17th August 2018

LUX BRIDGES ARE SAFE

The highways agency says all the nations bridges are given a full safety check every three years.  There are nearly 1300 bridges in Luxembourg, some of them dating back over 100 years.  But the agency says it can rule out any sort of collapse of the sort seen in Genoa this week.  They use state of the art equipment to check for any water entering the concrete which could corrode the reinforcing bars.  And traffic levels are monitored so that bridges can be reinforced if needed.  This is the case at the moment for a bridge at Colmar Berg and another at Schifflange, and work is already underway.

NO MAJOR TROUBLE AT BARTHEL

There were some minor incidents involving fans of Legia Warsaw outside the Josy Barthel stadium last night.  A group of travelling fans had arrived without tickets, and none were on sale at the night. A group then tried to break their way into the stadium through the gates used for maintenance access.  They were unsuccessful, and other than that, the match passed off peacefully.  It had been categorised as a high risk game by UEFA as Legia Warsaw fans have in recent years been involved in some violent incidents.

MUGGING IN DUDELANGE

Police are appealing for witnesses after  youth was mugged in Dudelange earlier this week.  The attack took place at 7pm on Wednesday night when the victim was walking with a friend in the town.  They were approached by a man on a dark red BMX bicycle , who spoke to them briefly in French before grabbing a chain from around the victim’s neck and punching him several times in the face.  The attacker is described as in his late teens, wearing a dark red t-shirt and black trousers. 

NO CARD? NOT WELCOME.

The government says tourists should learn to pay by card and not expect anyone to change or accept foreign  bankontes.  The comments from economy and finance ministry come in response to a parliamentary question, which asked how tourists were supposed to get euros since there are no more foreign exchange booths in the country.  Banks will generally only exchange cash into foreign currencies for existing customers, conscious of the much tighter anti-money-laundering laws these days.  The ministries however simply do not see this as a problem.  Nearly all businesses here accept cards or online payment methods, and cash can be obtained using cards form machines they say.  But they have agreed to ask banks if they might be interested in offering a cash foreign exchange service in several key branches, if they feel it is profitable.