GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Trains in both directions between Martigny and Sion will not be running again until Friday morning says the CFF rail company, after a heavy load fell from a bridge near Riddes, damaging contacts on the lines.
A bus service will replace local traffic but travellers between Geneva or Lausanne and Brig, including anyone going to resorts in the area, will have to travel via Bern.
Le Nouvelliste says man has been under medical care for psychiatric problems
SION, SWITZERLAND – A Sion judge was attacked and suffered multiple injuries Saturday night 28 January in the city centre. Le Nouvelliste reported Monday morning that a man who has been under medical treatment and who suffers severe psychiatric problems has been arrested and taken to a special detention centre. Police confirmed at 11:00 Monday that a 29-year-old Swiss German who lives in Valais sought medical treatment Sunday morning for injuries he suffered Saturday night. He told medical staff that he was the man who attacked the judge, and he then turned himself into police.
The attack appeared in some way linked to the “Luca” case that has received heavy media attention, particularly in Valais, because the attacker called out “Luca, Luca” and was reported by the judge to say he would pay the magistrate back in kind.
Luca Mongelli is a youth who was badly injured, the victim of a bizarre and vicious attack in Veysonnaz in 2002. The case received heavy media attention at the time and, recently made it back into the news. The boy, age 7 at the time, was found injured and naked, in the snow, in Veysonnaz, after taking the family dog, Rocky, for a walk with Luca’s younger brother Marco. Luca was able to say immediately after the attack that humans had done this to him, but legal and medical analyses at the time showed Rocky to be the attacker, and a drawing done by the very young Marco, as well as his words at the time, pointed to the 30 kg 7-month-old dog. The case was suspended in 2004 and the family has called publicly for further investigation. Luca today is tetraplegic as a result of his injuries.
The Valais attorney general held a press conference on the affair 26 January (details below).
Saturday’s attack was violent and wrongly evoked the Luca case
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Xamax, the Neuchatel football team, lost its license Wednesday 18 January, the latest in a string of major distractions off the field, for the team and Swiss football fans. Controversial club owner Bulat Chagaev has five days to appeal and show that the club is financially sound.
TSR, Swiss public television, Wednesday evening carried a series of reactions to the club’s bump from the Super League as the result of the move by the Swiss Football Association.
The license was taken away after a string of financial incidents, from unpaid supplier bills to unpaid social security bills and alleged fake statements showing that the Chechen owner has $35 milion with which to back the club.
Fox Sports reports that the license loss has prompted an ownership group to prepare “to save the publicly humiliated club from an apparently inevitable demotion of at least two divisions, and possible bankruptcy under its current Chechen owners.” TSR, Swiss public television, reports Wednesday night that
Swiss football has been suffering in recent weeks from other off-the-field fights, with Sion being fined 36 points by the Swiss Football Association, a move the club has hotly contested.
Patrick Aebischer, president of EPFL and Jacques Melly, president of the Valais cantonal council, sign an agreement of understanding 10 January to set up a branch of the polytechnic in Valais
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud’s federal polytechnic institute, EPFL and canton Valais signed an agreement of intention Tuesday 10 January in Sion to establish a branch of the school in canton Valais, most likely in Sion but working closely with a number of existing services throughout the canton.
A formal agreement and plans will be developed later in the year, but EPFL President Patrick Aebischer is quoted by Le Nouvelliste as saying the new campus should be up and running by 2015.
The new branch of EPFL will have have 11 research and training chairs, the canton and EPFL announced at a press conference Tuesday.
Valais will have a teaching campus that focuses on energy, health and chemistry, according to Le Nouvelliste, with seven chairs in energy and the rest in bio-technology and bio-engineering, while Le Temps reports that four chairs will be in energy and the others in biotechnology and medical engineering.
EPFL has not yet issued a press release confirming details but Valais, for its part, says the focus will be on energy, health (with a focus on rehabilitation) and nutrition and the new school should help attract international companies. Nutrition studies would centre around work to produce components for vitamins and medicines.
A masters degree in energy is being planned.
