Igor Sedykh, journalist
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Igor Sedykh, Geneva-based Russian journalist who in 2009 was awarded the Swiss-Russian Cooperation award for journalism at the World Association of Russian Press congress held in Lucerne, died Friday 12 March in Geneva, his widow, Barbara Sedykh, announced.
Sedykh began his career with the monthly Sa Rubeschom, worked in Geneva as a correspondent for the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, and most recently he was known for his reporting for Kommersant from Geneva on Russian affairs, war and arms-related topics. His articles were often picked up elsewhere in other languages.
Sedykh was a longtime member of the Swiss Foreign Press Association.
Links to other sites: Cooperation Council Switzerland-Russia, Kommersant, Medecins sans frontieres
The jobless: more time for indoor gardening - not what they want
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Unemployment in Switzerland increased to 3.9 percent of the working population in September, according to figures released by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs 7 October. Almost 58,500 more people were out of work at the end September than a year earlier.
Geneva’s unemployment rate remains the highest in the country, at seven percent. The French-speaking part of Switzerland is particularly affected, with every canton at or above the national average:
- Vaud 5.4 percent
- Neuchatel 6.4 percent
- Valais 3.8 percent
- Jura 5.7 percent.
Title: Earth festival
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Activities for children and adults, all celebrating planet earth.
Start Date: 12 Jun 2009
End Date: 28 Jun 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – A fire broke out in a ground floor apartment in Grand-Lancy, Thursday 30 April. The flames in the stairwell trapped an adolescent on the second floor. A neighbour heard the cries and braved the smoke and heat to bring the young person to safety. Firefighters evacuated six people from the building. Three were admitted to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.
Geneva's book fair, le Salon du livre 2009
Swiss women winemakers: Les artisanes de la vigne et du vin, a busy Arvinis stand
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – People in the region turned out by the thousands for several events 25-26 April weekend, undoubtedly thanks in part to spring putting in an appearance. Lake Morat (Murtensee) hosted its annual Slowup, one of series in Switzerland throughout the year. The weather was fine, the scenergy splendid, and 55,000 people turned out for this mass non-motorized movers’ day. Arvinis closed with some 19,000 visitors registered a slight dip, 5 percent, in attendance but wine producers told Arvinis organizers (and GenevaLunch) that sales were up. The Salon du Livre in Geneva at Palexpo closed its doors with good news about readers: 105,000 came to the event, 22-26 April, a 7 percent increase in attendance.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – The man who shot his boss, then killed himself in the ICC building near the airport, worked for a private security company, Sigma. Police are seeking a motive for the crime.
Maybe saving money
Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre)- A second family salary can too easily be consumed entirely by day care costs in Switzerland, according to a new report. Day care centre costs are generally linked to parents’ incomes, thus the sliding scale may not make it financially worthwhile for a second parent to work fulltime, as the two “example” charts below indicate.
This is the second of three articles that together make up the English version of a feature published 2 April 2009 by Swiss news weekly L’Hebdo magazine on expatriates in the Lake Geneva region. GenevaLunch, a partner of l’Hebdo brings you the English version.
French version © 2009 l’Hebdo
English version © 2009 GenevaLunch (may not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission.
[Part 2, continued] By Julie Zaugg and Mehdi Atmani In Geneva alone there are 65,000 expats, of whom 40,000 are international organization employees and their families. Philip Morris in Lausanne employs 180 of them, Japan Tobacco International, also in Lausanne 157, Procter & Gamble in Geneva 500 and Nestlé in Vevey 584.
Where do they come from?
Americans were still the majority of expats just a few years ago, but they’ve given way to Europeans, with the Schengen Area and the free movement of people as the impetus. Read more…
Swiss chocolate
Updated 13:00 Versoix, Switzerland (Genevalunch) - Versoix’s fifth annual chocolate festival holds some surprises this year, apart from the traditional artisan chocolate displays. Thirteen of the chocolate makers are presenting works with an astronomy theme for the international year of astronomy.
