ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Credit Suisse said Monday it is paying euros 150 million to settle a tax fraud dispute with the Duesseldorf, Germany tax office, heading off a court case. Switzerland’s other large bank, UBS, is reported to have lost $2.3 billion, higher than initially thought, in the fraudulent trading case that erupted last week when the bank called London police, who arrested one of the bank’s traders.
Oswald Gruebel, the head of UBS, told Der Sonntag over the weekend that he will not resign over the theft incident.
The Duesseldorf case brings to an end a saga that began with Credit Suisse offices in 13 German cities being raided after German officials from one state in 2010 bought stolen data from a Frenchman who had worked in the information technology offices of HSBC in Geneva.
Bank Julius Baer earlier in 2011 agreed to settle a similar case with Duesseldorf, for euros 50 million.
Tourists meet the local cows, hiking down from the Jungfraujoch
BERN, SWITZERLAND – July 2011 was not the disaster for Swiss tourism that some people expected, given the high Swiss franc, but European visitors’ overnight stays were down by 3.5 percent compared to July 2010, with foreigners’ overnight stays down 4 percent.
Two of Switzerland’s traditionally largest groups of European visitors, Germans and the British, were down 11.6 and 10.5 percent respectively.
The Swiss Statistical Office attributes the drop to the combination of a very high franc and unusually cold, wet weather for mid-summer.
Chinese (without Hong Kong) tourists, while still a small part of the overall number, had a positive impact with a 61 percent increase, to 76,787 overnight stays. Germans had 527,612, the largest group.
For the first six months of the year, Chinese visitors’ overnight stays rose 42.5 percent, faster than Indian visitors’, which increased by more than 25 percent, and the Chinese are now not far behind Indians as a key tourist group.
Some German residents may now opt to walk openly through the front doors of Swiss banks
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A Swiss-German tax deal has been reached, and the details, which have provoked much speculation in recent weeks, were made public Wednesday morning by the two governments. The much-touted likely “fine” of CHF2 billion that Swiss banks would need to pay Germany turns out to be a refundable guarantee:
“In order to ensure a minimum income from the retrospective taxation of existing banking relationships as well as to state their resolve to implement the agreement, the Swiss banks have undertaken to pay a guarantee in the amount of CHF 2 billion. The funds advanced by the banks will then be offset by the incoming tax payments and refunded to the banks.”
Bern and Bonn initialed the agreement on “outstanding tax issues” Wednesday 10 August. Key features of the agreement include:
- Persons resident in Germany can retrospectively tax their existing banking relationships in Switzerland either by making a one-off tax payment or by disclosing their accounts
- Future investment income and capital gains of German bank clients in Switzerland will be subject to a final withholding tax
- Proceeds of the withholding tax will be transferred to the German authorities by Switzerland
- A safety mechanism is being set up to allow Germany to request some information in order to avoid new, undeclared accounts from being opened
- A solution to the problem of the possible prosecution of bank employees is included.
Specifically, on the withholding tax, Bern says in its statement, “Final withholding tax for the future: future investment income and capital gains should be directly covered by a final withholding tax. The single tax rate has been set at 26.375%. This is in line with the current flat-rate withholding tax in Germany. The final withholding tax is a tax at source. After it has been paid, the tax obligation towards the country of domicile will generally have been fulfilled.”
German authorities will be able to submit requests for information in order to prevent new, undeclared funds from being deposited in Switzerland “in the context of a safety mechanism that must state the name of the client, but not necessarily the name of the bank. The number of requests that can be submitted is limited and there must be plausible grounds. The number will be within the range of 750 to 999 requests for a two-year period; an adjustment will then be made based on the results. So-called fishing expeditions are not permissible.”
Germans can pay lump sum back taxes anonymously or own up to accounts
The agreement notes that “To retrospectively tax existing banking relationships in Switzerland, persons resident in Germany should be given one chance to make an anonymous lump-sum tax payment. The size of this tax burden will vary from between 19% to 34% of the assets in question, and will be determined based on the duration of the client relationship as well as the initial and final amount of the capital.” Alternatively, “those affected should also have the possibility of disclosing their banking relationship in Switzerland to the German authorities.”
