GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Expat Expo, one of the major fairs for newcomers to Switzerland, is on today, 2 October, in Geneva from 11:00 to 17:00 in hall 7 at Palexpo. Free entry, with 160 exhibitors who offer a variety of services to foreigners in Switzerland.
Orange Switzerland up for grabs
SWITZERLAND – The leading private equity group CVC is, according to exclusive information revealed by Reuters, planning to offer 1.5 billion euros for Orange Switzerland despite resistance from France Telecom to let it into the bidding auction.
France Telecom is concerned about CVC’s presence in the auction as it would deter other potential bidders.
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is, according to the Reuters article, also among parties weighing a possible offer.
The interest in Orange, Switzerland’s third-largest mobile company, lays on the potential for a merger with Sunrise telephone. Experts however, believe such merger could run into regulatory hurdles similar to those encountered by France Telecom in 2010.
Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan's chief portrait by Hocried on Flickr
LONDON – “The United States should consider pulling out of the Basel group of global regulators,” said Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, an American multinational banking corporation of securities, investments and retail, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Although Dimon says he is supportive of “forcing banks to have more capital” he argues that moves to impose an additional charge on the largest global banks go too far, particularly for US lenders and called it “anti-American”.
“I’m very close to thinking the US shouldn’t be in Basel anymore. I would not have agreed to rules that are blatantly anti-American,” he said in the interview.
In 2010 the Swiss-based Basel Committee on Banking Supervision also known as Basel III rules, set bank capital requirements, the ratio of highest-quality assets that banks hold against future losses. The Committee also established reserves of 7 percent in common equity and 10.5 percent in total capital.
Dimon said there was a threat that Asian banks in particular could overtake the US market because of the combination of US domestic and global rules.
According to the FT, Dimon also criticised global liquidity rules arguing that regulations that viewed covered bonds – a European market feature – as highly liquid but discounted government-backed mortgage-backed securities in the US, were unfair.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Migros, Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain, is about to start trialling two new shopping systems, both designed to save time in checkout lines, says the store. The first will allow shoppers to scan a limited number of large items themselves. The second will allow them to check themselves out by scanning a limited number of items and paying for them.
Ikea has had a similar system for some time, but not for food items. Migros is starting its Subito system in Zurich, Lucerne and several areas in eastern Switzerland 6 September before rolling it out across the country.
Swiss Post says letters are back in style; postal service adapts pickup times
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Letters are fashionable again, despite the Internet, says Swiss Post, and it is adjusting its collection times to meet the changing needs of those who use the mail service.
Starting today, Monday 5 September, mailbox collections will be made in main towns and cities at 19:00 weekdays and 17:00 Sundays.
A searchable list of collection boxes is being published online and is available as a Post-app to make it easier to find the nearest one.
The new collection schedules and locations will cost Swiss Post CHF8 million.
Some 400 million letters are mailed annually in Switzerland and, while the number fell for several years, the fall levelled off in 2010. The first half of 2011 saw a slight increase.
The new system means that 93 percent of all mail will be collected at 17:00 or later, with 148 collections additional collections during the week, for a total of 469 at 19:00, and 222 more Sunday collections at 17:00, for a total of 479 emptied late in the day, out of the 1,800 with Sunday collections.
Geneva court where the case is being investigated - Photo by wrong_response in Flickr
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss public broadcaster Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) reports that three Al Rushaid Petroleum Investment Corp employees have been charged by the Geneva public prosecutor in a bribery and money-laundering case.
Two British nationals and one Pakistani working for the drilling division of Al Rushaid may have accepted millions of dollars in exchange for awarding valuable contracts; the funds may have then been illegally deposited in a Geneva bank.
Swissinfo reports that Al Rushaid claims it lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” because the equipment, “bought at inflated prices was often substandard or was not delivered at all, delaying or preventing the completion of contracts.”
The money, which has been blocked by Geneva judicial authorities was allegedly placed in a private Geneva bank.
Although Swiss radio declined to identify the bank, Bloomberg Businessweek says Geneva-based Pictet & Cie was sued in New York City by Rasheed Al Rushaid for “concealing their receipt of the bribe money.”