EPFL is based in Lausanne but has a small campus in Neuchatel for nanotechnology.
SION, SWITZERLAND – A man who threatened a bank employee in Anzère, a resort in canton Valais, with a knife as the worker left the bank, then robbed the bank of several thousand francs at noon Monday 10 October, has been captured, say Valais police.
The man released the employee once he had the loot and the banker promptly contacted police, who put in place a large manhunt, coordinating it with local transport authorities.
The man was arrested not long after on a train from Sion in the direction of Martigny, cash in hand. Police say the stolen money appears to be all there.
Calmy-Rey, fifth from left in front row, meeting with the foreign press association committee in May 2011, has headed Swiss foreign affairs since 2003 (GL editor Ellen Wallace, 3rd from left)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss president for 2011 and long-time foreign affairs minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, is expected to tell the Federal Council today that she is stepping down from the government. The regular meeting of the council this morning will be followed by a news conference.
Calmy-Rey, 66, is in her second term as president, a one-year post that rotates among the seven members of the Federal Council. The French-speaking Socialist from Geneva joined the council in 2002 and has headed the foreign affairs department since 2003. Her departure, to be announced before the October parliamentary elections that are held every four years, will require a cabinet shuffle at a time when Switzerland’s relations with the US are taut over banking secrecy but are generally in better shape with the country’s European neighbours than they have been in recent years.
She was heavily involved in Geneva politics before taking up her posts in Ber; the president was born in Sion, canton Valais.
Police check Servette supporters' buses en route to Sion for football match
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Football (soccer) fans in Switzerland have had a lively weekend, starting with a peaceful protest by Turkish fans Friday in Nyon and ending with Geneva Servette fans setting fire to a field, among other hooliganisms, in Sion.
Turkey lays a club to rest in Nyon
Canton Vaud police say a protest Saturday 27 August by about 100 supporters of Turkey’s Fenerbahce football club gathered at Uefa, the European football offices in Nyon, to protest the club’s exclusion from the Uefa Champions League by the Turkish Football Federation. The group, which hadn’t received permission to gather, came from several areas in Europe and starting at 15:00 put on a fake funeral, laying wreaths at Uefa’s door. Police learned about the planned meeting in advance, via the Internet, and had patrols posted in the area as a precaution, but there were no incidents, they say.
Blatter gives date for promised cleanup plan
Associated Press reported Sunday 28 August that Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, will provide details of his promised plan to clean up football in October, following a 20-21 October executive committee meetings in Zurich. Blatter promised to rid the sport of corruption when he was re-elected in June on the heels of a scandal that saw several officials, including his opponent for president, Mohamed bin Hammam, banned from football on various charges of corruption.
Basel improves feeble Super League season start, Servette moves up
Basel, Super League current national champions, improved their feeble start to the season by defeating Thun 2-1, after only six points during their first six matches of the season, on home ground.
Servette moves up “after inflicting a 4-0 away defeat on Uefa Europa League participants FC Sion,” reports Fifa, the International Football Federation. “Servette had the points all but wrapped up after netting three times in the opening 24 minutes through Christopher Routis, Mathias Vitkieviez and Ishamel Yartey, and Vitkieviez completed the triumph with his second in the 65th minute.
“The victory sees Servette move up to third, level on 11 points with fourth-placed Sion, who this week progressed through to the group stages of the Europa League after knocking out Celtic in the play-offs.”
Rubber bullets used after hooligans set fire to field, bash toilets
Police put out fire set in field near Sion by football fans
Servette’s victory was marred, however, by hooligans, who were kept in check, but with difficulty, by 180 police officers monitoring the Sion event, including 30 from Geneva.
Police initially intercepted buses with supporters from Geneva heading for Sion and checked them before escorting them directly to the Tourbillon stadium in Sion, to avoid confrontations between groups of supporters.
Servette supporters then broke through the security system to avoid checks at the entrance and once inside caused considerable damage, breaking doors and WCs. A young woman was hospitalized after being seriously cut in the hand.