Germany to streamline Swiss banks’ access to German market
Switzerland has been keen to gain better access to German financial services markets and the agreement notes that “mutual market access for financial services will be improved.” In particular, “the exemption procedure for Swiss banks in Germany will be simplified, and the obligation to initiate client relationships via a local institution will be eliminated. Likewise, the problem of purchasing data relevant for tax collection purposes has been resolved.
Bern says it expect the agreement to be signed by both governments in coming weeks and notes that it “could enter into force at the start of 2013″.
Michael Ambühl, State Secretary, Swiss Federal Department of Finance, and Hans Bernhard Beus, State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Finance, were the lead negotiators, who initialled today’s agreement.
US approach contrasts with German tax collection deal
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – There is not an official war open against Swiss banks, by the US Department of Justice, but continuing skirmishes, highlighted this week by Le Temps and the Financial Times, make it clear that peace is not around the corner, either. Officials from the two countries appear to be heading for another showdown, writes Zurich-based Haig Simonen at the British newspaper, just as Switzerland and Germany are on the verge of announcing that they have found a way forward with a similar problem of German citizens hiding money from their taxman in Swiss bank accounts.
Switzerland and Germany are expected to announce Wednesday 10 August that they have signed an agreement for the Swiss to withhold tax on Germans’ bank accounts in Switzerland while Swiss banks will pay a lump sum up front for tax revenues lost in the past by Germany. The new agreement would leave Swiss banking secrecy intact by Switzerland turning over the taxes collected without identifying account owners.
The New York Times describes the new agreement, as well as an upcoming one with Britain as putting a squeeze on tax evaders, in an article published late Tuesday.
The US is taking a more aggressive tack to uncover past tax cheats and a 2009 treaty with Switzerland covering a set number of accounts held by Americans at bank UBS looks increasingly like a one-off settlement. The DOJ 4 August announced yet another indictment, this time against Gian Gisler, a former UBS banker who left the company in 2008 and who now lives in Zurich. His indictment follows four against former Credit Suisse senior managers in late July that topped up four other ex-Credit Suisse indictments in February 2011.
According to the DOJ “While working at UBS and at two other Swiss asset management firms, Gisler had more than 38 U.S. taxpayer clients and allegedly opened and/or managed more than 60 hidden accounts on their behalf. Gisler left UBS in 2008 when it became public that UBS was the target of an IRS investigation, and moved to a Swiss asset management firm so that he could continue to assist his US taxpayer clients in hiding their accounts at other Swiss banks. When that firm ceased its private banking business, Gisler left for yet another Swiss asset management firm so that he could continue to engage in the same conduct.”
The Financial Times says six other banks, in Switzerland and Liechtenstein are now being investigated by the DOJ. “The US investigations have taken months to gather pace. But receipt of the names, along with thousands of voluntary self-declarations by US taxpayers, has widened the scope of the US inquiries. Although only 25 US taxpayers with undeclared Swiss accounts have been indicted so far – and the first case dates back to April 2009 – the pace is beginning to build.”
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.
An ailing 85-year-old surrounded by her family in a camp for people displaced by floods in Balochistan, Pakistan. The elderly are especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases associated with flooding (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / D Khan, September 2010)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The numbers alone are daunting: 43.7 million displaced persons worldwide, of which 15.4m are refugees, 27.5m are internally displaced refugees and nearly 850,000 are asylum seekers, with one-fifth of asylum seekers in South Africa alone.
The world’s 49 least developed countries hosted some 2 million refugees last year.
Just under 100,000 refugees were admitted for resettlement in 2010, by 22 countries. The United States accounted for 71,000 of these.
The figures are part of the “UNHCR Global Trends 2010″ (2.7 MB pdf) published 20 June to mark World Refugees Day.
The numbers don’t yet include refugees from 2011 conflicts in Cote d’Ivoire, Syria and Libya, among others.