Lawyers for the accused maintain that the source of the money is not illegal. The bank, which according to Swissinfo has been questioned but not charged, also denies that the money was obtained illicitly.
Links to other sites: Swissinfo, RSR, Bloomberg Businessweek
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Skipass, a subsidiary of Kudelski, Lausanne-based world specialist in digital security, will be supplying secure access to half of the 2012 European Football championship matches, including those in Ukraine and at Poland’s largest stadium, the national stadium.
The Salzburg-based company said Monday it signed a contract in July to supply ticketing and secure entry facilities as well as food services ticketing.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Apple is making headlines this week for bypassing Exxon, if briefly, as the largest publicly listed US company, in the chaos of stock markets this week. In May 2010 it bypassed Microsoft as the largest tech company.
Big doesn’t necessarily mean everyone loves it, however, and in particular Apple is facing fights with the Financial Times, Wal-mart and Amazon, among others who are refusing to put their new iPad apps through the Apple iTunes system because of Apple’s insistence on taking a 30 percent bite.
The Atlantic calls it the beginning of the end of the Apple App Store, noting that “Amazon and Walmart have challenged Apple to a duel with the release of the Kindle Cloud Reader and Walmart’s Vudu streaming site.”
Links to other sites: the Globe & Mail, Reuters
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss National Bank said Wednesday morning 10 August it was taking new measures against the strength of the Swiss franc, following its intervention last week, which failed to stop the flow into the currency as a haven.It is not ruling out further action.
“The SNB aims to rapidly expand banks’ sight deposits at the SNB from currently CHF80 billion to CHF120 billion,” it says, to “accelerate the increase in Swiss franc liquidity” and the central bank will begin foreign exchange swap transactions, a monetary policy it last used autumn 2008.
The SNB cited, in a statement, the “massive overvaluation of the Swiss franc” which is says “poses a threat to the development of the economy in Switzerland and has further increased the downside risks to price stability.”
Nestle in Vevey says still competitive in spite of a strong Swiss franc
VEVEY, SWITZERLAND – Swiss-based, food and drink giant Nestlé SA says it has performed well in spite of a strong Swiss franc.
“Nestlé continued to make good progress in a period characterised by political and economic instability, natural disasters, rising raw material prices and, yes, a strong Swiss franc.”
Sales reached CHF40.9 billion, down from CHF47.1 billion the previous year, again reflecting the strength of the franc.
The announcement came during its mid-year Revenue and Operating Profit report.
Bloomberg news says today’s results “beat analyst expectations,” which sent Nestle shares up 1.3% to CHF47.31 on the Zurich exchange.
The maker of Nescafe, Jenny Craig and Haagen-Dazs said sales during the first six months grew 7.5% in constant currencies, excluding the impact of its sale of eye-care company Alcon.
The world’s biggest food company, says it foresees a difficult second half of the year.
“We expect continued challenging conditions including political and economic instability, volatile raw material prices and subdued consumer confidence in the developed world.”
The Swiss franc is at an all-time high affecting Swiss-based companies.
The Swiss Federal Council says it is closely watching the situation, studying options and is ready to act if necessary, but it cautions against knee-jerk reactions that provide only short-term solutions. Last week the franc rose despite the Swiss National Bank chairman attempting to talk down the “absurd overvaluation” of the Swiss franc.
Swiss left out of G20 meeting
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland and Germany’s foreign ministers Sunday confirmed media reports that an agreement will shortly be announced on a tax deal. The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement that Swiss President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle “both praised the progress that has been achieved in the area of taxation, as well as the generally intensive relations between Switzerland and Germany.”
The two met Saturday 7 August in Locarno, on the sidelines of the Locarno international film festival.
Calmy-Rey “stated that she was pleased that the negotiations concerning an agreement on withholding tax will shortly be brought to a conclusion, and she went on to underscore the fact that ‘Switzerland’s banking sector has no interest in untaxed assets.’ She noted that withholding tax is a fair way of taxing German assets without an automatic exchange of information, and it also guarantees the confidential management of client data,” according to the statement.
Switzerland has not yet confirmed details of the deal, but financial media have been reporting a 26 percent withholding tax as likely, in future.
Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported at the start of the weekend that a deal is expected to be announced Wednesday 10 August, with Swiss banks agreeing to pay an upfront lump sum for Swiss accounts held by Germans who did not pay taxes in the past 10 years. The amount agreed to, possibly CHF2 billion, is reported, by what the newspaper calls a source close to the deal, to be a fraction of what Germany initially demanded.
G20 meeting in Cannes won’t include Switzerland
Switzerland’s disagreements with its neighbours over accounts held by their citizens in Swiss banks was dealt a new blow over the weekend, however, when the Seco, Switzerland’s economy ministry, confirmed to news agency ATS that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has invited Singapore, but not Switzerland, to participate in the next G20 meeting. Switzerland has been busy for several months building its influence to counteract the possibility it would not be invited to the G20 talks.
Switzerland, despite its role as the world’s top fortune management centre, is not a member of the Group of 20, the world’s largest economies, created in 1999 “to bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.” The high Swiss franc is currently viewed by a growing number of investors as one of a small group of “shadow currencies”, reports the Economist and other international media.
It was not invited to the last meeting of the group, in Seoul, but Sarkozy has told Switzerland it will be “integrated” into the G20 meeting, even if it is not directly participating. Switzerland fears a repeat of one of the Seoul meeting outcomes. TSR/ats reports that “the objective of this offensive is to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2009, when Switzerland, without any advance consulation, was put on a gray list of tax havens by the OECD, at the instigation of the G20.”
The next meeting will be held in Cannes in November 2011, under France’s presidency.
India studies stolen HSBC-Geneva account holders data
Meanwhile, India Express 7 August published a story saying that France has handed over to Indian authorities the names of 700 holders of HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland. France received stolen data from a former employee of the UK bank’s Geneva branch, in 2008 and the theft increased tensions between France and Switzerland over the issue of tax evasion and the use of stolen data.
The Indian Foreign Ministry says it already had most of the data from other sources, but will be checking the accounts.
Football and skiing cause greatest number of sports injuries, Swiss safety statistics show
Source: BPU 2011 (click on image to view larger)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The greatest number of injuries to children around the home in Switzerland are due to falling from heights, while by age 26 falling on stairs becomes more of a problem.
By age 45 we become wiser about avoiding falls in general, until age 65 when we suddenly fall more often at level ground and once again from heights. But we remain far more careful about stairs in our old age.
The details of how and when we are likely to injure ourselves in accidents are part of the lastest Swiss safety statistics, published Wednesday 3 August by BPU, the Swiss Safety Council.
Accidents cost the country CHF55 million in 2008
The new figures, culled from 2008 statistics, underscore the often-ignored fact that accidents are a major and costly public health problem. Accidents caused more than 61,000 deaths in 2008, the most recent year for statistics and the one covered by the report.
Disease, by comparison, caused some 57,000 deaths.
The figures hold true for every age group: accidents at all ages take more lives than disease.
The total economic burden of all accidents in 2008 was CHF54.8 million, with home and leisure accidents accounting for more than half, CHF30 million. Road accidents cost more than the sports or home/leisure accidents when tangible costs alone are considered, but the longer-term cost of home and leisure accidents is more than double the figure for either road or sports accidents.
The statistics also show that for the three categories of road, sports and home/leisure accidents, the greatest number of people who are disabled or severely injured have had accidents at home, some 29,000. The figures for people disabled or severely injured by road accidents and sports are about the same: some 12,000 people in 2008 for each group.
The highest number of deaths, 1,538, was due to home accidents, followed by road accidents, 329, and sports accidents, 129.
Road accidents, however, carry the greatest risk of disability, severe injury or death, based on the rates in 2008. BPU registered 91,000 road accidents, 310,000 sports accidents and 600,000 home and leisure accidents.
Soccer has the highest per-hour-of-sport incidence of injuries
Update 11:00 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Currency markets have reacted to the news of a US Congressional debt ceiling deal with volatility. The Sunday 31 July announcement of a deal was followed by a boost in the dollar, when then lost its gains against the Swiss franc, sinking to an all-time low Monday of CHF0.7729 to the dollar. The franc and the yen were safe havens Monday against the dollar, following news last week of slower growth of the US economy than that reported earlier.
