Nyon train station, scene of attempted robbery
NYON, SWITZERLAND – Police nabbed three thieves from Lyons, France, ages 17, 27 and 28, who were caught in the act of trying to break into a safe at the Nyon train station at 03:00 Thursday morning 27 October, Vaud police announced Monday. A shot was fired accidentally in the fight between authorities and the would-be robbers, but no one was injured.
A train station employer was putting away papers when she heard a noise and spotted the trio trying to break into the area where she worked. She slipped out a back door and alerted police.
Municipal police arrived quickly and spotted one of the three, masked and carrying a lockpick, trying to leave. The police and suspect tangled and an accomplice came to the aid of the first man. At that point one of the two police offcers pulled out a gun and issued a warning. The first suspect then hit the officer in the head with a metal bar and one of the men tried to grab the police officer’s weapon, accidentally firing it in the process.
The other officer came to his colleague’s rescue, after having arrested the third suspect, and the remaining two were brought under control as police reinforcements arrived.
All three are known to the police in France, where they stole the car they were driving. Vaud police say Swiss authorities are working with their French counterparts to determine the extent of the illegal activities of the men.
The police officer who was hit in the head was hospitalized for treatment and released during the morning.
Zurich Zoo temporarily welcomes 1,000 unplanned insect guests
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Zurich had its own headline animal news Wednesday 19 October, but it was not alone. The city’s airport was the scene of a discovery by Swiss customs officials of 261 illegally imported tarantulas, a haul that led officials to the apartment of the owner, where another 900 illegally held insects were housed. The Mexican redknee tarantulas and meat-eating centipedes have been taken to Zurich Zoo to be cared for.
USA, farm’s exotic animals let go
The news came in the wake of a major breakout in Zanesville, Ohio, Wednesday, that resulted in 49 animals being killed after they escaped, with another six reportedly taken to a zoo, according to CNN. One animal was missing late Wednesday, but authorities believe it may have been eaten.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Tribune de Geneve reports that a man suspected of the murder of a 51-year-old TPG (Geneva public transport) company manager was arrested abroad and is being investigated by Geneva police. According to the city newspaper the man, who is an employee of the company, has had personal problems in recent months that have caused him trouble at work, but the TPG has provided him with support and some time off. He was scheduled to met his boss Monday morning to discuss getting back to work and reportedly walked in and shot him instead.
The murder was Geneva’s fifth in 2011.
Murderer remains at large after Monday morning shooting
TPG tram in Geneva; maintenance manager shot and killed at work
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 51-year-old Frenchman who was a maintenance department manager for the TPG public transport company was shot and killed at work Monday moring 22 August, at 10:00.
The murderer arrived on a motorcycle, wearing a helmet and kept the helmet on while he walked into the office area. He shot his victim, then left on his motorcycle.
Police have a number of clues but the killer remains at large. A number of co-workers who were present at the time of the shooting are being given counseling.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A policeman who shot and killed a passenger in a car on the A1 autoroute in 2010 was justified in using his gun, and correct procedures were filed, a Swiss court has ruled. The case was closed 15 June.
The 18-year-old from France who died from a gunshot wound was in a stolen car, one of three luxury cars stolen shortly before from a garage in Fribourg, by a group from Lyon. The brothers came up against a roadblock on the A1 autoroute and when they did not slow down a police officer waiting at the roadblock on the Vaud-Fribourg border opened fire. The youth died at the scene of the accident and his brother was jailed.
Police in Bangkok, Thailand shot rubber bullets into a convoy of red-shirt protestors Wednesday. A crowd fought back with stones , with the melee reportedly killing one soldier, who was shot in the head, although it is unclear exactly what happened. A number of people were injured, according to the Bangkok Post, which says the confrontation took place near the National Memorial, close to Don Muaeng airport, on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road.
Links to other sites: Al-jazeera, Reuters
Bjoerk the bear and her two cubs, 18 February (photo: Bern Bear Park)
Update 26 February, link added Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne newspaper 24 Heures called it one of Switzerland’s best-guarded secrets, proving that it isn’t only bank accounts the Swiss are quiet about: Finn, one of Bern’s two much-loved zoo bears who was shot by a policeman in November when he attacked an intruder, became a father in December. The news came out only this week. Bjoerk, the mother, surprised everyone by not just hibernating but giving birth to two cubs at the Bern Bear Park, which is one of Switzerland’s most popular tourist attractions.
Finn, the father will remain alone in his part of the park, say zoo authorities. “Male bears have no fatherly feelings – he would just kill the cubs.”
The cubs have been named Urs and Berna.
Police in Aarhus, Denmark, have shot and wounded a Somali man carrying a knife who broke and entered the home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard after the owner hit an alarm bell to call the police. The man, say police, is a member of the radical Islamist al-Shabab militia. Westergaard became a target of Islamist extremists after he published a cartoon in 2005 of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, which they considered blasphemous. The cartoon led to a series of incidents involving Danish media and embassies around the world, despite an apology from the newspaper.
Shabtai Kalmanovich, who was accused of spying for the KGB in Israel in 1988 after 17 years in the country to which he had emigrated, was killed after being shot in central Moscow Monday 2 November. The Lithuanian-born Kalmanovich was shot more than 20 times by a passing car, according to Russian media, and his driver sustained serious injuries. Kalmanovich moved to Russia in 1993 after being given a medical pardon in Israel, and he became a successful businessman who owned a women’s basketball team and organized major international concerts, among other ventures.
Links to other sites: Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, Novosti
WBC former welterweight champion Vernon Forrest, 39, known for being an articulate and civic-minded citizen in a sport not always known for these, was shot dead at a gas station in Atlanta, Georgia. He had chased thieves who tried to rob him as he filled the tank of his Jaguar. Atlanta AJC
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The death of Zill-e Usman in Peshawar, Pakistan is the third death of a UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) staff member in the country in six months, the Geneva-based organization announced 17 July. He was shot at the Kutcha Gari camp on the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in North-West Frontier Province on the morning of July 16. Another staff worker was injured but is not in serious condition and a guard was killed.
Zill-e Usman was one of the longest-serving staff members in the country, who had been working with the Peshawar office since 1984.UN staff in the Geneva office gathered at noon for a minute of silence to honour the slain father of four.
Two days after the deaths of two soldiers, with four people injured, a police officer in County Armagh in Northern Ireland was shot and killed as he and a colleague answered a call for help. Officials insist the two events are not linked, with police chief Hugh Orde saying “these are disparate groups, badly infiltrated and indeed many awaiting trial north and south of the border. It just reminds us that a small group of people determined to wreck what is huge political progress are becoming more dangerous.” BBC
The former deputy mayor of Grozny, Gelani Shapiyev, was shot three times in the head and killed, outside his apartment building in an “affluent” neighbourhood in western Moscow, near the Krylatskaya metro station. He is the third former Chechan official to be shot in three years on the streets of Moscow, according to the Moscow Times.