The imbalance in how the world supports refugees, or people who are forcibly displaced, is equally stark and marks this year’s report, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees agency, based in Geneva: “Pakistan, Iran, and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million, and 1 million respectively. Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each dollar of its per capita GDP (PPP) followed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively. By comparison Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP.”
Click on charts to view larger
Drawn-out wars taking their toll
Roughly one-quarter of the 15.4m refugees are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The UNHCR says that of those under its care, 7.2m or about one-third, have been stuck in a refugee situation for more than five years, mainly due to drawn-out wars.
Within view of the Itombwe Massif, a convoy of UNHCR trucks carries Burundian refugees home after years of exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / M Hofer, December 2010)
The figure is the highest since 2001 and at the same time the lowest number since 1990 have been able to return home, fewer than 200,000.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, comments bluntly that “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”
Some people have been refugees for up to 30 years, with Afghanistan a notable case in point. Afghans were one-third of the world’s refugees in 2001, as they were a decade later, at the start of 2011.
60th anniversary for UNHCR shows dramatic changes
A woman returns to the ruins of her home after violence strikes southern Kyrgyzstan (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / S Schulman, June 2010)
The UNHCR will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding in July 2011 and the report notes that the picture today is “of a dratically changed protection environment”. The organization’s early “caseload was 2.1 million Europeans, uprooted by World War Two. Today, UNHCR’s work extends to more than 120 countries and encompasses people forced to flee across borders as well as those in flight within their own countries.”
Two relatively recent developments have been the huge growth in numbers of internally displaced persons and the growing number of stateless persons, or “people lacking the basic safety-net of a nationality”, says the Geneva group, which plans to highlight this group during 2011.
“The number of countries reporting stateless populations has increased steadily since 2004, but differences in definitions and methodologies still prevent reliable measurement of the problem. In 2010, the reported number of stateless people (3.5 million) was nearly half of that in 2009, but mainly due to methodological changes in some countries that supply data. Unofficial estimates put the global number closer to 12 million.”
Actress Angelina Jolie to help tell individual stories for 60th anniversary
The UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is helping draw attention to refugees’ stories in a series of videos, including one released 18 June of her visit to Syrian refugees in Turkey. The videos are part of the organization’s efforts to draw attention to refugees by recounting individuals’ stories.
Cucumbers: when will we learn to love them again?
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “It’s the bean sprouts”, the source of the E. coli outbreak in Germany, Reinhard Burger, Germany’s head of infectious diseases programme, said Friday morning 10 June. The actual sprouts that are behind what the WHO labels the “the unusual enteroaggregative verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (EAggEC VTEC) O104:H4 bacterium” have not yet been pinpointed.
Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and Food Safety and the Robert Koch-Institute will publish a joint press release Friday.
The number of new infections has been falling in recent days, but E.coli itself has killed 6 people in Germany and the HUS complication has killed 26, with an additional death in Sweden, according to WHO worldwide figures for the outbreak. In total, 2,909 people have been infected.
The European Union said Tuesday it would set aside €210 million for farmers touched by the outbreak, but a European farmers organization, Colos, says the losses are reaching €400m a week. Spanish farmers, the largest fruit and vegetable producers in Europe, calculate they have lost €200m in business since the start of the outbreak at the end of April, and German farmers say they have lost €60m, according to news agency AFP/TSR (Fr).
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The agriculture minister for Lower Saxony in Germany announced Monday 6 June that earlier suspicions may not be correct, that an organic farm in the region is the source of a dangerous outbreak of E. coli.
Initial tests led researchers to suspect the farm’s produce, but authorities Monday said that 23 of the 40 samples taken have come up negative for the E. coli strain that has so far killed 22 people and put more than 2,000 in hospital suffering from the infection or HUS, a complication. The other samples must still be analyzed, reports Der Spiegel. Two women who work at the farm have come down with diarrhea and one has been diagnosed with a form of E. coli, but Spiegel doesn’t specify if it is the strain that has caused the outbreak.
