement issued Tuesday. Ionescu’s article focuses on work at the EPFL and in IBM laboratories in Zurich and the CEA-Leti in France, all of which are taking part in Guardian Angels.
Field effect technology, used in today’s transistors, is fast approaching its limits, especially for power consumption, according to the EPFL. With field effect, voltage induces an electron channel that activates the transistor.
Today’s computers have a billion transistors in the central processing unit, the CPU, alone: small switches that turn on and off to provide binary instructions, the 0s and 1s that tell our devices to send e-mails, watch videos and so much more.
Tunnel-FET technology is based on a “fundamentally different principle”
With winter coming on, maintenance work is carried out on the autoroutes, often at night: drivers need to be on the alert for lower speeds, reduced lanes
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 24-year old construction worker from Basel was killed Wednesday night on the A9 autoroute near the Blécherette exit in the direction of Geneva, shortly before 22:00, when a drunk driver hit him and narrowly missed a second worker. The driver, a 27-year-old Frenchman, is being held by canton Vaud police.
The autoroute on the uphill side, direction Geneva, was closed between Blécherette and Villars-St-Croix from 22:10 to 05:00 Thursday for the investigation.
The workers were in a central lane closed to traffic, marked with cones and flashing lane closed signs, while they carried out maintenance on winter salt distributors. Only the right lane was open, with the speed limited to 80kph. The driver joined the autoroute at Blécherette and immediately attempted to overtake another vehicle, in the closed lane. He hit a police cone and then the workers; one was thrown a dozen metres while the other narrowly escaped, but with bruises, say police.
The driver’s alcohol level was 1.9, nearly four times the legal limit, which is 0.5 per thousand in Switzerland.
The construction crews were provided with psychological counseling during the night.
Some serviced is back, but expect delays, disruptions for the morning
Lausanne-Geneva trains, including Brig-Geneva airport line, not running Tuesday morning
Update 09:15 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Trains are back on the track and running btween Lausanne and Geneva, after a 70-minute stop during rush hour on one of Switzerland’s most heavily travelled routes, says the CFF rail company. A signal box breakdown in Coppet was responsible for stopping the trains from 07:30 to 08:40. Repair work will continue until noon, but travellers should expect disruptions and delays for the morning, says the CFF.
Regional and RER trains were not affected, between Geneva and Coppet, and between Lausanne and Allaman, but the breakdown left the Intercity trains unable to make the Lausanne-Geneva connection.
The CFF announced the problem via loudspeakers on the quais and put a team of helpers out to guide people.
Updates in English from the CFF.
Here are details from the CFF, provided at 08:21:
Between Coppet and Gland on the Genève-Aéroport – Lausanne line, no train services are operating.
The Lancy-Pont-Rouge – Genève – Coppet S-Bahn trains are running on schedule.
Trains RE Genève – Lasanne are cancelled between Coppet and Gland.
Trains IR Genève-Aéroport – Lausanne – Brig are cancelled between Genève-Aéroport and Lausanne.
Trains IR Genève-Aéroport – Lausanne – Bern – Luzern are cancelled between Genève-Aéroport and Lausanne.
Trains ICN Genève-Aéroport – Morges – Biel/Bienne – Basel SBB / Zürich HB – St. Gallen are cancelled between Genève-Aéroport and Morges.
Intercity trains Genève-Aéroport – Lausanne – Bern – Zürich HB – St. Gallen are cancelled between Genève-Aéroport and Lausanne.
Passengers travelling from Coppet to Nyon or vice versa travel via BUS TPN11.
Reason: Signal box malfunction
Duration of disruption indefinite.
LAUSANNE / NYON, SWITZERLAND – Novartis plans to close its centre in Prangins, next to Nyon, have sparked protests by employees since the news was announced 27 October, and a new protest is planned in Nyon Friday afternoon. The company now says it sending in an expert from the US next week to explain an audit that figured in its decision. Some 350 people are employed in the company’s Prangins operations.
The Vaud cantonal council voted Thursday 3 November to back the workers and two top officials met with Novartis and union officials to explore options.
Wearing your heart on your sleeve to take on a new meaning
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A tiny new device could soon provide real-time heart monitoring that might help prevent some of the 70-100,000 deaths annually from sudden onset heart attacks. The new tool has yet to be tested in real-life conditions, but cardiologists are enthusiastic about its potential, says EPFL, which developed the medical tool. It is one of several “wireless body sensor networks” (WBSN) tools being developed at the polytechnic university in Lausanne, as part of the huge Guardian Angels project, selected as one of six finalist mega-research projects by the European Union (winner to be announced in 2012).
