Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The cold front from the northwest that is expected to abruptly end the Lake Geneva region’s three-day warm spell starting Thursday night has taken a foothold in France, notably in Paris. Buses, regional trains and many Metro lines have virtually stopped running, airports have offered spotty service, traffic is snarled and even the Eiffel Tower, famously open year-round, has closed under a cloak of invisibility.
TGV service between Paris and Switzerland is still running, but the Paris-Basel-Zurich evening train is 1 hour 20minutes late. For CCF rail traffic updates, the French version tends to have the latest details before the English version.
Links to other sites: AFP, Le Monde offers a TV telezapping view of the crippled French capital and region around it.
Télézapping : La neige engloutit la Tour Eiffel
envoyé par lemondefr. – L'info internationale vidéo.
Geneva, Switzerland and Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – Major European businesses are calling for a significant change in the way bluefin tuna is caught and marketed in a push to rescue the species from collapse. The call comes in a manifesto 24 November with Switzerland-based WWF which will be presented to Fabio Hazin, president of International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), currently meeting in Paris.
European companies, including leading Swiss retailers Coop and Migros, but also French chains Auchan, Atac and Casino, have pledged not to buy or sell tuna, and call on ICCAT to agree to the following:
- Cut the annual catch from 13,500 tons to below 6,000 tons. In 2007 the ICCAT allowable catch was 29,000 tons. Over 61,000 tons were estimated to have been taken, 32,000 tons of which went to Japan.
- Establish sanctuaries in spawning zones – fishermen raid tuna spawning areas to take fish that are below weight, denying the species the possibility to procreate.
- Suspend the industrial practice of purse seine fishery in the Mediterranean Sea – this combs the sea of bluefin tuna, and herds the fish into “farms” for fattening before they are sexually mature. Many European governments, such as France, Spain and Italy, subsidize this practice in the belief that it is sustainable “aquaculture”.
ICCAT is an intergovernmental agreement with a mandate to protect the bluefin tuna, which ranges from the Eastern Atlantic into the Mediterranean Sea. ICCAT meets in Paris until 27 November.
Background: GenevaLunch, WWF
Here’s a good excuse to take off for Paris in the TGV: The New York Knicks vs The Minnesota Timberwolves, must see it to believe it!
Location: Paris, France
Link out: http://www.mosaicodiffusion.com/events.php?Cat=…
Date: 6 Oct 2010
Commuters in London faced hell as Underground workers went on strike Tuesday 7 September and closed down most of the Tube. The buses were filled.
In France public sector workers went on strike to protest the government’s plans for raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. Commuters were hit the most as trains were cancelled and flights into and out of Paris were sharply reduced.
French trade unions hope to mobilize up to 2 million people in demonstrations around the country against the proposed new pension law, which the French National Assembly begins to debate today. The strike lasts until Tuesday night, 7 September.
From "Esclavage domestique", portraits of domestic slaves, photos by Raphael Dallaporta, Imaginaid 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Stories of household slaves make headlines only sporadically, such as this one 25 August 2010, where a Sri Lankan woman who had worked for one month as a maid in Saudi Arabia had 23 nails removed from her body. Her employer had tortured her before she escaped and returned home. The reality is often less dramatic, yet traumatic, within arm’s reach and a part of what on the surface is mundane daily life in cities like Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.
Expect to see it all around you soon in Geneva, thanks to a public spaces exhibit, “Esclavage Domestique”, portraits (12 photos and 12 stories) of household slaves who have escaped, from 6-29 September.
Two men that work at the US Embassy in Paris were tested after handling a “suspicious letter.” The AFP reports that up to three people might have come in contact with the suspicious item.
Mail-room employees identified a suspicious letter, and felt unwell said French authorities. However, an Embassy spokesperson said no one is in danger or hurt.
The embassy surrounded as usual by tight security, remained open after the incident.
Additional sources: AFP
Particle tracks fly out from the heart of Cern's Alice experiment from one the first LHC collisions at a total energy of 7 TeV
Update 27 July Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Cern’s LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is starring at ICHEP, the world’s largest international conference on particle physics, which opens in Paris Monday 26 July. More than 1,00o scientists are attending.
Four spokespersons for the LHC’s four main experiments, Alice, Atlas, CMS and LHCb, are presenting data at the conference today.
The data is measurements from the first three months of successful LHC operation at 3.5 TeV per beam, an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.
The measurements to date are for “the particles that lie at the heart of the Standard Model, the package that contains current understanding of the particles of matter and the forces that act between them,” Cern notes in a press release.
“This is an essential step before moving on to make discoveries. Among the billions of collisions already recorded are some that contain ‘candidates’ for the top quark, for the first time at a European laboratory.”
French researchers have found, and put on display at the Natural History Museum in Paris, the fossilized remains of what could be described as a “sea monster.”
The findings of a 12 million-year-old creature dug from the Peruvian dessert, is being explained in the most recent edition of Nature magazine.
The fossil found in an expedition in 2008, has 36 cm-long teeth, located on the mandible and the skull. Researchers believe this means “Leviathan” – as the giant predator whale is being called – could have fed off other whales, and might have engaged in fierce battles.