The farmer uses no fertilizers and has no animals, but Reuters quotes a London microbiology professor as saying this eliminate the possibility of the bacteria thriving.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – World Health Organization (WHO) figures Sunday 5 June showed that 21 people have died from E. coli or HUS, which is provoked by E. coli, while in Germany public health authorities in Lower Saxony say they have a “really hot lead” to the cause: bean and other sprouts from a farm 70km south of Hamburg are looking like the culprit.
Gert Lindemann, agriculture minister for the state of Lower Saxony said at a press conference that the deadly strain of the bacteria has now been traced to a farm in the Uelzen area; German media say it is near Bienenbuettel. The farm has been closed while the investigation continues. Reuters notes that “Lindemann said that not only beansprouts, but also alfalfa sprouts, mung bean sprouts, radish sprouts and arugula sprouts from the farm might be connected to the outbreak. Raw sprouts are popular among Germans and often mixed in salads or added to sandwiches.”
View Larger Map
The WHO in Geneva, which keeps the official world tally on infectious diseases, with all affected countries reporting to it, published its latest figures at 18:00 Sunday:
Germany, HUS: 627, with 15 deaths
Germany, E. coli: 1,536, with 6 death (note: does not include the HUS cases)
| Country | HUS | EHEC |
|---|---|---|
| Austria | 0 | 2 |
| Czech Republic | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 7 | 11 |
| France | 0 | 10 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 4 |
| Norway | 0 | 1 |
| Poland | 1 | 0 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 |
| Sweden | 15 | 31 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 3 |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 8 |
In addition, the WHO reports that the United States has published information about two suspected E. coli cases linked to the German outbreak. In the figures above, “all except 1 of the above HUS and EHEC patients had travelled to or from Germany during the incubation period for infection, typically 3–4 days after exposure (range 2–10 days),” according to the WHO.
Countries that are affected are also reporting their cases to Germany, and European countries are reporting to the secure Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as well.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The driver of a bus returning a group of 12- to 25-year-olds from a day at Europapark in Rust, Germany is in critical condition after the bus inexplicably crashed on its return trip. Fifteen of the young people suffered minor injuries after the bus veered off the A5 autoroute near Heitersheim, rolling 20 metres into the forest before stopping. Details, TSR, Fr
Ed. note: GenevaLunch, like most businesses in Switzerland, is taking a four-day weekend. Our news today is brief headline stories.
©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.
©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.
Most fresh produce sold in Switzerland in May comes from Switzerland, says Bern (photo: Fully, Valais, lettuce)
Update 13:45 BERN, SWITZERLAND – Ed. note: a 12th person died Monday in Germany from what appears to be E.coli, and pressure on German hospitals is increasing due to the high number of people hospitalized and in intensive care. AFP (TSR, Fr) reports that some hospitals are appealing for blood donors because of the sudden need for blood plasma.
German public health authorities and researchers at the Robert Koch Institute are still trying to determine the source and precise nature of the deadly E.coli outbreak in their country. The death of an 11th person was announced Monday and a specialist in western Germany, interviewed on television Sunday night, noted that while Germany normally sees about 1,000 cases a year, it has had 1,200 cases in the past 10 days.
The strain appears to be particularly virulent, with patients not responding to normal treatments.
Some 300 persons have been treated for the infection.
Swiss and other non-German cases so far all linked to Germany
The Swiss government Friday 27 May offered an update on E. coli bacteria cases in the country, saying that of the 20 registered since the start of 2011, a figure in line with other years, just one has been identified as possibly belonging to the strain that has caused 10 deaths in Germany.
Germany, Austria extend ban to other fresh produce
Germany and Austria over the weekend announced that they are recommending to consumers to avoid buying lettuce and eggplant (aubergine) as well as cucumbers and in Austria tomatoes, saying the source of the bacteria has not yet been fully identified. Cucumbers from Spain were initially listed as the culprit, and these are still under suspicion, but there is no confirmation that this is the only source.
