BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss unemployment rose from 3.3 to 3.4 percent in January 2012, but there were still 9.7 percent fewer people out of work than in January 2011, figures published Wednesday 8 February show.
Young people accounted for a large part of the increase, with a one-month increase of 3 percent for the 15- to 24-year-old group, but compared to a year earlier, the jobless rate for this age group is down by more than 13 percent.
Update 10 February: Pair found, now safe. Photos removed to protect family’s privacy
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Police in two cantons have issued missing persons reports Wednesday 1 February, and they are asking the public for help finding them.
Canton Vaud police say 35-year-old Mizué Bachelard and her 7-year-old daughter Hanaé Noémi disappeared Tuesday evening 31 January from their home in Chexbres.
The mother is “psychologically fragile” say police.
They put out an alert after the mother bought petrol in Bursins, on the A1 autoroute, for her blue Nissan Micra car, Vaud license plates VD 551’987 at 19:40.
She then took money out of a bank cash machine in Versoix and at 09:00 this morning out of a machine in Paris. Mizué Bachelard is 160cm tall, thin and wispy, with chestnut hair (she often wears it tied with a band) and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a pink pullover, checkered pants or pyjama-style bottoms, and a brown-beige coat.
Her daughter is 120cm tall, thin, with chestnut hair and light blue eyes. She was wearing a red and white striped pullover, dark pants and a blue jacket with a hood.
Police believe the pair may be in Paris.
They ask anyone with information to phone +41 21 644 4444.
Valais youth missing from home since 26 January
Bastien Monnet, 18 years old, has not been seen since the night of 26 January in St Maurice.
Sebastien Monnet, missing from St Maurice
He is 187 cm tall, trim build, dark brown hair cut very short, brown eyes. He was last seen wearing military pants with US Army on them and very large side pockets, a black jacket with hood covered in logos, a black winter jacket with small red and gray motifs and black cloth trainers.
Police in canton Valais are asking anyone with information to contact them at +41 27 326 5656.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 17-year-old youth led police on a wild car chase through the streets of Geneva and the autoroute around the city early Monday morning 26 December, reports Le Matin. He reportedly stole a VW Golf in Eysins Sunday night. The car was spotted by border guards near La Croix-de-Rozon at 05:40, then again by police in front of the Kempinski Hotel on the Quai du Mont Blanc 20 minutes later.
Police chased him to Chambésy along the Rue de Lausanne at speeds that reached 180kph, according to the newspaper, with the car driving on the wrong side of the road, then up past an embassy on the Rue de la Paix where a guard, suspecting a suicide bomber, shot at the car. He reportedly ran a red light and made it to Gare Cornavin train station going 100 kph before taking Montbrillant and the Rue de Servette up to the autoroute, where he attempted a u-turn despite a divider.
Once his car crashed he ran for cover on a construction site, where police, with the help of a dog, found the young man, who tested negative for alcohol, but who had consumed cocaine, according to the newspaper (police have not yet confirmed the details of the report).
17-year-old on two-night binge had no reason for doing it, he says
Altar burned in village church after car vandalism: youth confesses to drunken spree
SION, SWITZERLAND – A 17-year-old who got drunk and damaged 23 cars one night, then burned the inside of a church in Châble the next told police he didn’t do it for any particular reason. He turned himself in Monday and admitted to the crimes.
Police turned him over to juvenile authorities who are detaining him.
The fire destroyed the altar and caused extensive smoke damage to the church. It was set by the youth the day after he and an old school friend from Fribourg went on a rampage and vandalized 23 cars. The second youth was being sought by police late Monday.
The fire occurred Saturday night 19 November about 23:00. The prayer books inside the church were piled on the altar and then lit.
The vandalism to cars Friday night involved petty damages such as broken side-view mirrors and antennas.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva police have confirmed to several Swiss media that an adolescent received knife wounds Monday night in the Geneva neighbourhood of Carouge, reportedly after being accosted by a group of youths as he went to get his moped, but police will provide no further information because those involved are minors. The youth is reported by 20 Minutes to be in critical condition.
On average, young people in Switzerland owe CHF468 for subscriptions to mobile phones and Internet
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss aged 18-25 are more prone to get into debt in e-commerce, telecommunications and health than people aged 32 and up, says the European-based credit management and services company Intrum Justitia in its 2011 Radar study.
On average, young people in Switzerland owe CHF468 for subscriptions to mobile phones and Internet. People aged 32 and up however, have more health bills.
The study shows that men get more into debt than young women, and that young francophones/romandes carry the most debt of all Swiss youth. The study also shows young people living in cities are about 10% more prone to get into debt that those living in rural areas.
