12 November, 2013: Since when was bank robbery not a crime, Watch out – there’s a thief about – especially at this time of year, New Facility for Drug Addicts

Last Wednesday a man calmly walked into the main branch of the Basel Kantonalbank and took his place in the queue. However, when his turn came, he handed over a note to the cashier demanding thousands of francs.

The cashier took the note to one side. The man didn’t seem alarmed, said nothing, and just waited. And when the police arrived a few minutes later, the 35-year-old made no attempt to resist arrest. Turns out he wasn’t armed with a weapon, neither did he wear anything to cover his face. That, and the fact that he didn’t make any threats, is giving the authorities a bit of a headache, since, according to a senior detective, his actions can’t be considered a bank raid. However, despite the words of comfort from the police, the man is in jail while Basel’s prosecutor’s office are still considering if they can bring charges of attempted bank robbery.

Meantime, police are trying to find out just who sent an email to the Basler Zeitung a day earlier saying that a bank could well be robbed in the near future. If it’s found out that it came from the gentle would-be robber from Wallis, he might well be in for a lot more trouble.

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In an effort to upgrade the facilities currently deployed in Basel to reduce harm resulting from drug use, the two current sites at Heuwaage and the Hospital Road are to be closed and consolidated at a new facility in Dreispitz on Monday. At a cost of 2.6mm Swiss francs, the new facility features clean, white external walls unlike the shanty-town appearance of the soon-to-be closed properties. In addition, the building will have on-site medical facilities as well as internal rooms to discourage loitering outside and disturbing people living nearby. Further, in an effort to minimize impact on the neighbors, the new premises will be located in the relatively industrialized Dreispitz area. Those with homes and businesses nearby were consulted intensively in advance of the construction. Organizers also promise that the consolidated facility will have the advantage of an increased security presence.

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Pharmaceutical giant Novartis has announced it is to sell off its blood transfusion diagnostics business for one point seven billion dollars.

The Basel company said that the business originally came into the portfolio as part of the 2006 purchase of the biotech company Chiron, but that it was just too small to thrive in an increasingly regulated market. As a result, they explain, the company has been struggling in recent years. With a turnover of more than 560 million dollars in 2012, Novartis’ reported that the division as a whole made a loss last year.

The hope is that the blood products business and its 550 employees, of which 30 are in Switzerland, can now grow much faster under the umbrella of their new owners, the Spanish blood plasma firm Grifols.

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On Monday In the Gundeli district of Basel, a passenger vehicle and a tram managed to collide shortly before noon. The Mercedes and the number 16 tram were both approaching the Gundeldinger Gate on Solothurner-strasse when the driver failed to observe posted signs and the rights of way - causing the collision. Luckily, no passengers in the vehicle or the tram were injured, leaving only the door of the tram to be replaced and a damaged street sign which managed to come between the colliding vehicles.

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Basel police are gearing up for an increase in street crime that starts to rise about this time every year.

Last Friday a couple went into a restaurant in Basel’s Freiestrasse. When the woman went to the bathroom a man approached her husband and asked in English if some banknotes behind his chair belonged to him. After finding nothing on the floor, he turned around to see the good Samaritan had disappeared, together with his wife’s handbag – containing a large amount of money the couple had just withdrawn from a bank dispenser nearby. Be on your guard.

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And lastly, to round up The English Show’s crime coverage for this week, a bit of good news. After Basel’s successful 543rd Herbstmesse, police say that the amount of crime this year was not as high as had been feared. Police received just 5 complaints of theft, compared with 16 in 2012. Possibly a result of a greater police presence this year: lots of patrols with, among other measures, more than 400 on-the-spot searches, a 35 percent increase on last year’s total.

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