The project is also looking at similar monitoring systems for other health problems, such as the immediate impact of diet on obese patients.
The device consumes very little electricity and is made up of high-precision body sensors applied to the skin, a ZigBee radio module and a chip that’s optimized for analyzing and processing biological signals.It monitors the heart and detects anomalies, immediately alerting the patient’s cell phone in the case of a problem. Medical personnel are immediately alerted by e-mail and message.
“This system collects very reliable and precise data, it’s equipped with a very effective noise filtering system, and it has batteries that can last for 3-4 weeks at a time,” notes EPFL professor David Atienza, head of EPFL’s Embedded Systems Lab. “Above all it provides an automatic analysis and immediate transmission of data in compressed format to the doctor, preventing him or her from having to work through hours of recorded data.”
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A Swiss Intercity train traveling at 140kph from Yverdon-Les-Bains to Lausanne struck a car whose front wheels were hanging in the space over the railroad tracks in the village of Bavois. The driver, a 74-year-old local man, was killed when his car was thrown 30 metres by the train. The train was not derailed and there were no other injuries.
The accident occurred at 20:00 Monday night 10 October. The man had driven to the Bavois parking lot but, for reasons that are not clear, his car didn’t stop there and continued on towards the quai, with the front of the car slipping over the edge just as the Intercity came rushing through the station.
The train line, a major Swiss rail artery, was closed for part of the evening for the investigation.
New research shows mothers, not just baby bottles, transmit BPA, source of mammary gland changes
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Researchers at the EPFL have shown through experiments with mice that indirect exposure by pregnant women and nursing mothers to Bisphenol A, also known as BPA, most likely predisposes infants to breast cancer by modifying their mammary glands.
BPA is an organic compound present in some plastics and it is the subject of growing concern in the medical world, especially concerning young children. The focus until now has been primarily on the role of plastic baby bottles that emit “a significant quantity of the molecule” when heated, according to the EPFL.
BPA has been the subject of numerous scientific studies, with conflicting research results. The World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization in September 2011 published the results of their ad hoc review of the situation. The report described the widespread exposure to BPA:
“Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that is widely used in the production of polycarbonate (PC) plastics (used in food contact materials, such as baby bottles and food containers) and epoxy resins (used as protective linings for canned foods and beverages and as a coating on metal lids for glass jars and bottles). These uses result in consumer exposure to BPA via the diet.”
It concluded that for now it’s impossible to assess the impact of exposure, but noted that “BPA exposure during the perinatal period
has been reported to alter both prostate and mammary gland development in ways that may render these organs more susceptible to the development of neoplasia or preneoplastic conditions with subsequent exposures to strong tumour initiating or promoting regimens. In the absence of additional studies addressing identified deficiencies, there is currently insufficient evidence on which to judge the carcinogenic potential of BPA.”
The EPFL results would appear to challenge this conclusion.
The Lausanne-based polytechnic institute says that BPA is so pervasive that it is not possible to do a controlled study.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Weekend drivers heading in the direction of Valais from Lausanne on the A1 are being urged by Vaud police to use extra caution in the Blecherette-Venne area, with changes to the lanes Friday, as part of ongoing roadworks. Part, but not all, of the lane-marking work after resurfacing was done during the nights of Wednesday to Thursday, causing some confusion Thursday.
The right lane, shortly after the Blecherette exit is now an exit-only lane and drivers must get off the autoroute at Venne (hospitals exit) if they are in that lane: police point out that switching back to the other lanes across hatched markings is extremely dangerous and illegal; they will be watching traffic for this.
Drivers heading in the direction of Vevey and Valais must use the two left lanes.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Lausanne police Wednesday pulled in 44 of the 91 residents questioned at the Venne refugee centre, the Etablissement vaudois d’accueil des migrants (EVAM), in the city after a dawn raid that continued until 14:00. Authorities seized a quantity of drugs: 232 grams of cocaine, 22 g of heroin and 60 g of marijuana. They also seized CHF42,ooo and a smaller amount of euros in addition to 20 fake CHF100 bills.
The raid involved 158 police officer and several sniffer dogs. It was organized after investigations indicated that several residents were involved in the drug business and theft in the region.
Stolen goods uncovered included 216 cell phones, with one resident alone have 23 of them; 28 laptops, digital cameras and iPods, watches and jewelry.