Paying off debts is often a slow process. Only 53% of young debtors have paid their debts after five years.
According to Intrum Justitia, around 25 percent of all companies that go out of business in Europe do so because “they either get paid late or not at all.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 15-year-old boy on a walk in the Alps with a family member and friend fell 50 metres to his death Thursday afternoon 18 August at 16:30. The trio paused for a rest and the youth walked off to a nearby waterfall to cool off. When he didn’t return after a few minutes the others went to look for him.
They were hiking in the “Plan de l’Au”, area near Champex d’en Bas. Police were alerted at 20:00 when the other two had still not found the young man. A rescue operation worked until 04:00, then began looking again at 07:00 but it was only at 13:00 that his body was spotted by a helicopter.
The youth, who was Mauritian, had been vacationing in the region.
The driver rolled his car, ran away, hid under a parked car, then when caught he climbed a fence and swam the Rhone before heading home
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Monday 17 August was a rough day for the police, starting with the media focus on safety in Geneva and ending with unusual escapes in Vaud and Valais, in one case of a detained man who threw away his crutches, in the other of a speeding driver who ran across the autoroute and swam the Rhone before heading home.
Vaud police still hunting for escaped robber
Police in Nyon were caught by surprise Monday noon when an Algerian man in custody, age 25, who was being taken to a court hearing on several charges related to breaking in, theft and drugs, threw away his crutches and ran off. He was one of three taken to court. The other two were handcuffed, but he was using crutches after a medical examination declared the man to have an injured heel, and after the hearing he made his escape.
The man is not considered dangerous but he had not been found by the end of the day Monday despite a large manhunt: he is 180cm tall, thin, has brown hair and was wearing jeans, white trainers and a navy blue shirt with a red, white and blue stripe down the sleeve. He has tatoos on his right shoulder and left hand. Anyone with information is asked to call police at +41 21 644 4444.
Wild early morning chase in Valais before youth found at his home
A 20-year-old Valais youth was driving at a high speed on the A9 autoroute near St Maurice Sunday 14 August, heading towards Martigny, when he overtook a police patrol car at 05:40. The police set off in pursuit. The young man initially appeared to obey their order and headed off the autoroute, but at the last moment got back on the autoroute and, going 200kph, he drove to a Martigny exit, where he exited, went through a stop sign on the cantonal highway and crashed his car which rolled over several times. He was uninjured and took off on foot but a second police patrol spotted him shortly after, hiding under a parked car.
The youth then escaped, despite police calls to stop, by climbing over a fence, running across the autoroute and swimming across the Rhone river.
The police, who had information about his identity, found him at home later in the day. The driver admitted to the facts.
Geneva’s historical tension, police versus political bosses, raises its head again
Geneva’s police appear to be one of the pawns in an ongoing public political debate over safety in the city, with the most recent discussions sparked by the mugging of an American youth who was visiting his parents, a US diplomatic family. The incident was initially given publicity because of the family’s status as high-profile foreigners, but the UN added fuel to the fire with a two-paragraph reminder to UN staff to take care when going out at night.
Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is from Geneva, then announced her concerns about safety in Geneva, emphasizing its role as an international centre with a high percentage of foreigners. Monday, the political boss of Geneva’s police, Isabel Rochat, turned the tables by saying she is glad the federal government is at last considering boosting financial aid for Geneva’s security, something she says Geneva has been demanding for several months. The two are scheduled to discuss the issue 12 September.
Geneva media have jumped into the fray, reminding citizens, who go to the polls to elect a new parliament this autumn, of long-standing tensions between Geneva police and their politically nominated leaders. Rochat has made it a priority to calm down the mud-slinging battle of previous politicians who worked with police and the security forces. The heavy media coverage, where the American youth’s mugging has served as a pretext to revive the old battlelines, has made the story one of the most widely read in the Tribune de Geneve and prompted a number of online readers to leave comments on its pages and those of Le Matin, also owned by Edipresse.
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.
Young Swiss residents: not as likely to live to a ripe old age as their women friends
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss resident population in 2010 reached 7,866,500, an increase of 80,700, according to preliminary figures published by the Swiss Statistical Office in Neuchatel 28 April.
The 1 percent annual growth was comparable to the previous year’s. It includes the Swiss population as well as all resident foreigners except those with short-term permits, 56,600 and people seeking asylum, 5,600 persons.
“This statistic, greatly improved in quality, is part of the new, register-based population census system and provides more precise details than the previous Annual Population Statistics,” notes the SSO.
