FC Basel to Face Challenge in Champion's League Finals; UNI Basel Enrollment Report Published; Amateur Detectives Wanted; Police Prowl for Tispy Drivers

The Swiss based European governing body of Football (UEFA), yesterday announced the highly anticipated final matches of the Champions League playoffs.  After coming in second in group B to Real Madrid, FC Basel will face FC Porto first in Portugal on February 18 then again in Basel on March 10.  FC Porto is highly regarded as one of Portugal's top football clubs.  It has also been noted that FC Basel's coach Paulo Sousa is Portuguese and once played for the Portuguese club Benfica, as well as the Portuguese national football team.  The final championship game of the tournament is set for June 6th, matching the final two best teams from each of the 4 brackets.   ********************************************************************************************

The latest figures for enrollment at the university of basel have been released.  for the year 2014, 13248 students have enrolled where last year the total tally was slightly higher by 25 students.  The reduction in the student body was attributed to a flattening of demographic trends in the number of high school graduates according to Nele Hacklander, Director of Student Services at the university.  The number of first year undergraduate students stood at 1692, with their total number making up 52% of the overall student body.  Among the areas of study, the most popular subjects are not-surprisingly Biology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.  

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  A new interactive game is afoot in Basel - and anyone with a  yen to be a detective can take a crack at it by participating in the game called "the Glass Track".  The organizers set up the game in September which has as its central theme a fictional murder that challenges participants to crack the case.  Fleshing out the fictional-but-real caper quest are organizer participants that can be interrogated for clues, as well as a sprinkling of clues and evidence throughout the city that ultimately will lead the sherlock holmes aspirant to solve the crime.  Even the Facebook app is used where participants can find the fake pages of the characters involved with the crime.  Nathalie Sameli, representing the organizers enthused that the interest and participation has been tremendous, and a crowdfunding campaign has been established to develop the next iteration of the game.  

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Its holiday time, and among all the merrymaking, cocktail parties and company dinners people will probably be drinking a bit more alcohol than their usual share.  Reacting to this trend, the Basel police thought best to stage a series of driving checkpoints to test drivers for safe levels of Blood Alcohol to operate their vehicles.  between 8 and 10 o'clock last night at the Voltaplatz and Lothringerplatz approximately 700 motorists were pulled over and breathalyzed to make sure they were fit to drive, and send a message to holiday motorists to stay safe.  6 people ended up losing their licenses as they failed the test with a blood-alcohol level of .5% or higher.  The police were eager to remind holiday-makers that operating a bicycle while intoxicated subjects the driver to the same rules and rules of the road as those in a motor vehicle.