Local Pharma Giant Posts Solid Economic Results; Basel Kunstmuseum Closes for Renovation; Chemical Spill Kills Fish in Rhine Tributary; Appetite For Speed Causes Fast Food Mayhem

Basel based Pharmaceutical giant Novartis reported strong financial results today.  Although the company only met financial analysts expectations in terms of revenue, profit and sales growth, it guided its fiscal 2015 expectations higher.  The guidance was based on expectations that core operating income and net sales growth will be higher than 2014 and that the company's expected merger with the business units purchased from Glaxo Smith Kline will close in March of this year.  Joe Jimenez, cited during Novartis' call with analysts continued progress in enhancing productivity at the firm as well as continued progress in new drug innovation.  Despite increased competition for some of Novartis' main blockbuster drug, such as Diovan, it feels optimistic enough to raise its dividend by 6% for the upcoming year as well.

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To celebrate the renovations that have been undertaken at the Kunstmuseum in Basel, the management of the museum has decided to throw a closing party or finissage.  On the 31st of January and 1st of February (Saturday and Sunday of this week) a special event featuring musicians and a cash bar will be available in the museum with the price of admission waved for the festivities.  The museum will also have extended opening hours on the weekend until 8 o'clock in the evening.  The current Caspar Wolf and Albrecht Durer exhibitions are still on display, as well as pieces form the museum's extensive classic and contemporary collection.  Doors will close on the museum to the public on February 2nd and are not expected to reopen until renovations and an expansion are complete.  The 100 million franc project is expected to be finished by April of 2016 and was funded by generous donations from the Laurenz Foundation and the city Basel.  During contraction the museum has pledged to share its collection for display at the Prado and Reina Sofia museums, both in Madrid, Spain.

=================================================   Meandering through the sleepy BaselLand Village of Waldenburg, population of just over 2000 and home to the Rero Metal Finishing Factory is the Frenke River, a tributary of the Rhein, just south of Basel.  According to the ARA - Baselland's Cantonal Sewage Treatment Authority, there is reasonable certainty that the Rero company was the culprit in the release of a chemical agent which resulted in a major fish die-off last monday.  According to Rero managing director Reinhold Tschopp and as reported in the Baseler Zeitung the company was attempting to use a new metal cleaning product which was supposed to both reduce costs and reduce the amount of pollutant released into the river.  The plan seems to have backfired disastrously, leading the Swiss office of the Environment and Energy to demand the company cease the use and discharge of the chemical.  The company has been cooperative in seeking to address the pollution that it may have caused and is working closely with the ARA and the Federal Authorities to conduct internal tests as well as in the river to determine the cleanup protocol.  

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Last Thursday at approximately four in the afternoon a commercial pickup truck carrying a lighted scoreboard crashed into the Pizza Quick store on Feldbergstrasse.  As the truck was backing into a parking stall, the driver lost control and sent the scoreboard from his pickup-bed into the store via the store's large display window.  Luckily no one was injured, but it took ten men two hours to clear the wayward sign and the debris from site of the crash.  In addition to the broken window an ice making machine was destroyed and the owner claims he's not been able to resume kebab or pizza making operations.