CHUV in Lausanne
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Chuv university hospitals, which have greatly tightened their financial auditing systems since a neurologist stole nearly CHF5 million to feed his passion for precious books, Wednesday 5 October faced a new theft. A woman who worked in the visceral (internal organs, especially digestive) surgery unit as assistant to the director of the César Roux foundation has been suspended after admitting to taking CHF100,000 to support her gambling habit.
The teaching and research in surgery foundation is not technically part of the university hospitals but is closely linked; since it is not legally part of the Chuv its financial operations are not under the same close scrutiny, a situation the Chuv noted Wednesday it intends to clarify and put in order. The employee had access to documents and had use of a bank card for the foundation, in the name of her boss.
It was only when the professor, her boss, was confronted by the shortfall during an annual audit by a privatr company that the woman was asked to supply receipts corresponding to the amounts she had taken out. She was unable to do so and she then admitted to the crime.
Lausanne (photo, ©2011 overthemoon on flickr, reproduced with permission)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Police in canton Vaud are warning would-be renters to be wary of scams via Internet ads for housing. The fraudulent ads take a variety of forms, with several of them originating in Africa. Some are legitimate sites that have been hacked, while others look legitimate and are signed by lawyers or notaries but they are wholly fictitious.
Be on the alert for these signs that you might be looking at a fake advertisement:
- The apartments are described as high-quality, tastefully furnished, in a modern building but the rent is abnormally low for this type of housing
- The con artists ask what your availability is for a visit and request information by e-mail, such as a copy of your ID, your monthly income and more
- Advertisements in French often use French terms, rather than Swiss ones, to describe the apartment, such as F2, F3 instead of 2 pièces, 3 pièces
- There may be several grammar and spelling mistakes
- They ask for a deposit in advance, one month’s rent, to reserve the apartment. The money requested is to be sent to them via a funds transfer company.
The police suggest that if you suspect that a site is fraudulent or has fake information you contact the owner of the site directly to verify the details.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Lausanne will have more police on the streets weekend nights and a “white hour”, where no alcohol can be served from 05:00 to 06:30, to combat the problem of noise and disturbances of the peace.
The new measures go into effect 1 October. The later weekend opening hours affect only establishments that serve alcohol and will be enforced Saturday and Sunday mornings as well as holidays.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A nine-year-old girl who was hit by a car in Aigle 13 September died Saturday, 11 days after the accident, at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne, Vaud Police say. The 49-year-old man who was driving the car had had his license suspended in 1997 and police say he lied to them about who was driving the car at the time of the accident.
The girl was crossing the Route de Transit, the Aigle ring road, en route to Lausanne from Aigle, at 19:40, when she was hit. The driver and the owner of the car, a 36-year-old who was a passenger, told police the owner had been driving. The friend was aware the driver did not have a license but had loaned his car to the man in the past.
Police say the driver has previously been charged with driving without a license, on a number of occasions.
Meet the teachers, see the refurbished premises, participate in a workshop and learn a lot more about the Lake Leman International School. “Come and see how much fun learning can be!”
Location: Avenue de la Gottaz 34-36, 1110 Morges
Link out: http://www.llis.ch
Date: 24 Sep 2011
Start time: 11:00
End time: 15:00
Zurich, one of three Swiss cities that will benefit from new jobs
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The QS World University Rankings 2011-2012, published independently since 2010 and considered one of the main global education ranking systems, show EPFL in Lausanne slipping from slot no. 32 to 35, but ETHZ in Zurich holding its no. 18 place, just behind McGill in Canada and ahead of Duke in the US.
EPFL has gone up slightly with Leiden and remained at the same level with the Shanghai rankings in recent years, while since ETHZ has held steady with QS and Shanghai but gone up with Leiden. EPFL offers 20 programmes and ETHZ 44.
Swiss state universities that are given a world ranking: The University of Geneva is ranked 71, Basel University 137, Bern 162, Zurich 101.
The QS system was originally published jointly by universities by Quacquarelli Symonds, a UK-based company, jointly with Times Higher Education (THE), but the two split in 2010 to use different methodologies for determining rankings. The new QS system should not be confused with the older THE-QS World University Rankings.
THE publishes its new rankings in October.
Other major rankings systems, most of which show some national bias: Shanghai Jiao Tong, The CHE Ranking, The Leiden Ranking, CHE EUSID, Newsweek, several Financial Times specialty rankings, and the Karriere Hochschulranking.
The Swiss education department publishes a useful web site in four languages (including English) with a searchable data base of all the rankings for comparative purposes.