The federal government announced in December 2010 that it is moving to an annual census and will rely far more heavily than in the past on communal and cantonal population registers, which have been harmonizing the data they gather.
Switzerland now has 1,300 people over the age of 100 and figures show that this population has doubled every 10 years since 1950. The longer lifespan of women is clearly evident here, with women accounting for 1,100 of the people over age 100.
Number of foreigners continues to climb
The number of foreigners living permanently in Switzerland rose to 1,766,400 in 2010, an increase of 52,400, to comprise 22.5 percent of the population.
The percentage at the end of 2009 was 22 percent, but the increase is due in part to the way in which data is produced under the new statistics/census system, and to changing notions of population.
More people over 65 than under 20
The population under age 20 comprises 20.8 percent of the total and those age 65 or over, 1.3 million persons, are 16.9 percent. People of working age account for 62.2 percent of the Swiss population.
Boys outnumber girls slightly under age 20 but the male population declines gradually until the number of men and women is the same, in the 55-59 age group. Women then steadily outnumber men in a growing proportion: the ages 84-89 group has twice as many women as men.
The census included the following groups:
- Swiss whose permanent residence is Switzerland
- Foreigners with residence permits of at least 12 months (B, C and Foreign Affairs Department permits: international organization workers, diplomats and members of their families)
- Foreigners with a short-term residence permit (L) for a cumulative stay of at least 12 months
- asylum-seekers (F and N permits) whose total length of stay in Switzerland is at least 12 months.
Look for a very special party at the Mad Club in Geneva 11 March: DJs from Switzerland and the US will play tech-house, electronic, trip-hop and other cool sounds from 23:00 to 5:00.
This soirée is different because a Nuit Blanche? team will be visiting the club to promote alternatives to drugs and alcohol. Nuit Blanche? is an organization, well-known among clubbers, that works to keep people “informed on their choices”.
A “chill-out” area will offer an alcohol-free space for those who want to “keep it cool”.
The group visits clubs around the region regularly.
Location: Geneva
Link out: http://mad-geneve.ch/index.php?2011/03/11/432-o…
Date: 11 Mar 2011
State of British student on school trip reportedly serious
Guide in Mont Blanc area dies, falls into crevasse in front of clients
Update 20:15 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A British student, age about 15, on a school ski trip to the Portes du Soleil near Châtel in France, was taken by helicopter to hospital Wednesday afternoon 23 February after a chairlift accident. French newspaper Le Dauphine said at 18:30 that his condition is serious. The details of the accident remain unclear.
The French mountain gendarmerie in Abondance told GenevaLunch at 16:30 that an investigation into the accident has been opened but it did not have information about the youth’s state, nor what distance he fell. The accident occurred in the early afternoon, around 13:00. Le Dauphine reports that the boy’s backpack caught and he was unable to get off the lift, which then began to go down, with the boy caught by his clothes, which strangled him. He had to be cut down by the maintenance team, which had difficulty reaching him, according to the newspaper, although police earlier told GenevaLunch he fell from the lift.
He landed in a place on the Linga-Châtel piste area (map) that is difficult for helicopter access, confirming a report by witness Matt Morollo from Boston, who said the rescue team had trouble evacuating the boy.
Monday accident involved 6-yr-old
The accident is the second in two days where a young person fell from a chairlift. Tuesday in Morillon, near Chamonix, a 6-year-old boy slipped from a three-seat lift he was riding with his mother, falling a dozen metres and miraculously suffering only concussion.
Morollo, who has been visiting the region for 17 years and who was skiing with his wife and two children, ages 9 and 11, was shaken by the scene, but he was angry at what happened after the rescue near Chatel:
“Immediately after leaving the scene, a snowboarder came schussing down 60kph, at least, on a crowded, icy piste. In America, that idiot would lose his ski pass, and the police would be waiting for him at the bottom as the ski patrol escort him down to the base. He would either pay a fine of up $500 or spend a night in jail. We ski in France and Switzerland because we love the liberty, off-piste, but here, skiers kill skiers. You will die or kill someone if you don’t think about your actions. Educate people in their early years t0 the danger of the sport. The idiot will either kill a child, his friend, another skiier, or himself. Think! Respectez les Pistes s’il vous plaît!“
Icy slopes have been a factor in several accidents in recent weeks, including two others in Switzerland where youngsters died on school ski outings in February, a 16-year-old girl who fell while skiing down a closed slope and a 12-year-old who slipped off a tow bar and slid back down the path.
