Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Christies Europe will auction off an extraordinary art collection 21 and 22 June, the last of the artworks owned by Ernst Beyeler and his wife Hildy, whose collection has often been called one of the great private art collections of the 20th century.
Agency AFP reports that the collection sale will mark the close of the couple’s Basel gallery and includes work from iconic 20th century artists including Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, Klee and Roy Lichtenstein.
The sale will come just two days after Art Basel ends. The artworks will be part of a Christies evening sale in London the 21st and day sale the 22nd.
Beyeler was the founder of Art Basel, the world’s largest contemporary and modern art fair (note: which last week announced it is adding a third fair, Art Hong Kong to the main fair and a second one, Art Basel Miami Beach).
His career in art took off when he transformed and developed the antiquarian bookshop of a former employer into
Beyeler Museum (photo, ©2011 Mark Niedermann / Beyeler Foundation)
the Beyeler Gallery in Basel, which allowed him to build his personal collection.
Ernst Beyeler died, age 88, in February 2010, two years after the death of his wife and close art partner Hildy.
He left instructions for the gallery to be closed upon his death, and the private and business collections to be sold, with proceeds to go to support the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.
The Foundation was created to provide a home, the Beyeler Museum, for the collection, and its purpose is to make the collection available to the public. The museum opened in 1997 and it has become hugely popular, with 300,000 visitors a year.
A Segantini exhibition that ended 25 April had pulled in 100,000 visitors between January 16 and 20 March.
Swiss cities, Geneva included, are home to enormous wealth, not all of it legitimate
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – For the first time since Switzerland set up its Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS) in 2002, the number of “suspicious activity reports” (Sars) passed 1,000 in a year. The Swiss Federal Police office reports 28 April that in 2010 the total number of Sars was 1,159, a 29 percent increase over 2009.
FATF assessments of Swiss action on money laundering
Switzerland has been tightening its money laundering laws and stepping up preventive measures since the late 1990s, with a review in October 2009 by the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) showing good progess made since a 2005 review pointed out a number of weak spots.
Switzerland was accepted in 2009 into the FATF system of regular two year reviews, with the next one set for October 2011. It was commended on several points, including its improvements in the system to quickly identify assets of politically exposed persons, mainly dictators.
Switzerland has been particularly sensitive on this score, and in early 2011 was quick to freeze assets of people linked to Egyptian, Tunisian and Libyan regimes.
Weaknesses that were pointed out by FATF in 2009 included extending to a larger group the obligation to submit Sars: lawyers, insurance agents, real estate dealers among others.
One of Switzerland’s biggest problems, the task force said, is clearly identifying real owners when property is purchased or insurance contracts bought, with a third party acting for the owner.
Terrorism money laundering “more or less the same” in 2010 as in 2009
Terrorist financing was shown in only four cases, the new federal police reports indicates, although the number of Sars linked to terrorism jumped from 7 submissions in 2009 to 13 in 2010. Ten of these were forwarded by the MROS to the Swiss attorney general’s office, but six “had no hard evidence of terrorist financing”, the federal police say.
One complex case accounted for eight of the Sars and one case alone involved CHF19 million of the CHF23m total assets for the 13 Sars submitted. All in all, “the situation in 2010 remained more or less the same as in the previous year.”
Financial institutions reported 71% of cases
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The circumstances remain a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, surrounding the death of a senior air traffic controller, age 34, fatally stabbed early Wednesday morning 27 April in a secure area of Basel airport.
His body was found at 08:00 at the top of the elevator that leads to stairs going up to the control tower, by a fellow employee who raised the alarm. He had been stabbed in the throat, lungs and thorax, at least three times. Police say no weapon has been found.
The man, who has not been named, was the father of a four-year-old child. He was heading to work for his turn of duty, in charge of the control tower.
Traffic at the EuroAirport Bâle-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport was not interrupted. The airport is on French territory but at the intersection of France, Germany and Switzerland. French police say the secure area is accessible only to people with badges. Christian Reeb, who is heading the French investigation, told media he believes there is no link between the man’s death and his work.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fr), BaslerZeitung (Ge)
Seat of Swiss federal government in Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The neutral Swiss had a very rare glimpse of a foreign military power on home territory Monday 21 March, as 20 British military vehicles, escorted by the Swiss army, crossed the country from Basel to Chiasso in canton Ticino.