Tuesday morning the dollar had climbed back slightly against the Swiss franc, to CHF0.7787, but the euro slipped below CHF1.10 Tuesday morning and also slipped against the dollar, over concerns about European economic growth slowing and the sovereign debt crisis.
Investors in currency, stock and other financial markets have been jittery recently over the political game going on in Washington to prevent the US from defaulting on its loans. The Financial Times writes 2 August that even the deal announced Sunday but still subject to a vote wasn’t enough to “Even though there was a sense of calm in Washington that the deal would be passed following Sunday’s agreement between the US president and congressional leaders, there was plenty of last-minute drama to keep investors on edge.
TSR reports Tuesday morning that the Swiss franc is, more than ever, a safe haven currency.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Financial Times
UBS consumption indicator at its lowest level this year
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Swiss banking giant UBS AG warned of job losses after a strong Swiss franc and “economic uncertainty” led to a near halving in second-quarter profits.
The Zurich-based bank said it would slash costs over the next two to three years but declined to comment on how many jobs will be cut, saying only it will take a look at the restructuring later this year.
During the presentation of its second quarter results this morning, UBS said its net and pre-tax profits had dropped, and lowered its annual earning forecasts. Pre-tax profits UBS said, fell to CHF1.7 billion from CHF2.2 billion in the previous quarter.
“Having reached a high point for the year in May, the UBS consumption indicator fell significantly by 0.40 points to 1.48 in June, the lowest level this year.”
Group revenues was CHF 7.2 billion, down 14% due to “lower client activity and currency movements,” said the report.
Full report: UBS consumption indicator at its lowest level this year and UBS second-quarter profit before tax CHF 1.7 billion; Group net new money CHF 8.7 billion; tier 1 capital ratio 18.1%.
Emys, a robot developed as part of the Lirec (Living with robots and interactive companions) project funded by the EC (photo, ©2011 LIREC)
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The European Commission 20 July agreed to commit €7 billion to research and development, in what it says is its “biggest ever European Commission funding package”, designed to create some 174,000 jobs in the short term and another 450,000 in the long term and to stimulate nearly €80 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) growth within the next 15 years.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn says the package will be used for stimulating European innovation through research funding.
The funding will take the form of grants to 16,000 recipients in European universities and research organizations and to industry specialists, with “a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises”.
“A common problem is bridging the gap between research and the market, and this funding can help demonstrate the commercial potential of a new technology, for example, or that a new idea can work on a sufficiently large scale to be industrially viable,” the EC notes on Cordis, its news site.
“Challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an aging population can be better managed if public sector intervention is used effectively to stimulate the private sector and remove bottlenecks stopping the best and brightest ideas from reaching the market, due to problems such as a lack of finance or fragmentation in research.”
How the money will be spent
The EC details how the funds will be distributed. Key points include:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Gloomy news about sovereign debts, new bank capital requirements and the US debt ceiling were briefly forgotten on world stock markets Wednesday 20 July, with strong results from several tech companies. Apple lead the way with a 125 percent increase in net income for the second quarter, compared to a year earlier. IBM also had results well above predictions. The stronger than expected corporate results plus news from the White House that a debt ceiling deal may be coming prompted markets to rally. Apple’s shares rose 4.5 percent in trading Tuesday, with the income jump attributed to Asian markets and iPhone sales.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Reuters
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Several players met in Bern at the end of last week to hammer out details of how the country can provide citizens with an electronic or “cyber health” system that will include smart health care cards. The goal is to create a nationwide electronic system that provides hospitals and doctors with medical information but that protects the patients’ privacy. Insurance industry, medical profession and high tech company representatives as well as Swiss Post, which has been trialling a card, agreed on a number of steps.
There were strong reservations about including medical data on the card itself, but an experts review of existing cards that was mandated by Bern, such as the Swiss Post and pharmasuisse ones, concluded that all existing cards work very well. Technical differences came to light, however, and the group agreed that card manufacturers will need to create “middleware”, an interface that functions independently of the cards or software, to provide uniformity and allow them to be used more widely.