Chamonix guide crevasse accident killed him instantly
In another accident in France late Wednesday morning a Chamonix guide fell into a Mont Blanc crevasse in front of his client. His body was found shortly after the clients raised the alert. He had apparently died on impact, reports Le Dauphine.
Besancon, France (GenevaLunch) – The French town of Besancon, near the Swiss border, is breathing more easily early Tuesday after 20 young children and their teacher, taken hostage at 08:30 at their school, returned home safely, with no one injured. A 17-year-old was arrested after holding a small group of the four- to six-year-olds hostage. He is described by police as psychologically fragile and known for having a history of mental illness and depression but no police record. He lives with his mother, near the school and was carrying two swords, but the teacher who was held hostage said she never felt in danger. Police cordoned off the school during the standoff. The youth reportedly had not been taking medication prescribed to him.
Samuel Hengel, the 15-year-old student in Marinette, Wisconsin, north of Green Bay in the US, who held then released 24 hostages and then shot and injured himself, died in hospital 30 November. His parents said in a statement that they were “devastated and heartbroken” at the events, but had no idea why it happened.
When police entered the schoolroom after a six-hour stand-off, with the school area cordoned off, Hengel shot himself. The boy, who was joined by his family at the hospital, was said by a former teacher and family friend to have had problems at school but he also described the youth as “one of the sweetest kids you ever want to know.”
Links to other sites: Green Bay Press-Gazette, Huffington Post, LA Times, Sky News
Correction / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 21-year-old died after falling 12 metres from the balcony of a disco at the Place Bel-air. He lost his balance after climbing on a piece of furniture, for reasons that are not clear.
Emergency services were immediately called to the scene, but failed to save him. A crowd of some 200 people gathered as the disco was closing, at 05:00, and police used pepper spray to disperse them after they began to throw objects at the emergency teams.
Police told ats wire service that the actions appeared to be anti-authoritarian, and they made no arrests.
Pfaeffikon, canton Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The body of a 22-year-old man from Pfaffikon near Zurich has been recovered from the Pfaeffikersee lake. He and three companions went out on the lake in a boat around 01:30of Monday, after drinking. The boat capsized and one man swam to shore while two others were pulled in by rescuers. The fourth man was found 250 metres from shore, 18 metres underwater, at the end of a day of searching that involved several divers, helicopters and a boat equipped with a special camera, reports Le Nouvelliste (Fre).
Vaud 18-year-old had partied at l’Usine, body found in Rhone
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva police are asking for help from the public to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of a Vaud 18-year-old in the early hours of Sunday 2 May. His body was found in the Rhone at 06:42, near the quai des Forces Motrices, and police know that he spent his last hours, from 03:00-05:00, partying at l’Usine. He was dressed in black: shirt, jacket, pants and black Nike shoes. Anyone with information is asked to phone +41 22 427 8611.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An 18-year-old Spanish youth who went missing Sunday afternoon in heavy fog while snowboarding in the French Alps has been found alive. The young man was near the resort of Deux-Alpes (map), at an altitude of 3,200 metres, when he became lost in bad weather, which then prevented search parties from finding him. His life is not in danger, say French authorities, although he was suffering from hypothermia and appeared to have given up on being found when skies cleared long enough for a helicopter patrol to find him at 1,275 metres, only 500 metres from the road, as the crow flies.
Rescuers are calling it a miracle, that he managed to get down some 2,000 metres of untraced mountain without any avalanches or cliffs.
Links to other sites: TF1 (Fre), 20 Minutes (Fre)
Luterbach, Solothurn, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 20-year-old American was assailed Monday 9 November around noon in the train station at Luterbach by two youths. He was kicked and punched and suffered a concussion. The two were unknown to the young man and police are seeking them, reports AP/20 Minutes (Fre).
Update 13 July Nyon, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 17-year-old Swiss youth from Nyon is in critical condition following an accident at the Nyon train station shortly after midnight, early Thursday 9 July. [Ed. note, 13 July: GL has just learned that he was a 2009 graduate of La Chataigneraie, part of the International School of Geneva] He was sending friends off on the train after an evening out in Nyon when he pulled himself up to the window of one of the rail cars and held on, briefly, then slipped and fell under the train as it began to move. Both legs were severed by the train’s bogies, the right one below the hip and the left at the tibia, below the knee.
Russian signed the European Social Charter 20 May, a fact that excited little media attention elsewhere in Europe, but in Moscow it is stirring up the public because it may force the government to offer sex education courses to young people. The Moscow Times reports that there is little such education and according to one government official not a single textbook mentions the word condom. Groups of parents are, however, protesting plans to start teaching children about sex at ages 11-12. The country has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection among young people, according to the Times.
