GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, 2 November lost his high court appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden. His lawyers say they will decide in the next 14 days whether or not to appeal to Britain’s supreme court. Assange is wanted by Sweden for questioning over charges of sexual assault filed by two women in relation to an August 2010 visit by Assange to Stockholm.
ABC News in Australia reports that “his mother Christine told the Australian Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that her son was now ‘even closer to a US extradition or rendition. If [the Australian people] don’t stand up for Julian, he will go to the US and he will be tortured,’” she said.
Links to other sites: ABC News, Australia, Guardian, UK, Radio Sweden
Canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 44-year-old German tourist and his three children were found safe after getting lost hiking in the Blatten/Naters region of canton Valais.
According to authorities, the man and the kids had gone on a hike on 18 April but didn’t get back as planned. The wife then called the authorities and the search was launched.
The three kids were found safe near the Aletsch Glacier, although with mild hypothermia, at around 8:30 yesterday Tuesday 19 April. The children said their father had gone searching for help.
The man was later found in Riederalp suffering from mild hypothermia. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Visp.
©2010 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
French Alps, view leaving Geneva airport
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UK-based travel company Thomson, has issued the following statement for passengers who lost their luggage when a small group of baggage handlers went on strike in Geneva 2 January. Thousands of bags were misplaced 2-3 January and many are still being returned, to Thomson customers but also those of some airlines.
“Customers returning from Geneva Airport (GVA) Saturday 2 January 2010
We regret that due to an unofficial handling strike by ramp agents at Geneva Airport (GVA) on Saturday 2 January 2010, ski baggage was not returned to the UK.
Update 12:30, 11 January 2010
We can confirm that all bags from the 2nd of January 2010 have been returned back to the UK from Geneva for onward processing by our Baggage Handling Teams. The remaining bags are currently being matched and tagged for onward delivery.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An 18-year-old Spanish youth who went missing Sunday afternoon in heavy fog while snowboarding in the French Alps has been found alive. The young man was near the resort of Deux-Alpes (map), at an altitude of 3,200 metres, when he became lost in bad weather, which then prevented search parties from finding him. His life is not in danger, say French authorities, although he was suffering from hypothermia and appeared to have given up on being found when skies cleared long enough for a helicopter patrol to find him at 1,275 metres, only 500 metres from the road, as the crow flies.
Rescuers are calling it a miracle, that he managed to get down some 2,000 metres of untraced mountain without any avalanches or cliffs.
Links to other sites: TF1 (Fre), 20 Minutes (Fre)