The passage, details and the path of which were not divulged by the federal government, would only have appeared remarkable to those who spotted the soldiers because of the type and markings of the vehicles: Swiss military vehicles and soldiers from the citizen militia are a common sight in Switzerland.
The British government requested the right of passage of aeronautic equipment as part of its commitment to prevent the Qaddafi regime in Libya from using force against the civilian population there.
Geneva airport
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Hainan Airlines, which will begin operating non-stop flights between Zurich and Beijing 31 May, is opening sales in Zurich 1 May with Aviareps handling bookings and service for the privately owned Chinese company.
Hainan Air will initially offer three flights a week, but this is scheduled to increase if the demand is strong enough.
Geneva to Amsterdam seats will increase by 14 percent on KLM this summer and Basel will have Swiss flights to Nice starting 1 July for an introductory fare of CHF99. Swiss is also adding 7 flights a week to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport from Basel 27 March, in addition to its current four from Zurich.
International sports, football
Anfield, Liverpool (GenevaLunch) - Liverpool may not win any titles this season but they might well have played a role in denying one to Manchester United. They deservedly beat their archrivals 3-1, with a hat-trick by Dirk Kuyt, 6 March. Man United fielded a side weakened in defense because of the absence of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, but they were comprehensively outplayed in all departments.
Arsenal could only draw 0-0 against Sunderland but are just three points behind United in the Premier League and still have a game in hand. Man City stay third after a 1-0 win over Wigan.
Tottenham travelled to Wolverhampton for the best game of the weekend: a thrilling 3-3 draw.
In the Spanish La Liga Barcelona and Real Madrid both won. Inter Milan beat Genoa 5-2 and AC Milan beat Juventus in Series A. In the Swiss Super League Basel are still on top after a 3-1 win over Zurich. Neuchatel lost 1-2 to Bellinzona while Thun-Luzern ended 3-3.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Guardian
Neighbouring Rhone-Alps area epidemic well underway
Measles: red spots follow other symptoms that may resemble the flu, with the contagious period starting before "Koplick's" spots (photo, courtesy Center for Disease Control, USA)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva public health authorities are alerting doctors and the public of a sudden increase in the number of cases of measles, with 26 cases since the start of the year, 20 of those in the past 28 days. The first three cases arrived from Haute-Savoie, but the source of contagion of the next three could not be determined.
The Geneva public health department has warned that a major outbreak could follow the end of school holidays next week, since Geneva’s 90 percent coverage for vaccinations is not high enough to keep the disease from spreading rapidly.
Nearby Rhone-Alps in France is in the throes of an epidemic, with more than 2,000 declared cases since early December; 1,300 of those have appeared in the past month alone.
Red spots, but first cold, cough, fever
Measles are contagious before the telltale red spots appear, and many patients or parents initially confuse it with the flu. Symptoms include a cold, cough, conjunctivitis and fever, with the red spots appearing later, after the person has already been contagious. Anyone diagnosed with measles will be interviewed about all possible contacts in the recent past.
Measles are not benign, 2nd vaccination reduces risk
Measles is highly contagious and, contrary to popular belief, it is not benign. A 12-year-old girl died in Geneva in 2009 from measles. One in 1,000 cases can cause encephalitis, which can be fatal. Pneumonia is another serious risk. There is no treatment for measles.
Even in its less dangerous forms measles causes high fevers with the risk of serious side effects such as hearing loss. Adults who contract it are likely to miss three weeks of work.
Switzerland has stepped up its efforts to vaccinate the population along World Health Organization guidelines, following serious outbreaks in the past three years, related to one of the lowest rates of vaccination in Europe.
Swiss recommendations have changed several times but since 2001 they have called for children to have one dose of the vaccine at age 12 months and a followup dose at 15-24 months.
Anyone born after 1963 should check that he or she has had the second dose of vaccine.
Doctors are legally obliged to report cases to public health authorities within 24 hours. Given the highly contagious nature of the disease, people diagnosed with it in Switzerland are confined during the period of contagion.
Background, GenevaLunch
GenevaLunch has carried several stories on measles in the past, with details about symptoms, the disease itself, vaccinations and prevention
Links to other sites: Geneva public health alert to doctors, 26 January 2011
New trains will link Geneva, Lausanne to Paris in 3 hours
Next stop, Paris: 3 hours 4 minutes by December 2012
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss rail company CFF and the French SNCF will spend CHF100 million, they announced Wednesday 16 February, to buy 19 new TGV high speed trains that will be put into service in December 2012.
