June 29, 2010

Basel’s government expressed disapproval of a motion to raise University tuition fees for foreign students. Higher education of foreign nationals is a matter of Swiss national interest, said a government spokesperson in a written statement.

Locally trained foreign nationals bring much-needed specialist skills to Switzerland and also act as ambassadors in their home countries, according to the statement. The number of foreign students in Basel has grown constantly over the past few years and is now at just over twenty one percent.

Source: 20 minuten

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On Saturday, Hochstrasse in Gundeldingen was the scene of a chase and a shooting, all while the police looked on. The police were advisors to a television crew filming a detective show for Swiss TV.

The show will air next year and is the fifth in the series about police commissioner Hunkeler, played by Mathias Gnädinger. The real police officers enjoyed being part of the shoot and said they thought the show was very close to reality.

Source: 20 minuten

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Basel scientists reported a breakthrough after performing animal experiments for treating blindness. Researchers at the Friedrich Miescher Institute have developed a form of gene therapy that reactivates degenerated rods and cones in the retina.

The experiments were performed on mice but offer hope that results may be transferrable to humans. Two million people are born each year with the hereditary disease Retinitis pigmentoso that usually leads irreversibly to blindess.

Source: Basler Zeitung

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In separate incidents, a motorcyclist and a bicyclist were injured by hit-and-run drivers on Sunday. The bicyclist was an older woman who was riding her bike near the St. Jacob stadium around 3pm. The car hit her bike from behind and knocked her over, but the driver just continued on.

A little over an hour later, the motorcyclist was hit in Riehen at the corner of Rudolf Wackernagel-Strasse and Bettingerstrasse. Again, the car just drove on. Police are looking for witnesses.

Source: Basler Zeitung

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Basel’s strawberry harvest suffered under the rainy spring season. One farmer in Füllinsdorf said he lost a full fifty percent of his crop after being battered by hailstorms and ravaged by mould following heavy rains.

Farmers are now working overtime to clear fields and sort out rotting berries. Customers at pick-your-own berry fields will notice the pickings are slim this year. On a positive note, the current sunny weather is giving strawberry crops a new growth spurt.

Source: 20 minuten

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Brigitte Hollinger of Basel's parliment wants the city to consider making the disposal of diapers free to young families. Many communities in western Switzerland do not charge families with children for diaper disposal. Parents would either get a fixed number of free garbage sacks per child each year or there would be special diaper sacks distributed.

Hollinger said that the cost to families should not be underestimated. Children can use up to seven diapers a day, which can easily fill up several garbage bags per week.

Source: Basler Zeitung

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Basel is celebrating the latest crop of high school graduates. Nearly six hundred students in Basel’s five high schools took the matura or final exam that opens the door to university studies. Only five percent of students failed the test, significantly less than last year.

Young women outnumbered men by nearly a hundred and over a hundred graduates scored a grade of five out of six or higher. One government official addressed new graduates in a ceremony speech: “You will never again be as free as you are today. That’s not a threat, it’s a statement of fact.”

Source: Basler Zeitung

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