Swiss artist takes naked stroll at Art Basel;Basel Casino to pay fine...for allowing gambling;Fast Food Still Most Popular in Basel;;Lange Erlen Arts it up for Art Basel;Student Artists Arrested at Art Basel

  Controversial Swiss Artist Milo Moiré has walked naked through the Art Basel Expo at last Thursday's public after arriving in a tram.   In case anyone doubted her sincerity or credibility, they'd be wise to remember that the artist caused a media stir in April's Cologne, Germany Art fair where she squeezed paint-filled eggs out of her vagina while standing naked on step ladders above a canvass as part of what she called a "plop Egg" painting.   Moireé, who calls herself a performance artist, painter and psychologist, pulled a similar artistic stunt last year in Dusseldorf's art fair where she strolled naked throughout the exposition with words written on her body to denote items of clothing.   Art Basel Organizer's declined to comment on the performance.   According Andreas Knuchel, Basel-Stadt police spokesman, nudity in public is not prohibited.  He went on to add that if anyone founds themselves offended they could launch a complaint with the public prosecutors offices.   Although Moireé insists that her female body is her art and the vehicle for manifesting her artistic exhibitions, many art critics including Jonathan Jones of the Guardian newspaper simply call it a "joke".  

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The Grand Casino Basel has been ordered to pay a 1.5 million franc fine for allowing a man to gamble embezzled funds at its Casino.  

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court Which was reviewing a lower courts ruling, agreed that the casino had a responsibility to determine the illegally obtained source of funds.

The fine represents what authorities believe to be the profit the casino made on the patron, when it ignored signs the man was obviously gambling with other people's money.

Apprently, during the period of 2005-2008, 24.5 million francs were won by the man playing slot machines, implying a much higher figure of losses which the casino doesn't track by patron.

However, such a large figure did not jibe with the man's self-reported income in the high six figures and should have caused the casino to disallow the patron's play in the court's view.

 In failing to do so, the man was able to continue to embezzle funds from illegal sources to feed his gambling and the casino failed to fulfill its mandated duty of care.

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The traditional menu of Basel's Public Pools includes salads and muesli for the health conscious and the typical go-to's of sausage and french fries for everyone else.  

Although officials would like to see the healthier options expanded, the latest addition to most menus has been the kebab or Doner box.

Even at the newly opened Naturbad Riehen which emphasizes wellness and health, fried foods are the best-selling items on the menu.

At the aquarius restaurant at the St jakob SportBad restaurant manager Christoph Schaub indicated demand is largely a function of price, where his less healthy, and more popular alternatives cost only 5-10 francs.

Thomas Pfluger, CEO of Health Basel, says the food supply at the Basel Pools "could be greatly improved." 

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Lange Erlen park joined in the Art Basel festivities announcing the births of 30 storks in its zoo, and putting on display 80 historical billboards advertising the park's animals and facilities. 

At a press conference yesterday, Lange Erlen managing director Edwin Tschopp described the poster exhibition of the Zoo's animals throughout the years and its archive at the Basel School of Design

The collection of posters will be on display in the park from June 23-August 18th.

In other good news at the park, despite a slow start to the stork mating season in may of this year, over 30 young stork hatchlings have been counted in their nests, owing to the beautiful spring weather.

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A total of 34 students and their instructor from Basel's School of Design were arrested by police friday night at the messe halle, site of the Art Basel exhibition for attempting an unregistered demonstration.

The students, claiming they were exhibitors of public art sought to carry out the project in memory of the plight of people in Brazil's Favelas.  

As the students attempted to distribute paper plates representing the plight of people and flyers with information about the so-called art project to attendees of the art fair, police intervened and detained them. 

Among the detained was the student's instructor and deputy director of the school of design Enrique Fontanilles and Renatus Zurcher.  According to Mr. Fontanilles, the students were engaged in an art project and not in protest. 

The police disagreed, calling the activity unsanctioned and illegal.