The jaws of the “Leviathan Melville” is 3 meters long, that is 2 meters more than the bite of killer whales nowadays.
Video by Nature magazine
Manuel Noriega, 72, former Panamanian dictator, finished 20 years in a US prison only to be extradited to France, where his trial opens today on several charges, including money laundering. He is accused of using three French banks to launder money for a Colombian drug cartel. His lawyers have reportedly taken his case to the International Red Cross (ICRC), pleading that he should be released but that in any event La Sante, the prison in Paris where he is held, is “too dirty and dilapidated” for him. He faces up to 10 years in prison in France if found guity.
Links to others sites: Irish Times, Le Monde (Fre)
A lone masked thief in Paris stole five paintings including works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse worth between 100 and 500 million euros.
The theft took place overnight, while three security guards were on duty at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.
The museum has been cordoned off while police investigate the crime scene.
Links to other sites: AP News, The Guardian
Airlines, airports expect bumpy ride when ash cloud allows flights to resume Friday evening 16 April
Geneva airport remains open, but flights to and from northern cities are cancelled
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The ash cloud from Iceland’s volcano is causing severe disruption to airlines throughout Europe, with the UK closed to air traffic until 18:00 Friday evening, airports in northern France including Paris closed, as well as many northern European airports. Hamburg, Bonn and Frankfurt airports are closed in Germany. Geneva and Zurich airports’ web sites were overwhelmed Friday morning, with travelers trying to check on scores of canceled flights.
Here’s the message from Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, with a noon update scheduled:
A group of thieves tunneled their way into an underground vault at Credit Lyonnais in Paris Saturday night 27 March and took off with an unknown amount after nine hours of work, police say. They worked their way from a neighbouring building at the Place de l’Opera into the bank, where they tied up a security guard while they lifted the contents of some 200 private safes. They set fire to the building, which was then flooded by the sprinkler system that was triggered by the fire alarm.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – Eurostar will not be running trains in or out of Brussels, Belgium for a second day, following the train crash near Brussels Monday 15 February that killed 18 people. Passengers with tickets are asked to exchange them for a later date or they can ask for a refund. Paris trains are operating normally and Lille service is suffering some delays. Contact: Eurostar.
SCNF has special site, phone line for French trains affected
Bern, Switzerland and Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Rail traffic between France and Belgium has stopped and rail authorities say the interruption could last all day Monday 15 February, following a violent head-on collision of two trains south of Brussels. The Eurostar and Thalys are particularly affected.
The accident killed more than 20 people and there appear to be many serious injuries, but authorities have not yet provided official figures. The crash occurred around 08:30 Monday morning during rush hour, with the two trains were filled with commuters.
View from Neuchatel-Chaux de Fonds train Tuesday late afternoon: icy roads, plenty of snow
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 67-year-old man and the conductor plus 97 passengers of a TGV traveling between Bern and Paris were happily unhurt when the man’s car, stranded on a TGV line near Bayards, canton Neuchatel, was hit by the train. The accident occurred Tuesday evening 9 February at 20:35, say police. Train service on the line was re-established only at 17:30 Wednesday evening. Travelers scheduled to take the TGV via Neuchatel were shunted to Basel and Lausanne for other trains.
The man had lost control of his car, which skidded onto the rails and was stuck there.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The latest twist in the increasingly tangled tale of client data stolen from HSBC in Geneva comes from the thief himself, formerly known as Hervé Falciani. The former HSBC computer system employee who now lives under a new identity in the south of France told French journalists from Nice Matin that in August 2008 he was kidnapped by two men in a van in Geneva’s Champel district. The men were of unclear Middle Eastern origin, perhaps Israeli, says Falciani, who accuses his Lebanese girlfriend at the time of being part of a plot to discredit him.
The Lebanese link has surfaced following accusations by Switzerland that Falciani was trying to sell the names and other information about bank clients, which he acknowledges he stole, to several governments, notably Lebanon.
An Air France superjumbo Airbus 380 flight from New York to Paris has been cancelled due to technical problems. The aircraft’s 511 passengers have been put up in local hotels or have continued their journeys on other planes, Monday 14 December.
Air France cited a problem with the fuel tanks. It is the second time the superjumbo A380 has been grounded on this route since its entry into service late October. A system of pumps and valves in the A380′s fuel tanks not only supplies the engines with fuel but also redistributes the fuel around the aircraft to change its centre of gravity while in flight in order to improve fuel efficiency.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, France 24, Yahoo News (Fre)
Geneva, a city that gives you more money after taxes, and lets you spend it quickly
Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and Zurich among the top five priciest cities in the world, along with Oslo, Copenhagen and Toky, according to a study by bank UBS comparing prices and earning in 73 cities around the world. Salaries are highest in Switzerland, Denmark and the US, with workers in Geneva and Zurich having the highest net incomes in the world. The average employee in Delhi, Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai earns less than one-fifteenth of Swiss hourly wages after taxes.
