GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss jewelers are being hit by a spate of armed robberies, with two people injured Friday morning in Lugano and one person in Gstaad.
The thieves in Gstaad, a luxury resort in the Bernese Oberland region, tied up an employee, who was threatened with a knife, before getting away with several thousand francs worth of watches, say police.
The owner of a jewelry shop in Lugano, canton Ticino, was injured, as was a shop employee, who tried to chase two thieves despite his injuries. One of the thieves was caught, but the other escaped.
Link to photos at the Corriere del Ticino.
The new Lamborghini dealer in Lugano - Photo Lamborghini
CADENAZZO, SWITZERLAND – Italian luxury automaker Lamborghini has opened its fifth store in Switzerland saying it is another step in its “plan for strengthening the Lamborghini sales network” around the country.
Stephan Winkelman, President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, inaugurated the store, run by auto dealer Tarcisio Pasta SA, located in Cadenazzo, near Lugano.
“For us Switzerland is a strategic market as it is within our 10 most important worldwide,” said Winkelman.
The new dealership showroom carries its V10 and V12 product lines, the Gallardo, and its latest Aventador LP 700-4.
The other four Lamborghini showrooms in Switzerland are located in Geneva, Porrentruy, St Gallen and Zurich.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, crippled by injuries since the start of the season, had a turn-around weekend, with two wins to improve their 32-match record, which now stands at 15 wins, 17 losses. Friday night the score in an away match with Rapperswil-Jona was 5-2. Saturday the hometown match against HC Lugano was won 3-1.
Turn on your lights and fill the windscreen cleaner: winter is here!
One in four Swiss road deaths occurs at pedestrian crossings: make sure your lights are set correctly and windscreen cleaner is full with dark, wet days here (photo: TCS)
Lugano and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One in four road deaths in Switzerland occurs at a pedestrian crosswalk, a problem the country shares with the rest of Europe. TCS (Touring Club Suissse) in 2008 embarked on a programme with other automobile clubs in Europe to test pedestrian crossings, and the worst one this year turned up in Lugano. The intersection at the Via San Gottardo and the Via Genzana was given a mark of “very inadequate”, reports news agency ats. Its low marks were due to no traffic lights, very poor light during the day and at night and the difficulty seeing pedestrians that drivers have when they turn right have.
TCS, as part of a national Day of Light 25 November, published a set of reminders for drivers that include these points:
- 90 percent of the information we receive as drivers is visual
- fatigue sharply reduces your ability to process visual information quickly
- night driving cuts visibility by 5-10 percent and rain reduces it even further
- visual acuity is reduced as we get older.
Winter weather brings a reminder to refill your car’s windscreen cleaner liquid, making sure it’s the anti-freeze kind for winter.
Ed. note: the Day of Light organizers have a safety quiz contest with only four easy questions, which require only basic French, and the prizes are handy items like a mountain bike, bicycle helmets, Swiss thermos and safety vests. It runs until 11 February 2010.
International sports, cycling, Tour de Suisse
Lugano, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Fabien Cancellara, Swiss cyclist, took the first leg of the Tour de Suisse race Saturday 12 June in Lugano, winning the against-the-clock race. The title-holder won the 7.6 km race through the streets of Lugano with a time of 10′ 21″ 06, just one second ahead of Roman Kreuziger. American Lance Armstrong came in 44nd, not taking any chances in the streets that were damp from rain towards the end of the race.
Cancellara has been plagued by rumours that he used hidden batteries for uphill runs, with some three million people viewing the YouTube video that purportedly shows this.
Bol d'Or 2009, waiting in Montreux, for boats to arrive
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – There is no shortage of events for sports fans this weekend, on TV but also live and in the region. The World Cup is on, of course: be sure to read our Geneva Living blog for big screen locations throughout the Lake Geneva region.
Bol d’Or: sails go up for 10:00 race start!
The big local event is the beautiful Bol d’Or sailing competition, with hundreds of boats in different classes doing the Geneva-Lausanne-Geneva loop. The races start at 10:00 Saturday morning, so check the wind or better, yet, check the race’s virtual tracking page to see where the boats are at a given moment, if you want to find a good spot for watching them. The Bol d’Or has a new video (12 minutes) with the history of the race, which began in 1939.
