Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY
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WORLD NEWS A9
Wednesday 10 January 2018
Snow, avalanche risks strand 13,000 tourists in Zermatt
By JAMEY KEATEN ferried out, the official said, Tourists wait in line at the heliport of Air Zermatt for a flight by airlift into the valley to Raron, in
Associated Press insisting that it was not an Zermatt, on Tuesday, Jan. 9 2018. Due to heavy snowfall and rain showers, Zermatt can only be
GENEVA (AP) — Unusually official evacuation. reached by air. Swiss authorities have closed ski slopes, hiking trails, cable cars, roads and train
heavy snowfall and a high Swiss state-backed broad- service into the town of Zermatt amid a heightened risk of avalanches, stranding some 13,000
risk of Alpine avalanches caster SRF showed images tourists in the town.
stranded some 13,000 tour- of several people wheel-
ists Tuesday in the Swiss re- ing their luggage out to (Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP)
sort of Zermatt at the base three helicopters, with their
of the famed Matterhorn blades whirring atop an icy the Zermatt town council, “It surprised us a bit this year centimeters (31.5 inches) of
mountain. plateau. told SRF the airlift was for and we’re trying to make snow had dropped on the
With nearby roads, trains, Bulldozers were plowing guests who urgently need- the best of it,” Biner said. Zermatt area over the last
cable cars, ski slopes and through the snowdrifts ed to leave and to bring in Switzerland’s WSL Institute 24 hours, raising the ava-
hiking trails into the town in Zermatt so that streets supplies. She said the town for Snow and Avalanche lanche risk to a maximum
closed, Swiss authorities de- could be salted. One lo- hadn’t seen so much snow Research said Tuesday af- level of five on an ava-
ployed helicopters to ferry cal hotelier said authorities for several years. ternoon that at least 80 lanche-warning scale.q
some tourists to a nearby were setting off controlled
village to escape the snow- explosions to help clear
bound Alpine valley. away the piled-up snow
A police official in Zermatt, that had coated roads and
a tourist magnet for back- rails.
packers and millionaires Janine Imesch of the Zer-
alike, said the helicopter matt tourism office said
journey to the village of power has been restored
Taesch takes around three after a temporary outage.
minutes. She said no people were
The official, who spoke on at risk because authorities
condition of anonymity had shut down access to
because he was not au- the nearby ski slopes and
thorized to speak publicly hiking trails a day earlier.
about the matter, said the “There is nothing to panic
so-called air bridge can about, everything is fine,”
transport about 100 people she said Tuesday by phone.
an hour, conditions permit- “Only the ski areas are
ting. closed. In the village, the
Only tourists who requested atmosphere is relaxed.”
the air bridge were being Romy Biner, the head of
Italy, Germany nab 160 alleged mobsters, seize assets
By NICOLE WINFIELD garbage recycling. ing competition in Ciro so ficials were among the 169 between Calabrian clans
Associated Press that residents and restau- people arrested. turned a birthday party at
ROME (AP) — Police in Italy Prosecutors in southern It- rants were forced to buy Italy’s ‘ndrangheta has a Duisberg pizzeria into a
and Germany seized 50 bread from the one mob- increasingly eclipsed the massacre that left six dead.
million euros ($60 million) in aly said the ‘ndrangheta’s controlled bakery in town. Cosa Nostra in power and Prosecutors said in this
mafia assets Tuesday and And they said that Italian wealth, infiltrating all sec- case, the Farao-Marincola
arrested more than 160 Farao-Marincola clan had restaurants in Germany, tors of Italian econom- clans managed to exert
people, accusing them of meanwhile, were forced ic and political life and such control because of
running a huge mob-con- its hand in just about every to import Italian wine, olive spreading out from its base their wealth and ability
trolled commercial and oil and other goods from a in Calabria to Rome, Milan to corrupt politicians and
political empire involving commercial enterprise in clan-controlled Italian res- and beyond. The ‘ndrang- didn’t need to resort to the
everything from bread and taurant association. Cara- heta’s presence in Ger- violence that long char-
wine sales to funeral ser- the Calabrian town of Ciro binieri police said “dozens” many first made headlines acterized traditional Mafia
vices, migrant housing and of public administration of- in 2007, when a family feud activity. q
and nearby areas, and that
its grip extended through-
out Italy and into Germany
to launder its profits.
Specifically, prosecu-
tors accused the bosses
of driving out all the bak-