Police remained on alert during the match, given that 20 or so supporters who have been banned from Swiss stadiums were spotted in the area. Once the match was over “clans” from the two groups of supporters, which had “copiously insulted each other” during the match, say police, tried to clash, with Sion fans rushing the other groups, but police kept them apart, using rubber bullets and pepper sprays.
Two police officers were checked at the hospital after being hit by rocks. Four FC Sion supporters were arrested, ages 33, 30, 28 and 19.
SION, SWITZERLAND – Polyright SA, a Sion-based company jointly owned by Securitas and Kudelski in Lausanne, has been sold to US firm Identive Group. Polyright provides identity management solutions for the higher education and healthcare markets and is a leading Swiss provider of identity management platforms with open-ended rights and services management. The agreement was signed 18 July; the amount of the sale has not been made public.
The company describes its core competence as “the development, installation and maintenance of single-credential, multi-function identity management and cashless payment solutions integrated with third-party systems such as enterprise resource planning or access control. polyright’s platform allows integration of such functions as personnel and user management, physical and logical access control, cashless payment, and use of third-party services such as car parking, bicycle/vehicle rental, printing and photocopying and similar applications.”
EPFL, Rolex Learning Center
More than 150,000 students a day use a polyright card to access, pay, copy, print or ride a bicycle. EPFL, for example, began to use the system in 2005. The Bois Cerf and Cécile clinics in Lausanne, both owned by Hirslanden, use polyright card systems for parking, telephone and cafeteria purchases by patients.
Kudelski says the sale was prompted by its February 2011 strategic review, while Hans Winzenried, chief executive officer Swiss Securitas Group, says that the Identive Group will “further strengthen polyright’s products and services. I am glad that we can continue to offer and sell the polyright solution to our customer base.” Securitas, based near Bern, is a third-generation family business with some 12,000 employees, active in various parts of the security industry.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 36-year-old Frenchman is in critical condition in hospital following a car accident Friday morning at 08:30 on the Vallorbe-Croix cantonal highway, near the La Cula (RC 251a) crossroad. Vaud police say his car left the road for reasons that are not yet clear; the car hit a bank and ended in trees below the road. Emergency services cut him out of the car and he was taken by helicopter to the hospital.
Valais police identify 224 kph driver on autoroute near Sierre
Police say they have identified the driver of a car that was clocked at 224 kph on the A9 autoroute 9 June, following an investigation. The 21-year-old Valais man who lives in the region will likely face charges brought by the district attorney and he has been reported to the highway department services responsible for driver’s licenses.
He was caught going 224 kph on the A9 autoroute at Granges, going from Sion to Sierre, Thursday 9 June at 21:15, an area where the speed limit soon drops to 100 kph.
SION, SWITZERLAND – Sion fans were celebrating Sunday night after their team defeated Neuchatel Xamax 2-0 in a one-sided match, with Neuchatel never rising to the occasion.
It was Sion’s 12th Swiss Cup victory in 12 finals.
The train trip to Basel, site of the final, left a less positive trail, with one person injured by the crowd as it passed through Lausanne, according to ATS news agency. The train cars were heavily damaged, with two fires set in one train and windows broken. A dozen people were reportedly arrested, mainly for having fireworks.
Sion, truck overturned, narrowly missing sidewalk cafe
Sierre, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss sunshine, the Alps, and a morning cup of coffee at the local cafe in Sion nearly turned into something far messier than sand in the coffee, when a large truck carrying several cubic metres of sand inexplicably turned onto its side in front of a sidewalk cafe.
The truck appears to have hit a curb at an intersection on the Avenue de Tourbillon, say police in canton Valais.
The driver, a 35-year-old man from the area, suffered slight injuries but no pedestrians, customers or staff at the cafe, on a main street, were hurt.
Tuesday’s winds kept fire alive overnight
Firefighters in Visp use the local football field to load firefighting supplies Tuesday 26 April
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The skies in canton Valais are noisy with helicopters early Wednesday morning as firefighters resume their work to douse a forest fire in Visp/Viège, and the acrid smell of smoke hangs in the air even 20km away in Sierre. The high winds of Tuesday have fortunately died down, but a veil of smoke hangs over a large stretch of the Rhone river valley.