The group agreed that setting up a pilot project to trial cards in some cantons is a top priority, but there was also widespread agreement that a legal basis for handling data must be created. The Federal Health Office will be responsible for overseeing the development of the legal system needed to ensure that the next generation of cards has the necessary compatibility.
Annual variation in rents in Geneva since 1995, for non-subsidized housing: dark orange is all tenants, red is after a change of tenant, bright orange is no change in tenant and the blue line shows the spread, in points, for all groups (source: canton Geneva statistical office, 28 June 2011)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s rental prices for non-new housing increased by only 1.5 percent from May 2010 to May 2011, compared to an overall increase of 1.9 percent a year earlier, but the statistic hides a startling detail. Some 7 percent of the city’s “free” (not low-income subsidized housing) apartments saw tenants leave and when the new tenant arrived the average price increase was 17 percent.
The overall increase, 1.7 percent when subsidized housing is left out of the figures, was relatively low because inflation was only 0.3 percent and the reference interest rate, to which some apartment rents are tied, dropped from 3.00 to 2.75 percent.
The canton’s statistical office, Ocstat, released housing price figures 28 June. The greatest increases concerned small (1 and 2 rooms) apartments and those in buildings constructed before 1947 because of the cost of renovation work. Small apartments often have the same size and quality of kitchen appliances as larger ones, which explains the difference, says Ocstat.
“The main factor behind rent price increases is a change of tenant,” its annual rental prices report notes. Rent increases were only 0.4 percent overall when there was no change of tenant. The jump due to changing tenants is true for subsidized housing as well.
The greatest turnover in housing concerns small apartments.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The first-ever international conference that brings together experts from five continents to a meeting on infection control and resistance to antibiotics meets in Geneva 29 June – 4 July. The meeting is a key session for experts in the wake of recent major infections with new elements, the e. Coli breakout in Germany and an NDM1 outbreak in India.
The meeting hosts 1,300 participants from 80 countries, with 600 abstracts presented.
The conference has two main goals, say the organizers: to carry the principles of infectious disease prevention beyond hospitals and ensure they are observed more generally in all areas of patient care, and to mobilize a far greater number of people in the fight against infections that are resistant to antibiotics. Patients, professionals and authorities all need to be more aware of the problem of resistance, according to World Health Organization experts.
Highlights will include a presentation on “Escherichia coli made in Germany” and the history of the NDM-1 bacteria in India, by authors and the editor of Britain’s Lancet medical journal and Friday as a day to celebrate the 10 commandments of hand hygiene in commemoration of the 150 years since Ignác Philipp Semmelweis published his thesis suggesting that students dissecting cadavers were carrying germs away on their hands.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva should know by October if the world’s three dangerous substances conventions will share one secretariat under one roof in Geneva and combine some of their activities, with the goal of more closely coordinating their work.
Rotterdam, Stockhom and Basel Conventions could be managed together from Geneva
The Fifth Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention, which regulates the export of dangerous chemicals and pesticides, gets underway in Geneva Monday with the proposed change high on the agenda.
The conference runs 20-24 June.
The Stockholm Convention, known as Pop (regulates persistant organic pollutants), approved the move in April 2011 and the Basel Convention ends its negotiations on the change in October 2011. The Basel Convention regulates the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal. All three organizations are based in Geneva.
Four new dangerous chemical substances to be reviewed for global Pic list
The group’s other key discussion is the review of four new substances. The group will decide if they should be added to the world’s list of 40 dangerous substances.
Switzerland is in favour of adding the four new substances to the Pic (Prior Informed Consent) list, the popular name for the Rotterdam Convention, under which the exporting nation agrees to provide all necessary information on the dangers to human beings and the environment to the importing nation, for any dangerous substance.
New reports shed some light on Geneva housing prices
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss National Bank 16 June joined the chorus of cautious voices warning of real estate markets overheating in some urban areas in Switzerland and the risks a sudden sharp economic downturn, not to be excluded despite current economic growth, could pose for banks as well as property owners. The central bank has begun a quarterly survey of Swiss banks’ risk levels.