Highlights of the new QS rankings include:
- Cambridge is number 1 but close behind are Harvard, MIT, Yale and Oxford for the top five
- The top 10 are all US or UK universities
- Chinese mainland universities are inching up, with two of them, Peking and Tsinghua, in the top 50
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The tight housing situation in Geneva is not likely to ease much thanks to new construction, if construction and permits issued in the first half of 2011 are any sign.
Throughout Switzerland, new permits were up by 19 percent, an increase of some 30,000 new units. Five percent more new units were under construction, some 70,000, during the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2010.
Geneva new permits up but total units only 2,000
But the picture for the greater Lausanne and Geneva areas is mixed. Geneva had a 26 percent increase in new buildings in the first half of the year, but buildings under construction were down by 11.3 percent in the second quarter (semester figures not available).
New permits issued during the first six months rose by a 63.5 percent, representing more than 2,000 units.
Lausanne area sees slowdown in building
The greater Lausanne area saw new construction fall during the first half of the year by more than 39 percent, with buildings under construction up 6.7 percent and new permits down more than 11 percent.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – ITU, the International Triathlon Union is settling into its new European office at the International Sports Centre in Lausanne, following its move there in mid-August, the group says in a statement. The move took place around the time of the Dextro Energy Triathlon in Lausanne, one of eight events in a year-long series around the world.
The ITU’s head office remains in Vancouver, Canada and the president’s office in Madrid, Spain. The Lausanne office houses most of the “core” European staff, the group says, including its sport department. The office will be used “to continue to build a strong connection with the IOC and the Olympic family.”
William Fox-Pitt, Britain, made history with a record sixth Burghley victory when winning on Parklane Hawk with just a single jumping time penalty to add to his dressage score (Photo, ©2011 Kit Houghton/FEI)
Stamford, UK – British rider William Fox-Pitt “earned a standing ovation from the rain-soaked crowd as he clinched a record sixth title at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, second-last leg of the HSBC FEI Classics”, according to FEI, the Lausanne-based international equestrian sports federation.
He has now overtaken Britain’s Ginny Elliot and Mark Todd of New Zealand, who each have five Burghley victories to their names, and he has equalled fellow Brit Lucinda Green’s Badminton record of six wins on six different horses.
Fox-Pitt, 42, has been a member of the British team since 1993. He has won Olympic team silver (2004) and bronze (2008) medals, world team gold, silver and bronze, plus individual silver in 2010 on Cool Mountain.
Update 21:50 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Expect change! Geneva Friday night is experiencing heavy storms, as they build up to the east. Trains on the Geneva-Lausanne run are suffering 15-20 minute delays and a tree has fallen on the tracks near Rolle, reports TSR. Valais police have sent out a news alert asking media to inform the public that the danger level is ex 4 out of 5, rather than 4 to 5 – and please, they ask, don’t phone the police for weather forecasts!
Meteoswiss, the national weather service, in May moved to a new system for danger alerts: 4 out of 5 is described as “a dangerous meteorological event is expected that is unusual for the season.”
The weekend weather will shift from Friday afternoon’s occasional bursts of sun to storms starting along the Jura, with hail expected in some areas and falling temperatures.
Weekend highs in the French-speaking part of Switzerland should be 20-22C with evening temperatures falling to 8C. Snow will fall down to 2,000 metres.
The Swiss Alps in canton Valais will have gusting winds but temperatures will be higher thanks to warm, dry foehn winds initially, followed by strong northwest winds in the mountains and breezes in the valleys.
Sunday should be clement, with sunshine and highs of 22C.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The EPFL polytechnic institute in Lausanne and Aimago, a spinoff startup company, have been awarded CHF10,000 and given the top prize of the CTI (federal innovation and technology commission) Medtech Award. Aimago, which makes microcirculation cameras, has developed a camera that measures dermal blood flow. Its main application is likely to be for burns, to more rapidly and accurately determine the degree of burns.
CTI describes how the camera works:
“The Doppler effect allows the measurement of light reflected by red blood cells using a laser beam, to determine the quality of the blood flow. The precise measurement of dermal blood flow offers many advantages, not only for burns injuries, but also for plastic surgery, wound healing, diabetes, rheumatology and neurosurgery. The numerous areas of application provide the ambitious new company from Lausanne with promising business potential.”
The company placed first out of a field of 44 companies that applied for the award. The CTI Medtech Initiative was launched in 1997 and has since supported around 300 projects, says the federal office. Its 2010 budget of CHF10.2 million funded 33 projects; other partners provided an additional CHF14.4m.