Two army helicopters worked through the night, putting out small fires after flames were doused Tuesday. Other helicopters are busy throughout the region, picking up supplies from several communes in Valais in a well-coordinated fight against the fire.
Fire started in body shop
The fire started in a body shop in Visp/Viège in canton Valais Tuesday 26 April.
It quickly spread to the nearby wooded hillside during the afternoon, thanks to high winds.
Police in the cantonal capital, Sion, say the fire started about 15:30 and the garage was completely destroyed; the cause of the fire is not known. No one was injured by the blaze and homes in the area are not at risk.
A gray veil of smoke hangs over the Rhone river valley (Visp is slightly above the centre of the image) Wednesday morning, in contrast to the blue skies above and clear view Tuesday before the fire (click on image to view larger)
The fire rapidly ran up the hillside, despite firefighters arriving quickly, and by late Tuesday night 100 hectares of hillside forest had been burned. High winds and the inaccessibility on foot of most of the terrain made the fire extremely difficult to douse, say police.
The blaze was fought yesterday until 21:00 by 350 firefighters from several local communities, working with 10 helicopters from Air Zermatt (5), Air Glacier (2), Eagle (Super Puma) and the Swiss Army (2 Super Pumas). Other helicopters were put on standby.
Autoroute now open again
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 43-year-old Spanish truck driver hit a parked police car on the A9 autoroute near St Leonard in canton Valais Friday afternoon 15 April. The two policemen in the car, which was stopped near signs for temporary roadworks, were slightly injured, but their car was “heavily damaged” say Valais police in a statement.
The accident, at 09:45 Friday morning, was apparently due to a moment of inattention on the truck driver’s part, say police. He was driving from Sierre to Sion and shortly before an underpass he veered off to the right and the right front of his truck went into the left rear of the police car, which was stopped in the emergency lane.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 16-year-old girl has died in hospital two weeks after a ski accident on a closed piste in canton Valais. The girl died Tuesday 15 February at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne.
She was on a school ski trip with her class from Neuchatel 3 February in Isérables, part of the Nendaz ski system in Valais. She and a group of students were skiing in the Siviez area and decided to ignore signs saying the Fontaines piste was closed, in order to get to a lift. She took a bad fall on the run at 11:15 and was taken to hospital in Sion, then transferred at 16:15 that day to the Chuv due to the seriousness of her injuries.
A 12-year-old girl from Biel/Bienne died while on a school ski trip in Valais 10 February, after sliding down an icy towbar path. In another slippery slope accident, a 65-year-old Vaud woman lost her life after sliding down a closed path near Champery 6 February.
Police in Valais have opened an investigation into the accident.
Sion / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 57-year-old woman died Tuesday morning 8 February in Sion after being struck by a car while she was crossing the road. The 25-year-old woman who was driving the car was taken to hospital in a state of shock.
Police are trying to determine if the woman was in a protected crosswalk, which appears to have been the case they say, and if the windshield on the driver’s car was fogged or iced up, preventing her from seeing the pedestrian.
Drivers in Switzerland are legally responsible for clearing their windshield, cantonal police in Vaud and Valais noted at the start to the winter season.
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 30-year-old Frenchman was arrested Thursday night 7 October after he critically injured a 20-year-old man in an incident in the resort of Haute-Nendaz, say Valais police. Five people showed up at an apartment at 21:30 to settle a dispute and a fight broke out. One of the visitors grabbed hit the Frenchman, whose residence it is, with a baseball bat. The man then pulled out a knife but also grabbed the bat and hit the visitor on the head. The group then took the injured man to the hospital in Sion.
First snow, winter 2010-11 (30 August!), near Crans-Montana, Switzerland
Monts Jura, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Monday morning brought chilly temperatures, 9C at 1,000 metres in the Alps, where autumn apples are ripening earlier than usual, and fresh snow at 2,200 metres! If you’re hiking, climbing or mountain-biking, take warm clothes.