“In response to signs of imbalances developing in the Swiss mortgage market and to the high uncertainty over the banks’ true risk exposure, the SNB has intensified its monitoring of the mortgage market. For this purpose, at the beginning of 2011, it launched a comprehensive quarterly survey of banks. The survey results will be a key tool for analyzing the vulnerability of the Swiss banking sector, and assessing
the need for further policy measures.”
The carefully crafted words of the SNB’s Financial Stability Report 2011, published 16 June, don’t paint a dramatic picture, but the report does raise flags, even as luxury property reports aimed at buyers outside Switzerland, such as one issued by the New York Times 16 June, paint a rosy picture that overlooks the larger
Cheaper housing: Geneva’s Swiss are buying in Annemasse
Neighbouring France is benefitting to some extent from the high franc and housing shortage situation. Le Temps reports today that 40 percent of the new relatively low-cost housing complexes being built in Annemasse, on the border, belong to Swiss people.
The managing director of a large retail store in the Nyon area told GenevaLunch Thursday that “retailers here are suffering. It’s not catastrophic but it’s not good. We read about how well the economy is doing, but we don’t see it. People are shopping over in France, understandably, with the low euro.”
Interest rates held at low 0.25%
Geneva's old town: a nice place to live, for those who can afford it
The good news for homeowners is the SNB’s decision on interest rates, which will be kept at 0.25 percent for three months, continuing the expansionist monetary policy of the past two-plus years. The central bank notes, however, that the current situation cannot continue for another three years, with low interest rates to fuel the money supply, coupled with a high Swiss franc, in the context of a very mixed economic growth picture in Europe. “Strong growth in the emerging markets and positive developments in Germany and Switzerland contrasted with economic weakness in several other European countries”, in 2010, the report warns.
Swiss market stable except for Geneva, Lausanne region
Swiss residential real estate prices show marked differences, with Wuerst and Partner‘s October 2010 quarterly report on the Swiss market showing 60 communes at risk for real estate bubbles, while the market overall remained “stable”.
The latest report from the company, issued in May 2011, says stability has continued, with one significant exception: “residential rents are expected to continue to remain generally stable. The one exception is the Lake Geneva region: This region is currently experiencing the strongest population growth throughout Switzerland, whilst at the same time residential construction activity has remained moderate in comparison with the rest of the country. Consequently, rents in this region are expected to trend further upwards in the foreseeable future.”
The housing supply rate stabilized in the first quarter of 2011, Wuerst figures show, but the asking price for all residential property in Lausanne and Geneva continued to climb, the only area in Switzerland where this was the case.
Sales prices in Lake Geneva area rose 10% and more: CHF2.26m on average in Geneva
Photo taken by Andre Borschberg from Solar Impulse during Brussels-Paris flight
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Solar Impulse, the Swiss solar-powered airplane, left Brussels early Tuesday 14 June in a second attempt to fly to Paris, with weather conditions favourable. The plane left Brussels at 05:10 this morning and landed at 21:15 at Paris-Le Bourget airport, a 16:05 hour flight for pilot André Borschberg.
The plane had been in Brussels since its first European flight 14 May, across national borders and through normally crowded air corridors. The flight to Paris will allow it to participate in the world’s largest air show. Solar Impulse attempted the flight last Friday but was forced to turn back due mianly to weather conditions.
Flight conditions Tuesday were qualified by Borschberg as “excellent”.
Background, Solar Impulse, GenevaLunch
©2011 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It’s raining in the Lake Geneva region today, but that’s not the only reason we are scanning the sky.
To love or not love it, that is the question haunting reviewers around the globe since Apple’s announcement Tuesday of its new iCloud, a kind of digital pie in the sky that will house all our (Apple) device storage needs.
The cloud up there will make life easier for Apple, whose, according to its guru Steve Jobs, is having a nightmarish time trying to keep all our Apple devices synched. And for Apple product owners, it should make our computers lighter and at some point cheaper because they won’t be weighed down by all those operational systems that lie behind our everyday computing.
But the best news in the short term, it appears, is that Apple’s move could put the music industry back on stronger financial feet, with our personal cloud data holding all our music, available to us anytime, anywhere (thereby making us more willing to pay iTunes to get it in the first place). Wired doesn’t entirely agree with this, but it does say Apple’s move could well be an “industry changer” despite not inventing anything and being only for Apples.