The buying bonanza will result in 27 daily high-speed connections between Paris and Swiss cities.
Geneva will have nine daily TGV runs to Paris instead of the current seven, making the trip in 3 hours 5 minutes, thanks to higher speeds for the new trains. Zurich to Paris will be cut by more than a half hour, with the trip taking 4 hours 3 minutes.
The new trains are being purchased by Lyria, the joint-venture between the Swiss and French rail companies. Lyria in 2010 saw its earnings rise by 17 percent to CHF340 million. The company carried 40 million passengers, some 40 percent of them on international trains.
Basel to Paris will also become faster, just over three hours, which is expected to give airlines serious competition for this run.
Mossy fiber–Purkinje cell contacts in the developing mouse cerebellum (source: PLoS Biology journal)
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Scientists have known for some time that the developing brain “learns” from its mistakes, but a research team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel have now used advanced microscopy techniques to document the process.
Their findings were published 8 February in PLoS Biology and could have important implications for autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy and other disorders that often involve motor problems.
Their work shed light more generally on the way neuronal networks, which lie behind brain functions, develop.
Peter Scheiffele’s research team in Basel, working with researchers in New York and Japan, used the techniques to study the cerebellum, a part of the brain that handles fine motor movements and emotional processing.
“Brain functions rely on highly selective neuronal networks which are assembled during development,” writes Scheiffele. “Network assembly involves targeted neuronal growth followed by recognition of the appropriate target cells and selective synapse formation.”
Through a process of elimination of inappropriate targets the brain improves its strategy during pre-natal and post-natal growth.
“How neuronal processes select their appropriate target cells from an array of interaction partners is poorly understood,” the author notes, and their study has focused on tracking this process.
He writes that in the young brain “we find that developing mossy fibers [neurons send out these fibers, called axons, to different parts of the brain] establish synaptic contacts rather promiscuously,” as they reach out to make good connections, but that “the specificity of the synaptic connections in the ponto-cerebellar circuit emerges through extensive elimination of transient synapses.”
The study is significant, according to Science Daily, in part because “Dr Scheiffele’s group has discovered that a protein traditionally associated with bone development is responsible for correcting errors while neurons connect to their correct partners in the cerebellum.” The protein, Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), was not previously known to have a functional in stabilizing the neuronal network but the group has shown it to eliminate unwanted connections within a week, when develop is normal.
Ed. note: Science Daily’s report on the newly published research provides an accessible layman’s explanation of the work.
Click on image to view larger
Police seek information on father Matthias Schepp's whereabouts from 1-3 February
Lausanne / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Matthias Schepp, the dead father of Alessia and Livia Schepp, twins who have been missing since Sunday 30 January from their hometown of St Sulpice, near Lausanne, was seen in Corsica Tuesday morning 31 January, Vaud police have confirmed. New elements turned up by police in Marseille, France confirm that the father, who committed suicide near Bari, Italy late last Thursday, took the late Monday overnight ferry to the island.
There is no evidence yet whether or not he had the six-year-old twins with him.
Police have been able to pin down his movements in Switzerland more clearly: he was seen with the girls in Saint Sulpice at 13:30 Sunday 30 January, and he was in Morges at 15:50, cell phone records show. He then drove to Geneva and on to Annecy, crossing the border into France at 18:15 Sunday.
The police also confirmed that the girls’ mother has received several packets of money, in €50 bills, mailed by her estranged husband, but the total received to date is €4,400, slightly less than the amount mentioned earlier today by the girls’ uncle.
The postal stamps show they were mailed from Bari, Italy.
Vaud police say they are not yet in a position to discuss other information or details in their possession, in order not to prejudice the investigation.
Alessia and Livia continue to be the focus of a large, three-country manhunt. Police are particularly anxious to have information on the father’s whereabouts between Tuesday morning 1 February, when he was seen in Corsica, and noon Thursday 3 February, when he was near Naples.
Police in canton Vaud, who have been leading an intensive three-country search for the girls, held a press conference Tuesday evening 8 February.
Police number if you have information +41 21 644 82 31, or go to the nearest police station
Update 5, 12:00 6 February / Lausanne and Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia, remain missing Saturday morning 5 February, and police are asking the public for any news that might help find them, following their father’s suicide shortly before midnight Thursday 3 February. The girls are perfectly trilingual in French, Italian and Swiss-German, Vaud police told GenevaLunch. The family is Swiss: correction – police now say that although the father was born in Canada he did not hold Canadian citizenship.
