Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A late night accident on the lake road near Geneva, a young driver with too much alcohol in his system, the driver of the other car in serious condition: accidents of this sort happen often enough that they rarely make the front page of Swiss newspapers.
Add in a Lamborghini, other flashy cars, rich children of Russian commercial celebrities and a story with international headlines surfaces. Stir in local political squabbles plus what looks to some people like rich foreigners fleeing the country in the face of Swiss justice, and a continuing headliner of wealth, incompetence and scandal is born.
Geneva media, police, lawyers exchange barbs
An accident which took place 19 November in Genthod, between Geneva and Versoix, has not only made headlines, it is putting Geneva police, authorities and Swiss media in the hot seat. Wednesday 25 November Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, said he had received a police file on the case, nearly a week after the accident and the day after he complained that he had received nothing. He has now officially opened a criminal investigation.
The media say police and officials reacted too slowly but the lawyer for the accused, a Geneva police spokesperson who talked to GenevaLunch and officials have expressed dismay at local media for hyping an event without facts. Jacques Barrillon, who represents the 22-year-old driver of the Lamborghini, told Russian journalists that “The story is being inflated in every possible way, just because it features nice, expensive cars, millionaire parents and foreign passports.”
Update 24 November 07:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police continue to investigate the accident that put a 70-year-old man in hospital in serious condition Thursday 19 November after his Golf was hit by a Lamborghini Murcielago in Genthod, on the lake road. The driver was a 22-year-old Russian with an alcohol level of 1.11 per 1,000 (legal limit in Switzerland is 0.5), with a drivers license that is not valid in Switzerland. The car had Geneva plates. The Tribune de Geneve carries a front page story about the accident, suggesting that it was the result of a race or chase by four flash cars whose owners were trying to see which car is the fastest, a suggestion that other media have carried.
Geneva police spokesperson Patrick Pulh told GenevaLunch that police have not, in fact, been able to establish if there was any kind of race. “These cars make a lot of noise even when they are just idling.” he notes. “We haven’t been able to establish the speed at which they were going.” The ongoing investigation is seeking to clarify the roles of all the drivers involved, he says, and it’s difficult at this stage to say how long it will take.
Edward M Kennedy visiting Bengali refugee camps in Kolkata in India in 1971. Image: AFP PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images
Edward M Kennedy speaks to a meeting of student leaders in 1966 - he called for participation in humanitarian relief programmes in South Vietnam. Image: AP Photo/Bob Daugherty
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 2009 Fridtjof Nansen award will go to the late US Senator Edward Kennedy in recognition of his work in favour of refugees and asylum-seekers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced 15 September. The ceremony takes place in the US, in Washington, DC 28 October.
Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, said in the announcement, “Kennedy stood out as a forceful advocate for those who suddenly found themselves with no voice and no rights. Year after year, conflict after conflict, he put the plight of refugees on the agenda and drove through policies that saved and shaped countless lives.” He noted that Kennedy’s work for refugees was not limited to the US and that most recently he had fought to draw attention to the needs of Iraqi refugees.
He added that Kennedy was informed of the Nansen committee’s decision in June before he died.
Senator Edward Kennedy, center left, has a smile and a handshake for an unidentified young refugee in the Tuki-Baab famine refugee camp during a visit, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 1984, Tuki-Baab, Eastern Sudan. Many of the refugees had walked for a week to reach the camp from Eritrea. Kennedy toured a number of refugee camps in the African drought area over Christmas week. The woman on the left is unidentified. Image: AP Photo/Robert Dear
Existing three towers will be joined by 5 more; view of Aminona from village of Mollens
Correction 16:00 Mollens, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian company Mirax has passed a first, major hurdle in getting a green light to build a CHF350-plus million complex in the small resort of Aminona, next to Crans-Montana in Valais. Mirax specializes in large development projects including hotels and resorts. The first part of the project is for a hotel which has four buildings (correction: we earlier noted that this includes several towers, but these are part of a second phase, not yet approved, Mirax told GenevaLunch).
The larger project proposed to the commune of Mollens, of which Aminona is part, will have a five-star hotel, 32 chalets, five towers and luxury services. The complete project is expected to have 2,500 beds.
Cincinnati, USA (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer cruised past world number 4 Novak Djokovic 6-1 7-5 to take his third Cincinnati Masters title: he also won in 2005 and 2007.
The Munk Center for International Studies in Toronto, Canada, has uncovered a huge Internet spy network that appears to be mainly operating out of China, but one of its researchers says this doesn’t mean the Chinese government is behind it – it could well be the CIA or Russia, he noted. The Toronto Star, reporting on the highly sophisticated operation the researchers called GhostNet, writes “The malware is remarkable both for its sweep – in computer jargon, it has not been merely ‘phishing’ for random consumers’ information, but ‘whaling’ for particular important targets – and for its Big Brother-style capacities.”
The Jerusalem Post calls it the worst road accident in the nation’s history: 25 Russian travel agents were killed and 33 injured, 23 of them seriously injured, the when the bus carrying the newly arrived group overturned and fell down a ravine near Eijat, close to the Egyptian border and Red Sea. Police say the bus, whose driver had 22 previous convictions, was passing another bus in a no-passing zone on a blind curve. Moscow Times report
