LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Shhh, Bill Clinton was in town. And Sean Penn tagged along. But a loud silence surrounded the visit by former US President Clinton, who gave a “private” keynote speech (no journalists invited) to participants in what IMD business school labelled an “Inspire for Excellence” regional symposium Sunday 20 May at 17:00.
Clinton’s topic, at a forum focusing on why sustainability is important, was Embracing Common Humanity”.
Seats started at CHF550 and all proceeds are to go to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) that he founded in 2005. Its members are organizations from the private and public sectors, and civil society who want to maximize their efforts to create a cleaner environment, alleviate poverty, and increase access to health care and education.
Police in Vaud were prepared for the visit but also for the unplanned, according to 24 Heures, which cites Vaud gendarmerie head Olivier Botteron as saying that when working with the US Secret Service, the program changes constantly. The newspaper says that Penn, who is devoting himself to helping rebuild Haiti, popped up from the Cannes Film Festival in southern France.
Loose wood and petrol in the tunnel caused huge detour and 20km traffic jam at start of holiday
Motorists coming out of the 20km traffic jam were met near Vevey by a very local cloudburst that did little to speed up traffic
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud police are looking for a driver who lost a pallet of wood Wednesday afternoon on the A9 autoroute. The wood slid off the unknown vehicle about 100 metres into the Flonzalley tunnel after Lausanne, heading in the direction of Vevey. The wood scattered and was run over by eight vehicles, hitting the gas tank of one of them. Several other vehicles that either hit or tried to avoid the wood were spun off the road.
Fortunately, say police, there were no victims, but the damage to property is considerable.
The petrol that spilled from the damaged tank spread along several hundred metres in the tunnel. Police quickly closed off the area for 25 minutes and sent some of the traffic on a long detour towards Yverdon and Bern before it headed back in the direction of Valais.
One lane was opened later, but with traffic was predictably heavy at the start of the four-day Ascension holiday weekend, a traffic jam some 20km long bogged down traffic as far back as the Ste Croix junction at Crissier. Traffic moved at a crawl until well after 18:00, when both lanes were opened, just as very local showers hit the area.
The accident required six police teams, fire trucks, special highway department units and a high-pressure cleaning machine.
Police are asking anyone with information about the driver and the vehicle that was carrying the wood to contact them at +41 21 644 4444 or to contact the nearest police station.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The new doubledecker trains called Duplex Regio CFF that will be put into service on two lines by 9 December 2012 had their first ride on the rails Thursday 26 April. The trains were unveiled for officials and guests on a run from Romont to Geneva.
The trains are part of a fleet of 13 that will provide 33 percent more seats and more trains overall in French-speaking Switzerland. Passenger traffic in the region has increased by 44 percent in the past eight years.
The new trains, which each have 337 seats (277 in second class), will be used on the Geneva-Lausanne-Romont and Geneva-Lausanne-Vevey CFF lines. The trains will be doubled during rush hour, with 674 seats each.
They will be put into operation progressively, with the first one going into service in June. The CFF will hold open houses in September in seven cities to introduce the public to the new trains.
One of the most recently added velopass stations: EPFL's Innovation Quarter, in Lausanne, in November 2011 (photo: velopass)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland now has a national self-service bicycle rental system, with the purchase by PostBus Switzerland for an undisclosed sum of the Lausanne company velopass. PostBus moved into the mainly urban bike rental business in August 2011 when it opened its PubliBike network in German-speaking Switzerland. Velopass has the country’s largest bicycle-sharing system, with 11 cities that operate 20 networks in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
The group has some 800 bicycles, 11,000 subscribers and has logged more than 245,000 bike rentals since it opened in 2009.
The new deal combines the two to provide national coverage and passes purchased for either one will be valid throughout the combined network. PostBus calls it the “logical outcome of close cooperation between the two companies in the central Valais canton network (Sion) since November 2010″. The company says the bicycle sharing system “brings added value to Switzerland’s current public transportation system services”.
The nine employees of velopass will keep their jobs under the new owner.
Bicycle-sharing is used mainly by commuters and city-dwellers rather than tourists in Switzerland, although the bicycles are available for 24 hour passes. Annual subscriptions cost CHF25 to 60 a year depending on how much of the network the client chooses to access. The first 30 minutes are free and cyclists pay CHF1 an hour after that. Regional and national passes come with two free hours.