For those owners, another bit of good news is that our mobile phone bills could drop, as Apple clouds gather up our instant messages, texts, photos and videos included, on a new system called iMessage, available this autumn, and let us send them for free.
Better yet: for once, all our devices might really be synched, quickly, easily.
There are a few sore losers, starting with mobile phone manufacturers and phone companies, who stand to lose millions. Data privacy protection missionaries are asking uncomfortable questions about the security of the skies above us.
Reviews and comments on iCloud: CNET (video of Jobs presentation), The Daily Record, Scotland, 27/7 Wall St, USA
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A French-Swiss research team in Bescancon, France and Lausanne and two start-ups in the Lake Geneva region will soon be putting on the market a system for remote ultrasounds. The new diagnostic tool will make it possible for the first time for specialist physicians to work directly with technicians, in real time, in two separate locations. The system has been tested at Chuv (Lausanne University Hospitals) and the CHU in Besançon, France, and EPFL in Lausanne, where the laboratory research is being done, says it will be commercially available “within a few months”.
The same team has developed a second remote diagnostic tool, a server for analyzing medical imaging data that sends images securely via a network, so they can be analyzed in various ways: for example by slice, in 3D, and with colour contrast.
The two systems will allow specialists who are far from the equipment to access it readily, and teams of specialist physicians who are not in the same hospital, to work together far more quickly to diagnose cases where medical imaging is necessary.
Women who have had pregnancy complications and found it difficult to visit a specialist who is far from the local hospital, or neurology patients who are generally obliged to wait weeks for appointments in large university hospitals, will appreciate the value of the new system. Local hospitals that have ultrasound equipment and technical skills, but which are not home to the needed specialists, will more easily be able to work with them. Specialists who need to consult with other physicians will not need to wait for the results to be sent, and can provide input during the imaging process.
Cross-border partners developed device, diagnostic platform and tested new system
The equipment was developed by an EPFL team led by Jean-Philippe Thiran at the federal polytechnic’s Signal Processing Laboratory. An optical feedback system consisting of two infrared cameras, developed by Atracsys, an EPFL start-up headquartered in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, films the transducer. Covalia, a project partner company based in Besançon, France, is developing the telediagnosis platform into which the device is inserted.
Pre-television: swimmers training for 1912 Stockhom Olympics (Photo, ©2011 International Olympic Committee, by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Beau Rivage in Lausanne will be bustling with sports and TV executives Monday and Tuesday 6-7 June, as intense bidding gets underway to win US broadcast rights for upcoming Olympic Games. Day’s end Tuesday, after a cocktail party where the bidders will socialize while waiting for news, should see the winner named—or just possibly, everyone adjourned to come back another day with another bid.
The stakes are high for all concerned: US rights provide about one-third of all IOC (International Olympic Committee) revenues for the Games and about half of the TV revenues, according to USA Today. The US Olympic Committee, whose senior executives are in Lausanne for the bidding, receives 12.75 percent of the rights, according to Insidethegames.
The Beeb will be watching closely for the impact on world Olympics coverage
And the BBC in London is watching closely because this week’s bids could have a major impact on their ability to continue covering the Olympics, reports the Telegraph in the UK.
The IOC is hearing bids from three networks, ESPN, Fox and NBC, who are vying for the potentially valuable TV broadcast rights to two and possibly four Olympic Games after the 2012 London Games.
“Nothing else in US sports costs so much and has so many variables. Airing the Olympics means selling millions of viewers on largely unknown athletes in sports few Americans watch,” USA Today sums up.
Flexible thin film CIGS solar cell on polymer substrate developed at Empa (©2011 Empa)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A “major step forward” in the ability to produce cheap and efficient solar energy cells has been made by a team at Empa (Swiss Materials Science & Technology Academy), which has set a new world record of 18.7 percent for energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide, also known as CIGS.
Researchers are racing to develop a low-cost solar cell, which is both highly efficient and easy to manufacture with high throughput (execution efficiency), which would make it suitable for large-scale use.