Spanish authorities reacted angrily Monday, saying that Germany and Austria are over-reacting in condemning Spanish agricultural products, reports El Pais (Sp).
European health authorities say there is no evidence the infections have spread beyond Germany, but they urge caution and good hygiene in handling food.
“Currently there is still no evidence that any potential contaminated food product would have been distributed outside of Germany,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement issued Friday. “Thorough investigations ongoing in the country aim at identifying the source of infection, and are crucial to further determining the scope and magnitude of this risk.
“Rapid identification of potential cases linked to this outbreak, within Germany or among persons who have travelled to Germany since mid-April/beginning of May, is essential to prevent the development of severe disease. Secondary clusters of cases from person-to-person exposure may occur and thus personal hygiene messages are important.”
Swiss produce mainly from Switzerland this time of year, but good hygiene urged
The Swiss Office of Public Health has confirmed that most fresh produce on sale in Switzerland at the moment comes from Switzerland, but it offers the public several recommendations for avoiding food contamination (see below).
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The German coalition has agreed to end Germany’s nuclear power programme by 2022, it announced after late-night talks Sunday 29 May. The agreement came after officials received the report of the German government ethics commission on the country’s use of nuclear energy. The commission’s report will be issued Monday.
Germany has 17 nuclear power plants, one of which has been out of commission for years, and seven of which were closed in March 2011, following Japan’s post-tsunami nuclear crisis. All but three of the others should be closed by 2021, the commission recommended, and those three can be closed in 2022.
Switzerland a week earlier announced that it will end its nuclear energy programme, but it will take longer, until 2034, to spin it out.
Max shades her 3 new young ones, who bring the number of her offspring to 26 in 9 years (photo ©2011 Heidi Buergermeister)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Good news for Max the Swiss stork fans: a third baby bird has been spotted in the nest, making Max’s 2011 family the same size as her usual ones. Only two young ones had been spotted before this week until official photographer and neighbour Heidi Buergermeister saw a third head.
Happy Mother’s Day this week to Max!
The three little ones bring to 26 the number of offspring she has had, in 9 years.
One of Switzerland’s best-loved families could well be Max the stork and her annual crop of babies. Max, who will soon be 12 years old, has been banded and tracked longer than any other bird in the world. She migrates every fall to southern Spain or northern Morocco, then returns to the Swiss-German border area, Tuefingen, on the north side of Lake Constance, to mate and have her young.
She was born in 1999 in Avenches, canton Vaud, and the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg follows her movements closely and keeps her growing fan club informed.
Escalating violence by Syrian government against its citizens drawing sharp rebukes
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States Wednesday 27 April in Geneva initiated a special session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Syria. France announced that it has called in the Syrian ambassador for an explanation of his government’s attacks on its own citizens, along with four other European governments: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Late Wednesday news agencies received a statement that 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the city of Banias, scene of protests, have resigned over deaths this week and the violence used on protesters.
Syria was accused by US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, representative to the UNHRC in Geneva, of “the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests last week.” Donahoe stated, in initiating the special session, that “we strongly condemn the killing, arrest and torture of hundreds of Syrians by the Syrian authorities. It is entirely appropriate that the Human Rights Council condemn willful government violence against peaceful political protestors. At the Special Session we expect Human Rights Council members to call on the government of Syria to meet its responsibility to protect its population and stop these attacks.”
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Bank Julius Baer has agreed to pay the German government CHF50 million in a one-time payment, to close an investigation the bank describes as potentially lengthy and cumbersome for both sides.
The payment “will end the investigations against Julius Baer and unknown employees regarding undeclared assets of persons who are subject to taxation in Germany. The investigations were prompted by voluntary self-disclosures of German clients and – as the media reported already last year – by data acquired and collected by authorities,” the bank said in a statement issued Thursday 14 April.
The bank says it sees the action as leaving it “free from allegation” and there free to “now continue to fully concentrate on building and further expanding its business with German clients.”