Read more…
Three out of five Swiss residences are single-family homes
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has counted the country’s homes, officially, for the first time. The new Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings statistics show that at the end of December 2009 the number of buildings with residential use in Switzerland was 1,623,000 with a total of 4,008,400 dwellings.
Switzerland has a population of 7.4 million, giving it on average 1.85 persons per dwelling.
More houses than apartments, and homes are getting larger
Three out of five dwellings are individual homes, surprisingly almost as many in urban areas, 57 percent, as in rural, 59 percent. But houses supply only 25 percent of lodgings. Three- and four-room apartments account for 53 percent of all residential living space.
The five largest cities vary, with Zurich having not quite twice as many individual houses as apartments, while Geneva has three times as many houses.
Source: Swiss Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings, 2009 figures. Left to right: total buildings, total housing, individual homes, multi-dwelling housing
The study does not look at the number of square metres of dwellings but in terms of the number of rooms, apartments have been getting larger.
More than 60 percent of apartments built after 1990 have four or five rooms, with a steady fall in the number of three-room apartments. Geneva is the only city to have more five- and six-room apartments (combined) figure than four-room ones.
Number of dwellings, by the number of rooms, Swiss-wide, 2009 (source: Federal Statistical Office)
The figures for the first housing tally are limited, based on figures gathered on the basis of the 2000 census, but the register will be expanded in coming years.
It is part of the new federal approach to gathering annual statistics for a more comprehensive government data base in the place of a census every 10 years.
Easyjet and the Saleve near Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Easyjet, which easily leads the pack at Geneva’s Cointrin Airport, where it has 36 percent of the traffic, saw the number of its passengers flying of out Switzerland rise by 13.7 percent in 2010.
The company had 4.3m departures from Geneva and 1.9m from Basel, where it accounts for 45 percent of the airport’s traffic.
Numbers were up despite numerous delays, some but not all of which were due to natural disasters such as heavy snow and volcanic ash.
Vaud A9 and mobile ANPR radars next, for spring
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Basel on Thursday 13 January becomes home to Switzerland’s first tunnel speed radar system that calculates the average time over a distance rather than taking a snapshot of a car’s speed at one point. The new ANPR (automatic number plate recognitino) average speed system, or CTV as it’s called in French for contrôle de vitesse par tronçon, will become operational on the A2 autoroute in the Arisdorf tunnel. The sophisticated radar system identifies different vehicle types and calculates the average speed over a section to see if the bus or truck or car is respecting the speed for that kind of vehicle. Speed limits are adjusted automatically to reflect traffic conditions and a dynamic signage system will will work in tandem with the speed radar.
Arisdorf, near Basel, Switzerland: new average speed radars in 2011
Italy, Austria and The Netherlands use average pseed systems and report that the number of deaths due to speeding has been nearly halved. The UK uses similar systems, notably in Scotland.
The Swiss system has undergone several months of testing. The results of the first months in full operation will be analyzed in August 2011, along with results from an automatic speed radar to be installed on the A9 in Vaud in sprng and one mobile radar that will go into use at the same time. The highway department says it will inform motorists when and where the radars are being put in place.
Company will cut back 8,400 jobs in two years for $2.4b annual savings
Hundreds laid off - Photo Roche
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roche has been true to its word earlier this year that it would make “significant” job cuts after setbacks in its drug business: Wednesday morning 17 November the company said that it is cutting back 6 percent of its workforce.
“Operation Excellence”, as the restructuring programme is being called, will cost the company CHF2.7 billion a year for 2010 and 2011, but starting in 2011 it should bring savings of CHF1.8b and, from 2012 on, the company expects to save CHF2.4b a year.
The bulk of the 8,400 jobs to be cut are in the US, 3,500, with 1,300 in Europe and 770 in Switzerland. The rest are spread throughout the world. The most strongly touched area is the pharmaceutical division, in particular production and sales.
The company announced stable sales in October, for the end of its first three quarters.
Links to other sites: Roche press release, Financial Times background story, TSR (Fre)
International sports, Swiss Indoors tennis
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer won his fourth Swiss Indoors title Sunday 7 November when he beat last year’s winner Novak Djokovic 6-4 3-6 6-1.
The first two sets were balanced, with a single service break in each one, but Djokovic fell apart in the final set. Federer beat Andy Roddick 6-2 6-2 in the semi-final.
