11 people injured slightly, taken to hospital; 100 treated at police centre for shock Special phone line set up for those involved – +41 21 644 83 48 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Bad weather, excessive speeds and cars traveling too close together in the fog played a role in a massive accident on the A9 autoroute [...]
Sleuthing a Flaesch Pinot’s 91 points from Parker
March 28, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Here’s the news: Pinot Noir ’09 from Gantenbein winery in canton Graubuenden was given a note of 91 by Robert Parker wine reviewer Neal Martin. This comes on the heels of four Swiss wines mentioned recently by another Parker reviewer, David Schildknecht. The information was bundled into a press release from Swiss [...]
One dead, 3 injured in A9 crash late Saturday
March 25, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 28-year-old Vaud woman was killed when a car crashed late Saturday while overtaking another car on the A9 autoroute between Aigle and Villeneuve. The three other occupants of the car were injured, one of them critically. The 38-year-old driver, a woman from the region, lost control of the car for reasons [...]
Police in region add new recruits
March 11, 2013 by
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Police in Geneva, Valais and Vaud all celebrated the arrival of new recruits in the past 10 days, with swearing-in ceremonies that mark the end of their one-year training programmes as uniformed cops on the beat (gendarmes) or plains-clothes detectives. The ceremonies are attended by VIPs from the police world, where there [...]
Scam alert: fake insurance inspectors seeking personal details
March 1, 2013 by
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud police are alerting the public to a scam that appears to be spreading, with people who say they are cantonal insurance inspectors making visits. The canton does not carry out such inspections, police caution, and anyone contacted by people who say they are inspectors should refuse but contact police with a [...]
Regional travel & wine: Switzerland’s surprising wines
February 10, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Torches light the lovely 15th-century cobblestone courtyard, once a two- or three-hour carriage ride from Geneva. A hum of voices carries from an open cellar door where soft candlelight offers a glimpse of amphoras and barrels. Upstairs, in a renovated area of the old Grand’Cour château, Jean-Pierre Pellegrin describes what makes his [...]
Skiers update: lifts open again in Alps
February 3, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The wind is still whipping up in some areas, as the photo from the Zinal glacier area shows, but the avalanche risk has dropped from 4 out of 5 Saturday to 3, throughout the Vaud and Valais Alps. Lifts are mostly open or, as in Crans-Montana at 08:30, provisionally open after a [...]
Syrian rebels given Geneva Conventions training in Alps
January 23, 2013 by
Rebels accused by human rights group of destroying religious buildings GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A group of 15 Syrian rebel leaders were brought to Switzerland by the Foreign Affairs Department in November for Geneva Conventions training, RTS (Swiss public broadcasting) has learned. The group’s week-long courses, shrouded in secrecy for security reasons, took place in Glion [...]
Woman loses license after wrong way drive on A1
January 17, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 73-year-old Geneva woman lost her driver’s license Wednesday, say canton Vaud police, after driving the wrong way on the A1 autoroute between Coppet and Nyon at 16:15. Several motorists alerted police about the car and she was stopped by police on the Route de St Cergue just after leaving the autoroute [...]
Parker team wakes up to Swiss wines (update)
January 12, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Those of us who know Swiss wines knew the day would come when the Robert Parkers of the world would discover Helvetia’s rich and varied collection of wines; that day has arrived. Swiss wine researcher and author José Vouillamoz in 2011 invited David Schildknecht, a member of Parker’s wine reviewing team and [...]