At least 8 people have died with close to 100 people reportedly injured, some very seriously, following a highly unusual sandstorm that struck the A19 autobahn near Rostock, in N. Germany, Friday. The dark wall of debris was apparently due to a mix of sand, dirt from freshly plowed fields, dry weather and high winds, and it caught motorists offguard on the four-lane highway.
The Simpsons filtered in Europe
Japan’s northeastern corner had another earthquake just before 07:30 Monday morning, and the 6.5 quake triggered a tsunami warning, but first reports are of only mild damage. Meanwhile, the problems of containing radioactivity at the Fukushima nuclear power plant continue.
Germany‘s Pro-7 TV channel has joined German-speaking Switzerland in removing TV episodes of The Simpsons programme that have to do with Homer Simpson’s employer, the local nuclear power plant. Ed. note: French-speaking Switzerland’s TSR does not carry The Simpsons.
Links to other sites: CNN, status of Fukushima’s six reactors 28 March, Reuters fact box on earthquake’s impact on carmakers
Source: UNHCR, Geneva, 28 March 2011 (click on image to view larger)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of asylum seekers in the world has been halved in the past 10 years, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says in its 2010 annual asylum report issued early Monday 27 March. Whether this is good news or bad is difficult to judge, concedes the Geneva-based organization’s head.
“The global dynamics of asylum are changing. Asylum claims in the industrialized world are much lower than a decade ago while year-on-year levels are up in only a handful of countries,” notes High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “We need to study the root causes to see if the decline is because of fewer push factors in areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum.”
He notes that developing countries still host the lion’s share of applications, and asks that other countries continue to support countries like Liberia, Tunisia and Egypt who are hosting large numbers of asylum seekers due to conflicts in neighbouring countries.
The report covers 44 countries that are destinations for asylum seekers.
US remains most popular host country
Switzerland was the 8th most popular country, with 13,800 applicants.
The report states that 358,800 asylum applications were made to industrialized countries last year, a 5 percent fall from 2009, and some 42 percent lower than the decade’s peak in 2001, when almost 620,000 asylum applications were made.
The US is the top destination for asylum seekers, for the fifth year in a row, followed by France, Germany, Sweden and Canada. These five countries accounted for 56 percent of all applications.
US numbers of new applicants were boosted by requests for asylum by more Chinese and Mexicans, while France saw an increase in applicants from Serbia, Russia and Congo. Germany saw an influx from Serbia, notably Kosovo, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The UNHCR says the “development is widely attributed to the introduction of visa-free entry to the European Union for nationals of these two countries since December 2009.”
Serbia has highest number of applicants
Serbia was the country with the highest number of applicants, 28,900, which the UNHCR says is almost as high as in 2001, “soon after teh Kosovo crisis”.
Several changes have taken place, including:
- the number of applications from Afghans fell by 9 percent and whereas in the past Norway and the UK were the main destinations, Germany and Sweden have become the top hosts
- Chinese asylum-seekers made up the third-largest asylum group in 2010, partly due to a substantial drop in the number of new applications from Iraq and Somalia
- for the first time since 2005, Iraq was not one of the top two countries of origin of asylum-seekers. It dropped to fourth place, followed by the Russian Federation
- Somalia, which occupied the third spot in 2009, fell to sixth in 2010.
Bremen's famous statue with a donkey, dog, cat and rooster from a Grimm's fairytale
The city of Bremen in Germany has had enough of too many stray cats, so city authorities have agreed to neuter the animals to curb cat population growth, reports the Guardian.
“The local cat shelter used to look after around 120 cats at any one time. Now it has 378 on its books and fears that number will soon reach 500. In addition, at least 1,000 stray cats roam the streets, chasing birds and, it is feared, spreading disease.”
Update 18:05 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland in 2010 exported CHF640.5 million in “war materials” to 69 countries, down 12 percent from the previous year (CHF727.7m), compared to overall Swiss export, which rose by 8 percent, Bern announced Tuesday 22 February.
Arms exports accounted last year for less than half a percent of the country’s exports, 0.32 percent but with governments in several Arab nations using arms against their own citizens, observers in Switzerland are likely to look more closely this year at the details of Swiss arms exports.