The results confirmed the Swiss star’s second place in the ATP rankings, behind Rafa Nadal. Djokovic is third with Scot Andy Murray next.
Federer was in dominant form all week, apart from a lapse in the second set of the final when his Serbian rival produced some wonderful shots.
The Bryan brothers won the Basel doubles final to end the season at the top of the rankings. David Ferrer won the final in the Valencia Open, beating Marcel Granollers 7-5 6-3 after beating Robin Soderling in the semi-final.
International sports, tennis
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer eased into the second round of the Swiss Indoors tournament in his home town of Basel, losing only four points on his service. He beat Alexandr Dolgopolov in 6-4 5-2 when the Ukrainian was forced to retire after straining his ankle in a vain attempt to return an angled shot. Federer is seeking his fourth win in the tournament, after triumphing in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Swiss star is currently second in the ATP rankings, more than 4000 points behind Rafa Nadal.
Danish player Caroline Wozniacki heads the women’s rankings despite the fact that she has yet to win a Grand Slam title.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A family of three was found dead in Riehen, canton Basel, near the city of Basel, Wednesday morning, after the 49-year-old mother did not show up at work. The bodies of the woman, her husband, age 59, and daughter, age 13, were found at their home shortly after police were alerted. Police are calling it an apparent family suicide-murder, without providing further details.
Sunday, in Germany but near the border with France and Switzerland at Basel, a woman killed her former companion, their child and a nurse at a nearby hospital before police shot and killed her in a shootout that injured several other people.
International sports, football
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – England walked away from Basel with the first European Cup qualifying match securely in its pocket after defeating a Swiss team that really only rallied late in the second half. England was in control for most of the game, although Switzerland’s game was strong enough to make England work, particularly after injuries began to take a toll.
The score remained 0-1 in England’s favour until well into the second half, when the Swiss scored their only point. England’s Darren Bent scored his first international goal and sealed Switzerland’s fate in the 88th minute of the game.
England and Montenegro each now have 6 points in the 2012 UEFA Euro Cup qualifying matches, after Montenegro defeated Bulgaria 7 September.
Switzerland faces Montenegro in early October and if it loses that match, it is out of the cup.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian, Le Matin (Fre)
Swiss are building homes in the suburbs and towns
Geneva: a city with too few building cranes (winter 2010)
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The number of newly-built homes in Switzerland has increased by more than 12 percent since the start of the year, compared to 2009, but the figure hides major discrepancies between areas. Overall, in the second quarter of the year the number of new homes increased in villages with no more than 2,000 residents and in small towns of 5,000-10,000 people. But the five main cities in Switzerland showed a 20 percent drop in completed new homes, with Lausanne the only one showing growth: Basel, Bern, Geneva and Zurich all saw a decline.
Houses under construction up, but building permits down
A small glimmer of hope for the tight housing market in Swiss cities is that the number of new homes under construction at the end of June 2010 was more than 8 percent higher than a year earlier. For the country as a whole, federal statistics show 9,750 new homes being built during the second quarter of the year, a 2.5 percent increase over the same period in 2009.
The boost looks short-lived, however, with the number of new building permits down by 2 percent at the end of June for the country as a whole, but down 17 percent in the five main cities. Basel and Lausanne areas show an increase in permits, while the number is down sharply in Geneva, Zurich and Bern.
Easyjet at Cointrin airport, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Easy Jet is hoping to reproduce its success with London-Tel Aviv flights when it begins operating Geneva-Tel Aviv Monday 30 August, with the first low-cost flights between the two countries. The company began its UK-Israel flights in January and has since flown 100,000 passengers. In October it will increase flights from six to seven days a week between London and Tel Aviv.
Title: Art Basel
Location: Basel
Link out: Click here
Description: Over 2,500 artists represented by over 300 galleries from 36 countries all under one roof.
Start Date: 2010-06-16
End Date: 2010-06-20
Punitive damages may be highest ever employment discrimination verdict cost for a company in the US
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – Novartis, Basel-based pharmaceuticals company, has been ordered by a judge in Manhattan to pay $250 million in punitive damages to 5,600 women in an American division of the company. Earlier this week Novartis was told to pay $2.5 million in compensation to a much smaller group. The two payments follow a guilty verdict for the multinational on charges of gender discrimination,failling to promote women and paying them less. The award represents 2.6 percent of 2009 revenues for the division.