It’s not too early in the season to think about ski tickets, reports Shirley Curran, our Jura correspondent, with her first pre-season ski news for 2010-2011:
Jura season tickets
This is the last weekend that the telecabines from Lelex and Crozet will operate for the summer season but winter is on its way and, exceptionally this year, from September 6, it will be possible to buy Monts Jura season tickets on-line at the considerably cheaper pre-season ‘super-promotion’ rate. The resort will be operating one of the races from the Women’s International calendar in February.
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Rechy, Valais, near Sion, Switzerland, first snow, 30 August 2010
Sion's Tourbillon castle, near the airport, in winter: certified a safe place to land, even with its high mountains, ice and snow
Update 15:30 Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The airport in the Valais town of Sion has received international recognition for safety by being certified according to standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
ICAO is a Montreal-based UN body charged with standards, including the three-letter airport identification code.
The significance of the certification lies in the fact that it makes the airport’s marketing efforts easier, the airport’s manager, Bernard Karrer told GenevaLunch. Being able to show a certificate demonstrating international standards simplifies the vetting process for airlines.
Sion’s airport is the entry point for a wide range of summer and winter tourist destinations. It can handle 2,600 passengers a day, and has a permanent customs office. In 2009, the airport handled almost 27,700 passengers. Eight commercial airlines use the airport regularly.
Air traffic was down sharply in 2009 as a result of the economic crisis, which saw two regular charter carriers that served Sion go bankrupt. Passenger numbers are up again, though, according to Karrer who anticipates a year-end figure of more than 37,000 passengers.
Five Swiss airports now have ICAO certification: Zurich, Geneva, Bern-Belp, St Gallen-Altenrhein, and Sion. The safety standards cover snow clearance and wing de-icing, and adequate emergency response capabilities. The infrastructure and procedures are overseen by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), and each airport is audited every three years.
Links to other sites: 24Heures, Reuters, Swissinfo, Sion Airport site
Swiss military jets leaving streams over the Alps during maneuvers for the World Economic Forum, January 2010
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – An F-18 fighter jet 7,000 metres high and performing aerial combat maneuvers startled vacationers in the Swiss Alps and residents of the Sion region Monday 26 July when it passed the speed of sound. Military authorities at the Sion air base told ats wire service that although it is uncommon for pilots to do this in the region, there is nothing special or worrisome about it, and the pilot, concentrating on maneuvers, may not even have been aware of crossing that line.
The skies in Valais were noisy with military jets in training Monday but at around 10:20 a large boom that sounded like an explosion occurred, rattling windows.
Jura, daffodils April 2010 (photo, Shirley Curran)
The temperatures in Switzerland have been warming up for the past week, but the national weather service, MeteoSwiss, says the level of precipitation has been unusually low.
The first real spring day, defined as the temperature going above 25C, was Sunday 25 April in Sion. The snow in the Jura near Geneva is rapidly disappearing, giving way to meadows of daffodils and other bright flowers.
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The former second in command of the police in canton Valais was fined CHF16,500 and handed a suspended sentence of 100 days of community service 1 April in a case of child sexual abuse. He was charged with sexual acts involving a 13-year-old girl.
The case underscores some of the difficulties courts, victims and the accused face in child sexual abuse cases.
The man, who was removed from his job and reassigned to a cantonal police department project where he is still working, was charged after the girl’s school contacted the police.
Update 01:00 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An accident involving a person on the rails near Roche-Aigle in canton Vaud stopped most train traffic between Martigny and Sion late Saturday night, according to a 21:45 CFF notice. Several trains were cancelled: update – service has been resumed. Link to CFF alerts
Safe from betting, at this stage
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Several Swiss football clubs Monday 23 November announced internal investigations into match-fixing involving their players following revelations in Germany 19 November that 32 games with suspicious outcomes were being investigated there. Seventeen people reportedly were arrested in Germany and, according to German media Bild, over €1 million seized in cash and property.
Swiss team FC Thun suspended its Senegalese star striker, Omar Fayé, after it was announced that the police had spoken to him “as a witness.” FC Gossau announced Tuesday 24 November it had suspended a player, as well. Two people were taken into custody last week in connection with the scandal.