Read more…
Langendorf (SO), Switzerland (TSR, Fre)- A 15-year-old student attacked a classmate with a knife in a Langendorf school around 11:00 Wednesday 24 March. The victim suffered serious injuries to the neck and was transported by helicopter to a specialized hospital where he is listed in stable condition.
Max and her new beau, 1 March 2009 (photo © Heide Buergermeister)
Updated 3 March, 09:00 Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Max has a new beau! But what will happen, asks the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg, when the father of her young for the past three seasons shows up at the nest?
Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch and TSR, Fre) – The strange wooden bells, tubas, trombones and off-key music that are part of Swiss Carneval could be heard starting Thursday 19 February in several corners of Valais.
This is one of Switzerland’s Catholic cantons that celebrates Carneval during the four to five days leading up to Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, and the start of Lent Wednesday 25 February.
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FOR UPDATED US ELECTION RESULTS: NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Change, hope, dialogue and a dream
Updated 20:50 Visit the GenevaLunch US 2008 election photo gallery: images from the American International Club, Democrats Abroad and Webster University parties.
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Euphoria for many, quietness for a few: the election of Barack Obama as the next US president was marked Wednesday morning in Geneva by four words, repeated at all the events where election-watchers gathered: change, hope, dialogue and a dream.
©Globe Cartoon, Chappatte
Another America?
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A reminder of where and when to go if you haven’t been invited to a private party but you want to be with a crowd of Americans on what promises to be a very special night in US history.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – The Geneva medical doctors association, unhappy with the federal court ruling that struck down a Geneva no-smoking law, has decided to actively promote cafes and restaurants that remain smoke free.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – They may swoon for George, as in Clooney, but he’s going to try to sway them for Barack, as in Obama: a small number of US citizens will pay anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 Tuesday evening to rub elbows with the American actor, in town on a fundraising mission at the invitation of Geneva lawyer Charles Adams, a partner in the international law firm of Hogan & Hartson.
Clooney fans, even those willing to pay that much to see him, can attend the $1,000 reception and the $10,000 dinner for 75 people at the Adams home only if they hold valid US passports: as Cookie Parker of the National Finance Committee of the Democrats wrote when she announced the evening, it’s a fundraiser and "only American citizens with US passport numbers can contribute to the campaign."
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Vevey citizens could well go to the polls in a referendum over parking spaces to settle how many and where, near the Place de la Marché. After years of discussion and debate the town council has presented its plan, with a reduction of 100 parking spaces, but also reducing the current 440 spaces that are aboveground to only 60. Another 280 spaces would go underground and the lakefront area would be developed.
Gland, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 78-year-old resident of Gland has died following a road accident on the route du Mont-Blanc shortly before noon. The man was driving towards the lake when he lost control of his car near the Mauverney roundabout, possibly after being taken ill. He hit a construction rubbish bin and then collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction. The truck driver managed to stop his vehicle before it was hit and he was not injured but the driver of the car died at the scene of the accident despite ambulance and Rega helicopter as well as other medical help.
The area was closed to traffic until 15:00.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Edipresse is investing in Le Régional, buying a majority of the capital in the local free paper that covers the Lausanne to Montreux area. The newspaper currently prints 98,000 copies and will extend the print run to 115,000 and extend distribution further east to cover the Chablais area. According to 24 Heures, the new ownership will allow Le Régional to add three new jobs, advertising and editorial.
Edipresse owns the major newspapers in the Lake Geneva area with the exception of Le Temps, where is shares equal ownership with Ringier, Switzerland’s largest publisher. In early 2008 it created a commercial English-language online site aimed at multinationals, Swisster.
