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Glance around Switzerland: Swiss Guards on the run, SBB taken to court, 111th birthday and angry neighbours

The Local
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Glance around Switzerland: Swiss Guards on the run, SBB taken to court, 111th birthday and angry neighbours
Will Swiss Guards soon be competing at the Olympics? Photo: AFP

Our roundup of stories you might have missed this week includes Swiss guards on the run, SBB going to court, angry neighbours, a 111th birthday and more.

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As always, we've tried to give you an overview of the story and a link to follow up on it, if you want. 

Swiss Guards on the run 

Priests take part in a fun run in front of St Peter's in 2013. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

The Vatican has launched its own athletics team, hoping to compete in international competitions - including the Olympics. So you could see the Swiss Guards at Tokyo 2020.

Currently, the newly-formed Vatican Athletics team has 60 members and counts nuns, priests and Swiss Guards among their numbers.

The oldest member of the team is a 62-year-old professor of the Vatican Apostolic Library while the youngest is a 19-year-old Swiss Guard. 

You can read more on this story on The Local Italy website.

Celebrating 111 years of life

Photo: Chepko/deposit photos

Switzerland’s oldest inhabitant, Alice Schaufelberger, celebrates her 111th birthday today.

The Aargau native was born in 1908 and, despite being in her own words "weak and tiny" at birth, has managed to live nearly 30 years beyond the average age expectancy in Switzerland (82).

Alice’s husband passed away 80 years ago but, to this day, she still wears her wedding band.

Watson has more on this story

SBB taken to court by disabled group

Photo: Gina Sanders/deposit photos

Inclusion Handicap, the umbrella organisation of disability groups in Switzerland, is taking its fight against the new SBB double decker trains to the Supreme Court.

This follows a Federal Administrative Court ruling that the trains (called the FV-Dosto) must have at least one wheelchair ramp that provides access to a wheelchair area with a disabled toilet.

Inclusion Handicap says the trains are inaccessible to independent people with disabilities and that this ruling is therefore against the law.

The new trains were introduced on December 9 last year. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung has more.

Mars products boycotted by Coop

Photo: Bumble-Dee/deposit photos

Swiss supermarket chain Coop is refusing to sell Mars products due to a pricing dispute and has not ordered any Mars products for weeks.

This follows on from last year when Coop boycotted Nestlé products for two months. This dispute was ended by Nestlé agreeing to lower its prices. 

Coop is part of a European consortium, Agecore, that says Mars is charging too much for its products.  

In 2017, Coop made CHF29.2 billion (25.7 billion Euros) in sales, making it Switzerland's second best performing retailer. 
 
Le Matin has more on this story

Geneva taxis on strike

Photo: corepics/deposit photos

Taxi drivers in Geneva have been protesting this week against illegal transporters stealing their fares. 

Around 100 drivers blocked parts of Geneva airport on Friday as they take a stand against unauthorised vehicles from France, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia and other countries driving tourists from Geneva airport to nearby ski resorts. 

The taxi drivers say these vehicles offer discounted prices that they cannot match, while paying no tax, and have asked for a meeting with the airport manager to discuss the situation. 

Blick has more on this story.

More than half of Swiss are angry at neighbours 

Photo: Rod_Julian/deposit photos

A study by Immowelt.ch has revealed that some 58% of Swiss citizens are angry at their neighbours for various reasons. 

Noise is the number one cause of anger, with cigarette smoke and pets coming in second and third place respectively. 

Perhaps more surprisingly, garden decorations were listed as the 8th biggest cause of anger between neighbours. 

Higher-earners are less likely to be irritated by neighbours whereas two-thirds of low-income house holds reported problems with neighbours. 

Some 502 people took part in the survey. Blick has more on this.

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