The passes can be ordered online, including 24-hour passes that cost CHF5 (plus a one-time registration fee of CHF10), but three days must be allowed for delivery by mail.
Another bike rental system that combines well with the public transport systems is Rent-a-bike, run by the CFF rail company.
Nestle in Vevey
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Nestlé is having a good week: Thursday 19 April its annual general meeting it smoothly re-elected Paul Bulcke chief executive officer for the next five years and there were fewer clashes with protesters, the European Patent Office has handed Nespresso a victory and Friday Q1 figures were released showing 7.2 percent organic growth.
Nespresso’s victory, announced at the annual general meeting, was perhaps the least certain of this week’s successes for the company, although the copyright battle over single pod capsules could have a last stand. The European Patents Office upheld an earlier decision backing Nespresso’s patent on the pods that work with its machines. Three companies, Sara Lee Corp, Ethical Coffee Co. and Vergagno in Italy have been fighting the patent. The EPO’s court of appeals is now the last resort for the three.
The company’s financial results for the first quarter show sales up 5.6 percent to CHF21.4 billion, with acquisitions responsible for 3 percent of the increase. Foreign exchange had a 4.6 percent negative impact, says the food multinational.
Bulcke’s assessment: “In many developed markets where consumer confidence is low, the trading environment is subdued whilst in most emerging markets, conditions remain dynamic and rich in growth opportunities. Our past and present investments, and continuing innovation, have enabled us to deliver good growth in the first quarter.”
The first Friday of the month from March to November.
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Link out: http://vendredi.artisans-createurs.ch/
Date: 4 May 2012
Lights out Saturday night for Geneva's most important buildings
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The city of Geneva is one of 30 in Switzerland that will join the worldwide Earth Hour project and turn out lights on public buildings Saturday 31 March from 20:30 to 21:30.
This is the fourth year of Earth Hour, begun by WWF, designed to raise awareness of climate change and the impact on our environment. One billion people are expected to be affected by this year’s lights out action in 135 countries. Some 5,000 cities are taking part around the world.
Geneva is home to the World Meteorological Organization, the global climate measurement centre. The city’s most important buildings, where the lights will go out, include: Palais Eynard, Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, Monument Brunswick, Grand Théâtre, musée Rath and the Conservatoire de musique (place Neuve), ‘île Rousseau (bastion entourant l’île), Eglise russe, Temple de Saint-Gervais, pont Sous-Terre, Palais Wilson, Musée Voltaire, Temple de la Fusterie, Poste du Mont-Blanc.
Police in Vaud and Geneva join forces to combat cross-border theft
Number of assaults in Geneva fell in 2011
Violent crimes fell in Geneva in 2011: orange shows simple injuries and yellow serious plus homicides (Source: Geneva Police / OFS statistics)
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Geneva tops the Swiss list for a 2011 rise in property crimes, including break-ins and theft, but Lausanne, Basel, Bern and Zurich also saw increases last year that outpaced population growth and were well above the national average of 71 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Geneva’s violent crimes, including all degrees and forms of assault, fell in 2011, however; one exception was the increase from 4 (2008) to 15 knife attacks, in four years.
Urban border regions in western Switzerland in particular have seen cross-border burglary increases and Tuesday the cantonal ministers in charge of police for Geneva and Vaud announced a joint task force to step up coordination with French police to tackle the problem.
They are also calling for tougher penalties against repeat offenders and note that the “Lake Geneva region appears to have become a privileged target for robbers.”
Two features of the cross-border crime that are worrying police in Geneva, reports swissinfo, are the number of under-age Balkans working in theft in a stretch from Milan to Paris and a shift from street crime to burglaries by a group of about 400 North Africans living illegally in Geneva.
Burglaries in Geneva rose 29 percent in 2011, break-ins 19 percent and vehicle theft 9 percent
The new European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics 2010 indicates that Switzerland has one of the highest rates of criminal problems linked to migration, but the most recent figures are five years old, covering 2003-2007, and European reporting standards differ. The UK, for example, records ethnic background rather than nationality for criminals arrested, while Switzerland, which has one of Europe’s highest rates of resident foreigners, lists nationality.
Geneva and Basel are the only two cantons with 2011 crime rates higher than 100 per 1,000: 159 for Geneva and 119 for Basel (source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office)
Crime statistics for Switzerland for 2011 were released Monday by the Federal Statistical Office in Neuchatel, and include cantonal details.
Cantonal police have been releasing highway and accident statistics in the past few days.
