Extreme Weather Shuts-In Swiss Town; Basel Airport Capacity Reached; BVB Also Has "Nuclear Button"; Zolli Elephant Dies

News For 9 January 2018

The start of the new year has been an exciting one in terms of global weather.  Americans on the East Coast of the continent have been experiencing record low temperatures and record high snowfalls in many highly populated areas.  And anyone that's taken a flight bound for Europe the last two weeks no doubt experienced some delays, reroutings or at least turbulent landings due to high winds.  It seems Switzerland has not been spared either.  The roads and railways leading to the villages into and around the Zermatt resort have been closed due to the avalanche risk.  This has left approximately 13,000 tourists trapped and also experiencing intermittent power-outages.  While the idea may sound romantic and ideal for skiers, the ski lifts and gondolas have been shut down as well.

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The number of flights approaching from the South at Basel’s EuroAirport surpassed the critical 10% mark in 2017, meaning that the air travel authorities of both Switzerland and France need to find ways of reducing them. A total of 39’630 landings using ILS, or instrumental landing systems, were recorded, of which 4092 took place on the Southern airstrip. Since the ILS was introduced in 2007, flights approaching from the South have been passing directly over highly populated areas in Switzerland. In 2017, the ILS quota for the South runway has been over average compared to the last few years.

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You may have been transfixed last week by the exchange of threats between North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un and American President Donald Trump referring to their countries' respective nuclear arsenals.  The BVB - operator of Basel's Tram and Bus lines, has taken the opportunity to use the spat in a humorous promotion of its services.  In photos on Facebook the BVB makes reference to its "Red Buttons" - the ones used to signal the driver when you wish to exit - and claims it has "A lot of them".  Benjamin Schmid, spokesman for the BVB explained that the ads are definitely not meant to be threatening.

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The oldest member of Basel Zolli’s elephant herd, Malayka, has died at the ripe old age of 47. She was born around 1971 and was a member of Zirkus Knie before coming to the Zolli in 1984, where she was one of the “elephant ride” elephants. According to the Zolli, she was the most easy-going member of the group. Malayka had evidently been feeling weak and frail since 2015, and has fallen down several times, having to be helped up by other member of the herd. Last Wednesday, she fell and was unable to get up. The Zolli team decided to spare Malayka from suffering too much and put her down that same evening.