New results could mean cheap solar electricity “in the near future”
Ayodhya Tiwari, who is leading the Empa team, says the new record value “nearly closes the ‘efficiency gap’ to solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon (Si) wafers or CIGS thin film cells on glass”. Tiwari argues that “flexible and lightweight CIGS solar cells with efficiencies comparable to the best-in-class will have excellent potential to bring about a paradigm shift and to enable low-cost solar electricity in the near future.”
His team achieved the previous world record for energy conversion efficiency of the cells, 17.6 percent, in June 2010. The measurements have been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany.
The cells offer cost benefits, starting with the possibility of using them in lower-cost roll-to-roll manufacturing processes for making electronic devices. The lightweight and flexible solar units could also reduce transportation and installation costs.
Lausanne at dusk, viewed from Lake Geneva: growing number of foreigners live in the city, its suburbs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva, with its international organizations and United Nations European seat is not likely to lose its reputation as Switzerland’s international city, but Lausanne has been creeping up on it as an international centre. From 2008 to 2010 the resident foreigners’ share of the total population in the capital of Vaud was higher than that in Geneva, and growing faster.
Figures published Monday 30 May by Badac, the Swiss cantons and cities database, show that Lausanne has had a larger percentage of foreigners than Geneva in recent years, although the two are close: Lausanne’s population in 2010 was 39.24 percent foreigners while Geneva’s was 38.58 percent, but while the increase in the foreign population in Geneva was .95 percent, Lausanne’s was 1.22 percent.
The figures take into account only the cities themselves, not their larger urban areas. Geneva’s population in 2010 was 185,958 and Lausanne’s was 125,885.
Smaller cities in the Lake Geneva region, such as some suburbs of Lausanne and Geneva, have even higher percentages of foreigners, including some of the highest rates in Switzerland: Montreux, 44.33 percent foreigners, Meyrin 33.99, Carouge 36.97, Renens 50.85, Nyon 36.39, Vevey 43.38, Morges 33.17, Versoix 33.20, Grand-Saconnex 28.40, Ecublens 43.03, Chêne-Bougeries 29.68.
Spreitenbach (50.74 percent), northwest of Zurich, and Renens (50.85), west of Lausanne, have a majority of foreigners; they are the only two Swiss cities over 10,000 where resident foreigners make up more than 50 percent of the population.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - Hainan Airlines, one of the fastest-growing airlines in the industry and China’s fourth largest, starts three-times weekly flights between Zurich and Beijing Tuesday 31 May, the beginning of what promises to be stronger aviation ties between Switzerland and China.
Swiss is reportedly targeting Zurich-Beijing as one of its next offers, possibly linked to Swiss’s purchase of five new planes.
Photo: bridgestochina.com (Life in Beijing)
Hainan Air’s non-stop service will used an Airbus A330 with 34 business class and 179 economy seats. The flight runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday in each direction. Flights leave Zurich at 13:20 and arrive at Beijing International Airport at 05:20 local time the next morning. The departing time from Beijing is 01:50 local time, landing at Zurich Airport at 7:05 the same day. Both arrival times offer the possibility of good connections for further travel, says Hainan Air, China’s largest private airline.
“The frequency is much likely to be increased if the market demand is higher,” notes Hainan in a press release about the new line. It also notes that with code-sharing with its partner Air Berlin for Zurich-Berlin flights that connect with Berlin-Beijing on Hainan, Switzerland and China now have nearly daily connections between their capitals, on Hainan.
Mark Morris, The Brand Consultancy, leading a seminar
Location: Hotel Bristol, Rue du Mont Blanc
Link out: http://www.thebrandconsultancy.com/june8
Date: 8 Jun 2011
Start time: 18:30
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland moved Wednesday 18 May to align itself with the European Union in blocking the assets of 13 Syrian leaders and forbidding them to enter or transit Switzerland.
The sanctions are accompanied by an arms embargo, in response to serious human rights violations by the government of Syria against its own citizens, also bans the export of all military goods and other goods that could be used for military purposes, and the use of any financial tools that facilitate military deliveries to Syria. A detailed list of goods was published by Bern.
