GenevaLunch

Medieval Feast at the Chateau de Chillon

Sean Ecker — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:34:35 +0000

Title: Medieval Feast at the Chateau de Chillon
Location: Chateau de Chillon, Blonay
Link out: Click here
Description: An authentic 8-course medieval meal after a recipe from Guillaume Tirel, who cooked for the 14th century French royal family. With roast wild boar and sage wine. Special menu for under 14s. CHF100/person, CHF20 for kids
Start Time: 11:30
Date: 15 Nov 2009

More information, reservations on 076 491 47 03; or info@amisdechillon.ch

Christianization in the Geneva area (in French)

Sean Ecker — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:13:06 +0000

Title: Christianization in the Geneva area (in French)
Location: Musée d’art et d’histoire , Rue Charles-Galland 2, Geneva (old town)
Link out: Click here
Description: Geneva’s archeologist, Jean Terrier, will hold a short talk on Christianization in the lake Geneva region. Entry free, no reservation, in French
Start Time: 12:30
Date: 11 Nov 2009
End Time: 13:00

Two kidnapped Swiss men returned to embassy in Libya

Ellen Wallace — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:24:05 +0000

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two Swiss men who were whisked away to a secret location, without outside contact, by the Libyan government in October have been turned over to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, Libya. The men were kidnapped after being lured away on the pretext of needing medical examinations. The two have been waiting for exit visas to leave the country, and they have been at the centre of a tense political standoff between Bern and Tripoli.

The men have been detained since shortly after a July 2008 incident involving the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadafi. Hannibal Qadafi and his wife were arrested in Geneva for abusing their household staff while staying at the President Wilson hotel in the city centre.

The Swiss government issued a terse statement Monday 9 November to say the Swiss citizens had been returned “by the Libyan authorities without any explanations. According to the embassy, both Swiss are as well as can be expected under the circumstances. More information cannot be provided at this time.”

The government previously referred to the men as “businessmen” and avoided the term “kidnapped”, in line with Libyan insistence they were not being detained.

Background: GenevaLunch on Qadaffi

Last chance for bluefin tuna: ICCAT meets in Recife, Brazil

Sean Ecker — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:10:17 +0000

WWF International has called on the International Convention for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) to impose a ban on catching the bluefin tuna, as well as a ban on trading in it. ICCAT is holding its 21st regular meeting in Recife, Brazil Monday 9 November. It meets to decide on whether to heed its own scientists’ calls to end its members’ fishing of the bluefin tuna, stocks of which are close to collapse in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Monaco proposed 14 October that the bluefin tuna be placed on the CITES list of endangered species banned from international trade. A CITES ban on the trade in ivory in 1989 is credited with saving African elephant populations.

European tuna fleets export most of their catch to Japan, the world’s largest importer of tunafish.

WWF International joined Greenpeace 28 October to call on the organization to heed its scientists’ findings, pleas that have largely gone unheeded in the past. A single bluefin tuna sold for $173,000 in January 2009. In 2007, it is estimated that the tuna catch was 61,000 tonnes, more than twice the quota fixed by ICCAT.

Swiss Alps welcome winter

Ellen Wallace — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:09:45 +0000

Wintry sunrise, Rhone valley, canton Valais, Saturday 7 November 2009

Val d'anniviers, Valais, fresh snow 7 November 2009

Click on images to view larger

Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There is one day every year when you know that winter has arrived: it can’t be defined clearly by a drop in the temperature or all the leaves suddenly disappearing or even by snow arriving, but it is tangible. Saturday 7 November, winter settled in, in the Swiss Alps.

Sunrise was more dramatic than it has been for months, clouds banked at the end of the Rhone valley, temperatures began to slide down gently and pristine white peaks were clearly visible for much of the day. Leaves eased off the trees and families raked them up while farmers called their cows into the barn earlier in the evening.

Weather forecast

The weather forecast for the week in the Alps and the Jura is for snow down to 800-1,000 metres, with rain elsewhere. Highs of 5-6C. Skies should clear briefly later in the week, with temperatures on the plain and near Lake Geneva rising to 11C, slightly warmer in the mountains.

See complete set of photos “Swiss Alps welcome winter” in the GenevaLunch photo album.

Fatal accident in Geneva brings total to 5 deaths in one week

Sean Ecker — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:05:53 +0000

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two young men died after the car they were driving crashed into a wall in a curve on the Route du Bout du Monde, in the Champel district of Geneva, Friday evening 6 November. The driver, from canton Aargau, and his front seat passenger died immediately. Another passenger, a 17-year-old woman, was taken to hospital. She is in stable condition, according to the police report.

Last weekend three people died in two separate road accidents in Geneva. The latest accident brings to 18 the number of people killed on roads in Geneva in 2009.

Links to other sites: 20Minutes, TdG

Berlin (Chappatte cartoon) gets graphic journalism treatment

Ellen Wallace — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:14:26 +0000

"BERLIN"

Update 18:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Patrick Chappatte, whose political cartoons regularly appear in GenevaLunch, is commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall by inaugurating a new online product, graphic journalism, sometimes called comics journalism. A section of his Globe Cartoon web site now carries his Berlin wall story as well as illustrated reports of his recent visits to Gaza, South Ossetia and South Lebanon. His comics-style reporting has previously appeared occasionally in print.

View “Berlin” at www.graphicjournalism.net

Background: GenevaLunch interview with Patrick Chappatte, 26 December 2008

© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.

Tourists, political figures flock to Berlin to remember the Wall

Ellen Wallace — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:06:00 +0000

Berlin Monday 9 November is recalling the fall of the wall that divided East from West, politically if not necessarily geographically. Thousands of tourists are in the city for celebrations and commemorative events on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Key figures at the time, including Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and Polish union leader Lech Walesa, are taking part in ceremonies.

Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Telegraph, UK and Deutsche Welle home page 9 November featuring special section on the Berlin Wall, in English

Background: Wikipedia on the Berlin Wall, Media coverage of the wall from 1961-1989 from Newseum

El Salvador floods claim at least 124 lives

Ellen Wallace — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:48:27 +0000

Massive flooding in five regions in El Salvador has taken the lives of 124 people, with reports of deaths still coming in as the country struggles to cope. Some 7,000 homes have been damaged. The hardest hit areas appear to be San Salvador, the capital, and San Vicente province in the centre of the country. The floods, bringing mudslides, came after days of heavy rains. The Independent reported in 2005, after heavy flooding that year, that deforestation has left the country vulnerable to major flood damage.

Links to other sites: Associated Press, BBC

Obama puts pressure on US Senate to pass health bill

Ellen Wallace — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:26:26 +0000

The US House of Representatives passed its version of a US health care reform Saturday 7 November and less than a day later President Barack Obama in a speech at the White House turned up pressure on the US Senate to quickly approve its own version of the bill. The House bill would cost $1.1 trillion and provide health care benefits to some 36 million Americans who are currently uninsured. If the Senate passes its bill, the two houses of Congress will then negotiate a final version of the bill, which will become law. The vote in the House was close and mostly along party lines: 220-215, with only one Republican voting yes. The Senate fight is expected to be even tougher, with two bills merged into one and the overall cost not yet clear.

Links to other sites: Financial Times, New York Times, NPR