Bern is putting the accent on transparency, pointing out that it remains high on the annual barometer for transparency established by the Small Arms Survey, which is attached to Geneva’s Graduate Institute. Small arms and light weapons account for only about CHF24 million of the total CHF640.5m arms exported by Switzerland last year, however. They fall under legislation covering arms and war materials.
Change in Swiss arms exports, 1983-2010 (source, Seco)
Top, Swiss arms exports in francs. Bottom, Swiss arms exports as a percentage of all exports. Source: Seco (click on image to view larger)
Air defense system sold to Saudi Arabia in 2006 covered 2010 delivery
One of the largest arms exports in 2010 was to Saudi Arabia, a partial delivery of an air defense system worth CHF132.6, which Bern is quick to point out was authorized in 2006.
The Guardian has broken the cover on Curveball, the Iraq engineer who defected to Germany in 1995, providing its secret service, the BND, with stories of biological weapons in Iraq in 2000. Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi’s tales, now unmasked as fabrications in a series of interviews with the British newspaper, were cited by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a historic speech to the United Nations 3 February 2003. Powell used the information, shared by the German government against al-Janabi’s wishes, to justify US military interventon in Iraq. Al-Janabi says he does not regret making up the stories because his actions contributed to the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Links to other sites: AFP, Jerusalem Post, NowPublic, Mirror, UK, Reuters
Police have hotline for the many people affected, open 07:30-19:00, at +41 31 634 34 34
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Mr X, whose names will not be released under strict Swiss privacy laws, sexually abused at least 114 persons during the 29 years he worked in nine institutions and residential homes for the mentally and/or physically handicapped, in Switzerland and Germany.
The 54-year-old man, who worked as an assistant in homes, was arrested in April. He has admitted to abusing 114 adults and children.
Another eight cases are being considered by police as attempted abuse. The case is referred to by canton Bern authorities as “unprecedented” and a team of 100 people have been assigned to the case, from investigators to counselors for the victims and their families.
Switzerland has more than 22,000 residents of homes for the handicapped, and another 20,000 people have daycare places in residential homes, of which there are 554.
Abuse occurred mainly at night or when providing intimate care
Most of the abuse occurred during the night, according to police, or when the worker, who has cooperated with investigators, was providing intimate physical care for his victims, who were mostly young men.
The abuse, say police, involved “touching the private parts of his victims. Sexual relations took place several times as well as anal touching. The abuse was sometimes carried out on the same victim several times during one day. In order to avoid anyone suspecting what he was doing the man often had a change of clothes with him. In 18 cases, he took photographs and made films. The inquiry has not turned up any evidence that any of the material was posted on the Internet.”
Police in canton Bern called a press conference Tuesday 1 February to make public the information.
The case came to light when two men, adults living in care homes, told their parents they had had sexual relations with a member of the staff. The parents took the matter up with the administrators of the home, who contacted the police.
The man was arrested at his home in canton Bern, but the investigation began in Aargau, where he worked.
Old case to be re-opened, with another assistant jailed in 2003
The case was kept quiet by police to allow them to investigate the case, which posed special problems because many of the possible victims do not speak. The man had been investigated earlier, in 2003, for a likely case of sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl, but there were doubts about the reliability of her testimony. She had accused the man now under arrest, but another assistant fell under suspicion and was eventually sent to prison for sexually abusing the girl, who had limited speech.
Ten people were killed and 40 injured when a freight train and passenger train collided head on in eastern Germany late Saturday 30 January. The regional train was travelling at about 80 kph in freezing fog, near Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt at 21:30, when the crash occurred on a single-track line. Officials say they suspect human error, but the cause has not yet been clearly identified. The number of dead and injured has continued to climb during the day Sunday.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – An employee of Credit Suisse was jailed some time ago for suspicion of selling stolen data from his bank to German tax authorities, Tages Anzeiger reports.