Links to other sites: Business Week/Bloomberg, Le Temps (Fre), Los Angeles Times
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Novartis has been told to pay $3.3 million to 12 women in compensatory damages in the US, for gender discrimination at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, a US division of the Basel-based company. Punitive damages are to be announced later and will cover a larger group. The women, employees at the company, started a class-action lawsuit in 2004, saying they were victims of discrimination at work, paid less and promoted less often.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Basel, easily the favourites, thoroughly thumped second-tier Lausanne 6-0 Sunday 9 May to take the Swiss Cup. Basel is considered a likely candidate for the Premier League next season, according to Swissinfo. The Swiss national team for the World Cup games in South Africa this summer will be announced Tuesday and Basel stars Valentin Stocker and Xherdan Shaqiri will be hoping to have made the list of players.
Links to other sites (Fre): Le Matin, 20 Minutes on national team candidates
Video, swissinfo
Title: Discover Basel, jogging
Location: Basel
Link out: Click here
Description: Basel Tourism offers a jogging tour each Saturday morning at 11:00.
Start Date: 2010-05-08
End Date: 2010-06-26
Home sweet home: Bernese Swiss can now vote from abroad, electronically
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss citizens from Bern will be able to vote from abroad electronically in future, from several countries, using canton Geneva’s electronic voting platform, Bern announced Friday 23 April. They join Swiss abroad from Basel, Geneva, Neuchatel and Zurich in having the right to vote from abroad.
Links to other sites: Swiss federal chancellery, swissinfo
No takeoff yet, flights halted in Switzerland
Swiss air space closed until at least Tuesday 20 April 08:00
Swiss skies open under 11,000 metres (36,000 feet)
Note to travelers: Check our earlier stories for useful links to airports and more, plus background
Update 11:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss civil aviation authorities said Monday morning 19 April that Swiss air space will remain closed until at least 08:00 Tuesday, with the ash cloud from Iceland’s volcano still over Switzerland. Some countries, including Austria and the Czech Republic are starting to reopen, at least partially, their airspace Monday morning.
Planes that fly using sight rather than instruments are allowed to fly under 11,000 metres and Sunday the skies over the Alps and around cities such as Zurich were filled with pleasure craft as a result. Planes that fly by instrument are largely commercial craft.
Spain, which holds the EU presidency, called Saturday for European transport ministers to meet today, Monday – by video conference, given the impossibility of joining each other. They are reviewing the airports situation and coordinating a solution once airports throughout Europe are allowed to open. The closures have affected 6.8 million air passengers.
Chairman apologizes for role in helping some US clients evade taxes, says bankers’ pay will eventually come down
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - “Are we to blame ourselves, because we believed the board and accepted their proposals?” asked a Mr Gerber, from a group of shareholders that calls itself the Association of Persons Injured by UBS, at the annual general meeting of the bank, taking place Wednesday 14 April in Basel. “There’s only one thing that is sure, that nothing in the bank was safe . . . and certainly I cannot be blamed for that.” The group has called for a social fund to be created to reimburse shareholders who lost money, a call quickly rejected by Kaspar Villiger, chairman of the board.
Rudolf Meyer, Association for Responsible and Sustainable Economic Management (Actares), followed Meyer with harsh criticism of pay packages and pointed remarks about the lost faith of the Swiss public in the bank. He recommended that shareholders not approve two contentious agenda items: the remuneration package and a move to absolve former directors of responsibility for the bank’s 2007-2009 activities.
The two were part of what Geneva newspaper Le Temps describes as an increasingly vocal group of minority shareholders who are changing the nature of the annual meetings, speaking more critically of the decisions and behaviour of the bank’s directors and senior executives.
Chairman Kaspar Villiger opened the meeting with a prepared speech that acknowledged that “we know how much UBS – an institution of which our country was so proud – has disappointed the Swiss people.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The French SNCF railway workers are on strike, with numerous trains between Switzerland and France not running Wednesday 7 April. Media predictions earlier were that one in four TGV trains between Geneva, Lausanne, Basel or Zurich and Paris might not be running Wednesday, but in the end TGV service is very restricted. There are considerable slowdowns on non-TGV routes, reports the CFF Swiss rail company.
The CFF posts latest train service interruptions or slowdowns: check regularly for updates on Switzerland-France traffic.
The SNCF site appears to be more optimistic about the number of trains running: check the train where you hold a reservation if you’re scheduled to travel today.