The weather forecast for Geneva: cloudy changing to partly cloud, high of 25C Saturday, slightly warmer Sunday, when the race normally finishes. Reminder: GenevaLunch now has a weather page with five day forecasts.
Tour de Suisse underway in Lugano
The Tour de Suisse cyclists warm up for the mountains by doing a 7.6km loop around the Lugano area Saturday, before starting the first big run Sunday, 167.5km from Ascona in canton Ticino, over the Simplon pass to Sierre, canton Valais. The race is normally covered by TSR but this year it is on at the same time as the World Cup, so if you aren’t on the route, watching it live, you’ll have to content yourself with roundups on TV and TSR coverage online. You can pick up the live ticker on the Tour de Suisse web site.
Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rosa Rein, who would have turned 113 in March, has died in a nursing home in canton Ticino. She was Switzerland’s oldest person and, according to wikipedia, one of the 15 oldest “verified” people in the world. When she celebrated her birthday in 2009 she was still able to walk, although she had some vision and hearing loss.
Rosa Rein was born in 1897 in Dzietzkowitz, now part of Poland, the daughter of relatively comfortable farmers, according to RTI, Swiss Italian radio. She married for the first time in 1935, at age 38, after running a textile business, but the young Jewish woman and her German husband fled to Brazil at the time of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom.
Surprise at Italy's actions
Lugano, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Italian tax authorities raided 76 branches of Swiss banks in 22 cities around Italy, 27 October, ostensibly checking to see whether the institutions were in compliance with reporting requirements on bank operations. Federal Counsellor Pascal Couchepin said on national radio that they “were desperate measures” and suggested that the social contract between the Italian government and its citizens was in “bad shape”.
Italians who travel to Switzerland overland have been subjected to unprecedented border checks, with closed circuit cameras and police dogs at the border. The Italian finance and economy minister, Giulio Tremonti, has said that he wants to “dry up” the banks in Ticino, where it is estimated that most Italians have deposited their money.
George Clooney alive and well in Switzerland - Photo Laila Rodriguez
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - American actor and activist George Clooney was treated at a Swiss hospital following a mishap in his car which resulted in a broken hand.
Title: Men’s European waterpolo championship
Location: Lugano, Ticino
Link out: Click here
Description: Free entrance to all the competitions.
Start Date: 05 Sep 2009
End Date: 13 Sep 2009
Gall flies larvae found in Switzerland - Photo ©Swiss Federal Administration
Canton Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – They are devastating, undesired, feared and unwelcome but they’re in Switzerland! We are talking about a wasp no more than 2.5 cm in length with a black body and yellow legs which has been causing damage to chestnut trees in the Piedmont region of northern Italy and which has, unfortunately, finally arrived in canton Ticino in southeast Switzerland.
Title: Lugano estival jazz
Location: Medrisio and Lugano, Canton Ticino
Link out: Click here
Description: All concerts in this open-air festival are free. Among the artists to perform in 2009 are bands from Cuba, jazz bands from the US and contemporary European artists.
Start Date: 26 Jun 2009
End Date: 04 Jul 2009
Title: Boogie woogie festival
Location: Lugano, Ticino
Link out: Click here
Description: According to its organizers, this is one of the most significant “boogie woogie,” piano, and blues, music-festival in the world.
Music style from the 30s and 40s.
Start Date: 16 Apr 2009
End Date: 19 Apr 2009
Merlot wines from Ticino, Switzerland
Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The first-ever Mondial du Merlot, a global wine competition organized in southern Switzerland, has just awarded gold medals to the top 19 Merlot wines from the 278 entered, from 24 countries. Merlot is one of the most widely grown grapes in the world. “I discovered wines with profoundly different characters, all of them very interesting,” said Rodrigo Banto of Chile, one of the judges.
Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland (romandie/ats) – A man was arrested in Lugano for practicising medicine for more than 10 years without a license. The ozone and neural therapies that he listed on the shingle outside his office consisted of taking blood from the patient and reinjecting it in several spots after adding ozone. The man, of Serbian origin, had earlier been convicted of the same charges in Belgrade, Serbia. Swiss officials are asking his patients to contact them.
