Attempted armed robbery at jewellers in Falknerstrasse
The police are looking for a man armed with a gun who attempted to hold up a jewellery shop in Falknerstrasse on Friday evening.
According to early investigations of the criminal police of the prosecution, the man entered the premises at 6.15pm and threatened the shop assistant with a gun. The woman managed to quickly activate an alarm, causing the man to flee without any jewellery.
A search for the man has so far been unsuccessful. The man is described as being between 30 and 40 years of age, small (between 150cm and 160cm tall), white, with black hair, and French-speaking. Anyone with information is asked to contact the criminal police of the prosecution Basel-Stadt under the phone number 061 267 71 11 or go to their nearest police station.
Nuclear Power Plant in Leibstadt taken off the grid again
Shortly after its power operations were restarted, the nuclear power plant at Leibstadt was again taken off the national grid due to a malfunction of the exhaust unit.
The plant had its power operations restarted on Friday night after a six-month break, during which oxidised fuel rods have been replaced, but it was again removed from the grid after just 24 hours. According to the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI, the two incidents were not connected. There was no danger to the public or to the environment.
During the restart, function tests were performed in order to gradually bring the plant back to operation, the Kernkraftwerk Leibstadt AG, which operates the plant, said. However, the exhaust unit in the non-nuclear part of the facility was not working properly, and the unit was manually and properly switched off.
A spokesperson of the operating company said on the request of the sda news agency that after the six-month period when the plant was turned off, "corrective measurements" in the process to bring the plant back into operation are to be expected. The spokesperson for ENSI also wrote that it was "not unusual" for such issues to occur when a nuclear power plant was in the process of reoperation.
The inspectorate has classified the occurrence at level 0 on the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES).
Power plant back into operation on Monday
The exhaust unit is responsible for filtering exhausts from the condenser which is located in the machine house in the non-nuclear part of the plant. It is to be repaired over the weekend and it is expected that the plant will be in operation again on Monday night.
ENSI had on Thursday issued its approval for the restart of the Leibstadt power plant, however to a slightly reduced capacity. The plant had stood still since the annual inspection last August because oxidised fuel rods had to be replaced. They had been insufficiently cooled at times.
Protest in front of UBS at Bankverein
A protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in America took place in front of the UBS at Bankverein on Friday noon. The main entrance of UBS was closed during the protest, although there was access through a side door.
The protestors said they organised the peaceful action against the financial interest which UBS and Credit Suisse allegedly had in the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) which is expected to transport more than 50 million litres of fracking oil per day when it is complete. However, the UBS denies any connection to the project.
"UBS does not give project specific finances and is not a member of the consortium to finance the project of the Dakota Access Pipeline," a spokesperson for the bank said.
The controversial project has prompted people all over the world to take action. Protestors say the pipeline threatens the water supply on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, destroys sacred sites of the native Indians, and disrespects land ownership rights of indigenous people. The members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have actively resisted to the construction works since spring 2016 – together with 300 indigenous tribes.