Overall, numbers show a mixed safety picture, with property crimes up, more foreigners entering and re-entering the country illegally and who are often linked to other crimes.
Nationwide, violent crimes are down by 7 percent and in the Lake Geneva region there were fewer road accidents.
Geneva was the subject of much media hype in 2011 about personal safety and crime but the statistics don’t bear out complaints that the city is unsafe, physically, although residents and visitors would do well to watch their cars, motorbikes and bags, with theft on the rise.
Vaud saw its overall crime rate jump 18.6 percent, with a 14 percent increase in break-ins and 7 percent increase in robberies. Country-wide the rate of break-ins rose 16 percent. Car theft was up by 4 percent.
A concern in Vaud is the “massive presence of Bulgarian and Romanian prostitutes, implying a potential problem with human trafficking,” the canton notes in a press release. Police closed down immediately 7 of the more than 700 massage parlours they checked during the year.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – An 18-year-old drowned,and two friends who were with him on a small craft in Lake Geneva early Friday morning were hospitalized at the Chuv university hospitals. The three were spotted by a passerby at 06:15 who phoned the 117 emergency number after noticing that they were in trouble in the lake near the Bellerive swimming pool.
Police arrived quickly and took charge of the two who had managed to swim to shore but were suffering from hypothermia. They told police their friend was missing and a search, with the police lake brigade and police units from Lausanne and Morges, as well as a Rega helicopter, got underway.
His body was found soon after, in 2.8 metres of water just 30-40 metres from shore.
The three youths had stolen a small plastic rowboat and were headed towards Morges, on a calm lake, but with the water only 7C. For reasons police say are not yet clear, the boat overturned.
The three were from Neuchatel.
Three Rega air ambulances on 12 March 2012, the first time in the company's history that all three have flown at once. Rega is a Swiss non-profit foundation that in its own words "comes to the aid of people in distress, providing swift, professional medical assistance by air"
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Rega, the Swiss air emergency service, flew three girls home to Belgium today from the Chuv University hospitals in Lausanne, where they were in critical condition until Saturday for one and Monday for the two others.
The three were the last of the children injured in the 13 March Sierre bus crash to be flown home. The crash killed 28 people and injured another 24.
Rega flew home the children and numerous members of their famillies in one of its three ambulance jets. They were flown in a Challenger CL-604 on two flights from Payerne in canton Vaud to Brussels.
Rega carried, in total, 18 children and their family members back to Belgium on nine separate flights.
The company notes in a statement issued by Valais police that “On 16 March – the day of the first repatriations – Rega deployed its entire air ambulance fleet. This was the first time in the history of Swiss Air-Rescue that all three of its jets were in operation at the same time.”
CHUV university hospitals in Lausanne
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The three girls at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne who have been in critical condition since the bus crash in Sierre a week ago are now out of danger, doctors said Tuesday 20 March. The hospital says in a statement that it will now be in touch with Belgian authorities about repatriating the girls in the near future.
One girl came out of her induced coma late last week and the two others have now also come out of their comas and have been able to speak to their parents. The two who suffered concussions and multiple fractures are showing “favourable signs” of neurological recovery and the girl who suffered spinal injuries is showing some movement in her toes and fingers, a positive sign, says the hospital.
All three, it says, are now at the start of a long rehabilitation road.
The other injured children from the 13 March bus crash in a tunnel in Sierre were all flown back to Belgium by the weekend.
The funerals of the children who died will be held Thursday. A contingent of Swiss officials from the police, medical and fire departments as well as city and cantonal officials, all of whom were heavily involved in the rescue operations, are flying to Belgium today to accompany the families for the next two days.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The International Olympic Committee in Lausanne stated 13 March that it will continue to support Dow Chemical as a major sponsor for the Olympic Games in 2012 in London, rebuffing attempts by the government of India to have the company removed. The Times of India and other Indian media report that the Indian Olympic Committee had earlier asked the IOC to drop Dow as a sponsor, out of respect for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster in which some 25,000 people died.
The IOC is quoted as saying it was aware, when discussing sponsorship with Dow, of the Bhopal issue, but since Dow bought Union Carbide, which owned the Bhopal plant, 16 years after the accident, it could not be held liable.
The Indian government then stepped in to ask the IOC to reconsider, but Tuesday it said its decision stands. The Wall St Journal India, in a blog, says that activists in India are calling for a boycott of the London Games and are planning protests.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The SportAccord policy advistory board met for the first time in Lausanne 7 March to help the group create a framework for the use of the .sport domaine name extension. The new board includes representatives from the International Olympic Committee and 24 representatives of international sports federations, several of them based in Lausanne.