Updated 19 August. Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Daily Mirror in the UK broke the news, People Magazine picked it up and now the celebrity news circuit is passing it around: the divorce after six years of marriage between musician Phil Collins and his wife Orianne Cevey Collins is costing him more than any British celebrity has, to date, had to pay out to an ex-spouse. The figure cited by the Daily Mirror is £25 million, a number the newspaper says came to light in accounts for Philip Collins Ltd, the former Genesis star’s "personal management company" in London. How the British tabloid obtained the accounts is not clear; Swiss divorce settlements are by law private. The couple live in separate homes near Nyon, Vaud. Orianne Collins created a jewelry company called The Right Label which has made a splash at the Baselworld art show and earlier this summer at the Cannes Film Festival.
Lausanne newspaper 24 Heures noted 19 August that the details of the divorce settlement could not be confirmed through either member of the ex-couple.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cern’s LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will have its first synchronization run this weekend, 9-10 September, a key step in the process to get the world’s most powerful particle accelerator up and running. Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced late Thursday that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the LHC will be made 10 September. According to Cern, "The LHC producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010. Housed in a 27-kilometre tunnel, it relies on technologies that would not have been possible 30 years ago. The LHC is, in a sense, its own prototype."
Starting up the machine is a long process that starts that starts with cooling down each of the machine’s eight sectors. This is followed by the electrical testing of the 1600 superconducting magnets and their individual powering to nominal operating current. These steps are followed by the powering together of all the circuits of each sector, and then of the eight independent sectors in unison in order to operate as a single machine.
By the end of July, all eight sectors were at their operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). The synchronization phase scheduled for this weekend begins with synchronizing the LHC with the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator, which forms the last link in the LHC’s injector chain. Timing between the two machines has to be accurate to within a fraction of a nanosecond. This weekend’s work involves the clockwise-circulating LHC beam, with the second synchronization to follow in coming weeks. Cern notes that "Tests will continue into September to ensure that the entire machine is ready to accelerate and collide beams at an energy of 5 TeV per beam, the target energy for 2008. Force majeure notwithstanding, the LHC will see its first circulating beam on 10 September at the injection energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV)."
Television coverage of the start-up will be made available through Eurovision..
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Michel Bobillier, whose photos of the Fetes de Geneve fireworks were published in 2007 by GenevaLunch, has made a bright and fun 120-second montage of the light show, as a warmup to this year’s show Saturday 7 August. Remind yourself why these are some of the best fireworks around, not to be missed!
Photo courtesy of Athos99: Music this week has been memorable, including a popular concert by Michel Lalanne who played to an appreciative audience only four days after surgery.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland and Ghana have signed a treaty to avoid double taxation on income, capital gains and fortunes. The treaty must be ratified by both country’s parliaments before it goes into effect.
Lausanne, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) - Monday towards midnight a man was found hanging in the stairwell at the entrance to the Vennes station of the new metro system in Lausanne, the M2, scheduled to open in a month. The 45-year-old was French, a high level manager for Alsthom who had responsibility for the security system for the new lines. An investigation has been opened but for now, according to 24 Heures, his death appears to have been a suicide, a shock to fellow workers and his employer, who told the paper they saw no signs he planned to take his life.
Updated, 21:53
New York, NY, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ping-pong again in the sailing world: the Supreme Court of the state of New York in the US ruled Tuesday, 3-2, in favour of the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) in the ongoing battle over the next America’s Cup race. The SNG, home to Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi, won the Cup in 2007 and immediately exercised its right as winner, under rules established in the 19th century in New York, to name the Challenger of Record and to declare the location of the next Cup race. It selected Valencia’s Club Náutico Español de Vela and declared that the next Cup challenge would be held in the Spanish city.
That decision wa quickly challenged in the courts by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), which has insisted that the Valencia club is not a legitimate challenger and that the SNG is not preparing a fair race. For the past 12 months the two yacht clubs have fought out the future of the Cup in legal battles. Tuesday evening, Geneva time, the SNG declared that it was happy with the decision, while the GGYC in an official statement said it would be reviewing its options in light of the decision.
BBC story, Sailing Scuttlebutt reaction
Photo, © George Johns/Alinghi, reproduced with permission. Alinghi relaunch on Lake Geneva, May 2008.
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