According to TSR, which has picked up the story, a straw man, or intermediary, initially suspected and arrested in 2010, hung himself in his prison cell in Bern. Details remain sketchy, however, but it appears that the men were traced after a German lawyer accidentally included some information about them in correspondence with lawyers for customers of the bank whose names were on the CDs with the stolen data.
Zurich Airport
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government says it has started studying an increase in night flights to and from Zurich Airport after the number suddenly rose in December, apparently mainly due to weather causing delayed flights.
The airport has had, since July 2010, one of Europe’s strictest sets of rules for night flights, which are banned from 23:00 to 06:00, with 30 minutes’ grace for delayed flights. The number of night flights dropped as a result of the newer rules, which cut the flying day by a half hour, until the December increase.
Switzerland and Germany have had tense discussions over Zurich’s flight patterns, and Switzerland is appealing a September 2010 European Union ruling that flights in and out of Zurich may not use a southern Germany air corridor.
More snow!
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s Christmas snow has begun to fall steadily, and up to 10cm are expected on the plain, with 20cm at higher altitudes, but early afternoon 24 December showed relatively few signs of the winter weather snarls neighbouring France and Germany are experiencing. Geneva’s Cointrin Airport recommends that travellers arrive at least two hours before departure for all flights, given that up to 56,000 passengers are expected on Sunday, with traffic building up from the 20,000 travellers handled by the airport on a normal day.
Flights, trains and road traffic in France are all snarled by fresh snow on Christmas Eve day, throughout the country, with repercussions in neighbouring countries. Flights from Paris to Switzerland in the early afternoon were cancelled, although some later flights are still displayed as operating. Train stations are expected to handle some two million people over the Christmas weekend, with 800,000 Friday 24 December alone. Areas along the eastern borders with Germany and Switzerland as well as mountain regions further south are on orange alert for icy, snowy roads. Traffic at noon Friday was disrupted particularly in the Calais area and Charles-de-Gaulles Roissy
German train service was disrupted between Berlin and Hannover for several hours late Thursday when lines were iced over, stopping five intercity trains for five hours. Rail delays are expected to continue throughout Friday. Germany has also seen several highway accidents due to ice, with North Rhine Westphalia recording 1,734 accidents in 24 hours, according to The Local, Germany. A 24km tailback was formed, heading into Munich, after a spectacular pileup that involved 51 vehicles on the A9 motorway.
Belgium is also experiencing traffic problems due to snow, with flights from Brussels airport delayed and in some cases cancelled.
Roads in the UK are mostly cleared, according to the Guardian, allowing motorists a chance to get away for Chistmas, but it points to a reminder from the Automobile Association that stopping takes 10 times longer on icy, snowy roads than under normal conditions, so leave plenty of space between cars.
Links to other sites: Geneva Airport departures and arrivals, Guardian, UK, Le Monde (Fre), The Local (Ger), TSR (Fre)
Gov’t opens for consultation proposed changes to law for “too big to fail banks”
Geneva lawyer, professor to head board of Swiss financial regulator
Anne Heritier Lachat will chair Finma board in 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council said early Wednesday afternoon 22 December that it will carry out its mandate for tax talks with Germany and the United Kingdom, following consultations with parliamentary commissions and the cantons. Switzerland in October 2010 signed agreements with the other two countries to open talks, which are now scheduled to begin in early 2011. “The goal with Germany and the UK will be to achieve regularization of previously undeclared assets as well as a final withholding tax for future income. In return, Switzerland should gain better market access for financial services, in particular,” the council said in an e-mailed statement.
The key points for the negotiations are considered confidential and will not be published, according to Bern.
The talks will be led for the Swiss by State Secretary Michael Ambühl, head of the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF).
New “too big to fail” laws could come into force by 2012
Germany says it has strong evidence of alleged Islamist militants were planning attacks in the next two weeks.
Authorities ordered security at potential targets such as train stations and airports to be tightened.
Germany has long viewed itself as a potential target because it has nearly 5,000 military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent of the 150,000-strong international force fighting the Taliban-led insurgency.
Additional details: Euronews, Al Jazeera English