SportAccord’s new group will work on defining and operating “the adequate usage policy for the future .sport domain name, specifically in the field of reserved names policy, registrant eligibility, naming restrictions, usage policy and enforcement mechanisms.”
Geneva Motor Show 2011 by Mr Kio, www.facebook.com/IdefixPhotography
BASEL / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three of western Switzerland’s biggest commercial fairs open Thursday 8 March to Saturday, the watch show in Basel, the car show in Geneva, with each expected to pull in tens of thousands of visitors, and Habitat & Jardin, a favourite with apartment dwellers but especially homeowners and wannabes.
The Lausanne show, which attracts 100,000 people, starts in Lausanne Saturday 10 March and the best deal in town is a CFF rail ticket with travel and entry reductions.
This is definitely not a weekend to complain there is nothing to do!
Geneva Motor Show 2012, smaller cars but enough glamour for a quick fix
Lamborghini and Ferrari are putting their fancy wares on display, as usual, for this show that opens the car year in Europe.
Lamborghini’s not-so-subtle press release notes that the company “is presenting the most uncompromising open super sports car of its entire history. The Lamborghini Aventador J is a force of nature on wheels — supremely powerful and supremely open. The Aventador J offers its pilot and co-pilot an utterly indescribable experience of power and dynamics. At the same time, the 515 kW / 700 hp two-seater is a first class technology showcase.”
Ferrari is unveiling its 599 GTB Fiorano replacement, the F12berlinetta.
Geneva Motor Show 2011 by Mr Kio, www.facebook.com/IdefixPhotography
For the more conservative, electric cars are looking increasingly mainstream, with General Motors’s two extended range electrics, Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, jointly named car of the year.
Here’s what world auto industry media are saying about this year’s show as it opens:
“European crisis sheds light on automakers’ excess capacity”, Detroit Free Press“More bad news for midprice carmakers in Europe”, NY Times
“Sexy cars at the Geneva Motor Show”, CBS News Money Watch
“Volkswagen creates more oddball Up! concepts for Geneva show”, Motor Show.
Of course, some people go to see the hostesses (sneak preview in a series of photos by Philippe Tabouriech).
Details on visiting the show are available in English at the Geneva Motor Show site. Hours are 10:00-20:00 Monday to Friday and 09:00-19:00 Saturday and Sunday. Tickets: CHF9 for children to CHF16 for adults. Public transport options are excellent, so while you might have cars on the brain, take the train.
BaselWorld celebrates 40 years with a record watch year for Swiss industry
BaselWorld attracts 100,000 people; it runs from 8 to 15 March and features not just watches but luxury jewelry. This is the 40th year of the fair, with 1,800 exhibitors. The fair kicked off with a statement that 2011 was a record year for the Swiss watch industry “with 30 million
watches exported. Turnover increased by 19.2 percent to CHF 19.3 billion,” announced Jacques Duchêne, president of the exhibitors’ committee, with Asia as “a driving force in the growth of the luxury goods industry. More than half of the exports of the Swiss watch industry are to the Far East.”
2 Navibuses from the N2 Lausanne-Thonon line get their first major maintence job in the CGN boathouse (photo, Copyright 2012 CGN)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The fleet of line N2 Navibuses that link France and Switzerland via Thonon and Lausanne is back in operation as of 27 February, after a two-week winter repairs break.
It was the first such major maintenance job for the two Lake Geneva ferries since they were put into service in 2007.
The boats have carried more than one million passengers and covered 670,000 km, the CGN (
The commuter ferries
Mohamed Bin Hamman, 2010
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne has agreed to hear the case of Mohamed Bin Hammam vs Fifa, the international football body 18 and 19 April.
He was given a life ban from football in 2011 after a scandal surfaced in May over alleged payments for votes in an election bid to unseat Sepp Blattner as president of Fifa.
AP reports that Bin Hammam is also involved in a legal tussle with the Asian football body: “Bin Hammam, who denies wrongdoing, is involved in a second appeal to stop the Asian Football Confederation from replacing him as president.”
The group’s elections are scheduled for March. He earlier lost an appeal to CAS to hear his case against the same group for dismissing him as its president.
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.
Update 10 February: pair found, in good condition
Photos removed to respect family’s privacy
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.