Twenty-two Swiss Challenge League games and six Test matches involving Swiss teams, including FC Thun, Gossau, Yverdon and Sion, are under investigation. As an example, both Bern’s Young Boys and Aarau played Bulgaria’s first division team Lokomotiv Mezdra which lost 0:5 in both cases, 13 and 17 November, reports Swiss-German paper Tagesanzeiger 24 November.
Pinot Noir grapes, basking in the sun in early September, Valais
Two weeks of sunshine will make all the difference: Valais grapes 5 September
Geneva/Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The grape harvest of 2009 has wine producers in Switzerland smiling, even though grape picking begins in earnest in Valais, the early starter and the largest wine-producing canton, only this weekend. It has been an excellent year for growers, comparable to 2005, one of the best years on record, say growers: adequate rain at just the right times and generally dry conditions in most of the country’s grapegrowing regions, with the harvest size comparable to last year’s.
Lausanne/Sion, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Valais police are investigating an incident in which a man pulled a knife on a youth Friday night 11 September at the Sion train station. The man was buying a ticket at a machine when a group of seven youths aged between 17 and 20 approached him, acting threateningly, he told police. He pulled out a pocket knife, and in the skirmish that followed, one of the youths was hurt, and taken to hospital, according to the Valais police.
Late Saturday night 12 September, a young American student in Lausanne was attacked by two young men and four young women as he was out near Parc Montbenon. Parc Montbenon was the scene 1 September of a knifing on a young Algerian man who later died of his injuries.
Related: 20Minutes
Background: “Non-Swiss juveniles kill youth, send police to hospital in separate crimes” 07 September 2009, GenevaLunch
Yellow = medium dry, orange = very dry, red = extremely dry (image: canton Valais 20 August 2009)
Sion, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Canton Valais has had little precipitation in recent weeks and Thursday 20 August cantonal authorities banned open air fires unless they are authorized and in areas reserved for fires. Forests south of the Rhone are exceptionally dry but a red alert, meaning all fires banned, has not yet been issued.
Click on image to view larger
Take your pick: party in the Alps near Sion or on Swiss city streets
Zurich's street parade: definitely urban
Zurich and Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – You have to go out of your way to avoid festivals in Switzerland in the summer, starting with the two big July music festivals, Montreux Jazz Festival and Paleo in Nyon, with several smaller but very popular festivals around the same time. The Fêtes de Geneve is underway, with music and the region’s biggest fireworks Saturday 9 August. Zurich is also holding its big party this coming weekend, the 20th year of the colourful techno Street Parade or Switzerland’s biggest rave, whose organizers say attracted 850,000 people in 2008. On a smaller scale, but also celebrating an anniversary, its 15th, the Guinness Irish Festival in Sion features the Dubliners and the Chieftains.
new Cisalpino II train, inaugural trip July 2009, Lausanne-Sion, Switzerland
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The inaugural run of the new, ultra-sleek Cisalpino II trains that link Geneva to Milan, Italy via Lausanne, saw the high-speed train journey from Lausanne to Sion. The ride itself was easy compared to the latest problems faced by the company. Cisalpino was under threat of losing its contract with the Swiss rail company CFF early in 2009 because of breakdowns and delays.
Charles Bonvin & Fils in Sion celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008
Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (Le Nouvelliste, Fre) – Rouvinez, Sierre-based winery, will buy Charles Bonvin & Fils, including 20 hectares of vineyard, to become the largest private wine company in Valais. Valais is Switzerland’s largest wine-producing canton, with 40 percent of the country’s wine: 45 million litres in 2008. The sale, reportedly for some CHF10 million, will keep the oldest wine cellar in Valais in local hands.
Red Cross doubledecker blood mobile, © 2009 STS CRS
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Red Cross has specially fitted a genuine London doubledecker bus to tour Switzerland this summer to encourage blood donations. The campaign began Sunday 14 June to coincide with international blood donors day and runs through 22 August in most major Swiss cities. The bus is currently in Sion, canton of Valais. The Red Cross says it is especially difficult to obtain blood during the summer.