Prices for food in Switzerland are about 45 percent more for food on average than in the rest of Western Europe but to balance it out “no other city allows workers to take home more income at the end of the month than Zurich and Geneva.”
UBS notes that the comparisons are greatly affected by currency fluctuations. London fell 20 places in the cost categories thanks to the pound’s “precipitous devaluation” in the first half of 2009.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Frenchwoman was refused entry to a public pool in Emerainville, east of Paris, France because she was wearing a swimsuit that complies with Islamic tenets. A woman identified only as Carole, French-born and who converted to Islam when she was 17, recently bought the outfit in Dubai.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Explicit text messages from a philandering husband to his lover may be admitted as evidence, France’s highest court has found. A lower court ruled that text messages were private and could not be used. The cour de cassation, France’s highest court, found however that as long as the text messages were obtained using neither “force nor fraud”, they could be admitted as evidence, and ruled in favour of the man’s wife. She said she had found her husband’s work mobile phone and discovered the salacious text messages.
Many Islamic countries already allow divorce by text message, simplifying an already simple procedure. Islamic law permits a husband to divorce his wife by saying “talaq – I divorce you” three times.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left the Paris hospital where he spent the night. Sarkozy was under observation after reports of feeling faint while jogging. However, the Elysée Palace denied the claims, saying that Sarkozy suffered a ”minor” nerve complaint in the park of the Palace of Versailles. BBC, Le Monde
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was kept overnight at a French military hospital for observation after feeling faint during a 45-minute jog in Paris Sunday morning. An initial checkup showed no problems, but normal procedure in such cases is to monitor the heart for 24 hours. French media are questioning his “perpetual hyperactivity” and suggesting this could be the cause. CNN, Le Monde, Fre
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – Mark Cavendish, from the Isle of Man, won his sixth sprint finish in the 2009 Tour de France. It was the most prestigious but in some ways also the easiest as his Columbia teammates, especially Australian Mark Renshaw, gave him a big lead into the final 100 metres.
The final day was a traditional affair, at a leisurely pace for much of the stage before a break by seven riders in search of glory.
Aubenas, France (GenevaLunch) – Alberto Cantador maintained his advance in the Tour de France: he leads Andy Schleck by 4 minutes 11 seconds. Lance Armstrong is third another minute back with Bradley Wiggins only 15 seconds further back and fighting to be the first Briton to be on the podium in Paris. Another Brit made history as he sprinted to his fifth stage of the Tour: Mark Cavendish also won four stages last year and now has the record for the most stage wins by a British rider.
Details: Daily Telegraph
Update 07:30 Investigators announced 5 July they had located the two flight recorders of the Yemenia Airbus A 310 flight that crashed into the sea 30 June with 153 people on board. A 13 year-old girl surived that crash with a broken collarbone. In Paris, France, thousands of Comoran residents marched peacefully 5 July to remember the victims and called for the Comoran government to withdraw the airline’s permission to fly to the archipelago. BEA, BBC and background on the islands from April 2009, New York Times
Update 06:00 Paris, France and Recife, Brazil (GenevaLunch) – The Air France AF 447 did not break up in the air but plunged into the ocean, the French air crash investigators BEA announced in Paris 2 July in a preliminary report (Fre). The items recovered from the ocean seem to indicate that the airliner hit the water “in the direction of flight”, said Alain Bouillard, chief investigator for BEA, and passengers had little time to prepare for a crash. French search and rescue operations will continue another ten days, it was announced.
It has been one month since the 1 June accident that plunged an Air France Airbus 330 into the Atlantic ocean with 228 passengers and crew aboard. It was Air France’s worst accident. Its causes remain unknown. Read more…
Forensic experts have identified eleven of the 50 bodies retrieved from the Atlantic ocean after the crash of Air France 447 1 June. Brazilian authorities in Recife, Brazil said five Brazilian women and five men, along with one foreign male were identified using dental records and fingerprints. The plane was bound for Paris, France from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and went down in circumstances that remain a mystery. A French submarine is searching the ocean floor for the flight recorders, which send out signals for one month after the crash. BBC, Le Monde (Fre)
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Andy Murray became the first British player since Bunny Austin in 1938 to win at the Queen’s club championship tournament in London. The tournament is one of the traditional warm-up tournaments before Wimbledon, allowing players to make the transition from the clay courts of Paris to grass. Murray has been in excellent form all week, not losing a single set and disposed of James Blake 7-5 6-4.
Lyon, France (GenevaLunch) – Interpol, the international police organization headquartered in Lyon, France, will assist in identifying bodies of victims of the 1 June Air France disaster. According to Interpol, , an officer from the Command and Control Centre in Lyon will help in the French gendarmerie‘s crisis centre in Paris.
Thirty-three sketches and drawings made by Pablo Picasso from 1917-1924 were stolen from a first-floor unlocked case at the Picasso Museum in Paris, police announced Tuesday 9 June. The sketches are valued at $11 million and are believed to have disappeared between late Monday and early Tuesday. The museum is currently undergoing major renovation work and security is reportedly weak. BBC, afp/Google, Fre
