A fire that broke out at 04:30 Thursday morning on Tabernacle Street in Shoreditch, in central London, required 100 firefighters and at one point up to 20 fire trucks before it was brought under control at 11:30. The London Fire Brigade says that fire crews will remain on the scene for the day. The fire broke out in a building that houses a restaurant/bar and offices, and it severely damaged the third floor and roof, as well as causing damage to the other floors.
SCNF has special site, phone line for French trains affected
Bern, Switzerland and Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Rail traffic between France and Belgium has stopped and rail authorities say the interruption could last all day Monday 15 February, following a violent head-on collision of two trains south of Brussels. The Eurostar and Thalys are particularly affected.
The accident killed more than 20 people and there appear to be many serious injuries, but authorities have not yet provided official figures. The crash occurred around 08:30 Monday morning during rush hour, with the two trains were filled with commuters.
Giacometti's Walking man I. © 2010 Sotheby's
Update 20:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti has been sold for £65 million to an anonymous bidder by telephone at London’s Sotheby’s auction house. The life-sized sculpture “L’homme qui marche I” (Walking man I) was sold 3 February for five times the amount the auction house expected and becomes the most expensive work of art sold at an auction, just beating a Picasso sold in 2004.
The numbered sculpure was cast in 1960 in Paris and belonged to Dresdner Bank.
Geneva’s Musée Rath is holding a Giacometti retrospective until 21 February.
Credit is easing and property prices are starting to move up in the UK, two of the factors that have led PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute report to name London as investors’ most popular choice for new real estate developmen in Europe. The city moved up several slots on the international scale, a sign of renewed investor faith in both the market overall and the UK’s improved situation.
Links to other sites: PWC and Urban Land report, Reuters
Two boys, Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, who were born conjoined, left the hospital in Cork, Ireland, to go home to their family, parents Angie and Azzedine and their two older children. The seven-week-old boys, who are joined at the chest, but who do not share any vital organs, are in good health. They will travel to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital to be surgically separated in a few months, reports the Irish Times, which carries a photo released by the family.
London investment firms are doubling the salaries they are offering in many cases in order to hire back people they lost to the investment boutique business, when some 49,000 jobs were lost, reports Bloomberg. The higher salaries are designed to offset the fall in bonuses, which have come under attack in recent months.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Financial Times, London Evening Standard
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s woes with Libya continue this week, with Tripoli postponing the trials of two Swiss businessmen. The two are to stand trial for visa and tax irregularities, Libya has said. They were arrested shortly after the arrest in Geneva in July 2008 of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of the country’s leader. Libya in early January issued a list of reasons why the son should not have been arrested; it continues to argue, as it did in 2008, that he should have received diplomatic immunity.
The son is reported 6 January by Swiss media to have hosted singer Beyoncé for New Year’s Eve festivities at the Nikki Beach Club in Saint-Barthélemy, the Antilles, a week after he avoided police charges in Britain.
The threatened British Air cabin crew strike over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season appears less certain, with the airline saying Wednesday 15 December that it plans to contest the strike vote in court. BA’s argument is that some of those who voted are no longer employed by the airline. The company is meanwhile working out staffing plans should the strike go ahead.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Some of the most famous clothes from the haute couture wardrobe of actress Audrey Hepburn were sold for £270,000 at an auction in London Tuesday 8 December. Hepburn, who died and was buried in 1992 in Tolochenaz, Vaud, in Switzerland, where she spent much of her adult life, was one of the first Unicef Goodwill ambassadors. Half the money will go to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund and Unicef for their joint venture, “All Children in School” Unicef education project.
The clothes, sold by Kerry Taylor auctions, were from 1953 to the late 1960s.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Nicolay Davydenko defeated Roger Federer 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 at the ATP World Finals in London, outpowering him in the first set and outlasting him overall. Davydenko played extremely well and now awaits the winner of the Saturday evening match between Robin Soderling and Juan Martin del Potro for the finals in an end of season tournament that has seen the world’s top players seem to run out of steam.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Sports Illustrated
Federer inches closer to another Sampras record
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer neatly defeated Scotland’s Andy Murray in three sets, 3-6 6-3 6-1 at the ATP World Tour in London’s o2 arena. The Swiss player thus ensures that he will keep his ranking as the world’s top player for the rest of 2009. He finishes the year at the ATP World Tour Champion: “With five year-end number 1 finishes, Federer ties Jimmy Connors’ mark and now stands just one back of Pete Sampras on the list of all-time ATP World Tour Champions. Sampras finished as the No. 1 player six straight years, from 1993-98,” the tennis association notes on its site.
Federer held the top slot in world tennis for 237 straight weeks from 2 February 2004 to 17 August 2008.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Rafael Nadal’s chances of pushing Roger Federer out of the number one slot in tennis faded Monday night when he lost to Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-4 in the ATP World Tour, in the first match of a round robin. Soderling had handed Nadal his first loss on clay at the French Open in Paris in May 2009. Monday’s game had Nadal running all over the court, and after the game Nadal said he hadn’t really had the “necessary calm” to stay on top.
Links to other sites: AP, ATP official site, Guardian
Lords, a name that in the world of cricket means something akin to the holy ground, as the sport’s “most famous ground” according to the Times, UK, is considering selling its name. It becomes the latest major traditional sport venue in Britain to consider selling naming rights to a major sponsor. Wembley Stadium and Twickenham considering doing the same, in rugby. Lords cricket grounds are part of a major redevelopment project in London, England.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The latest UK company to move hedge fund managers to Geneva is Blue Crest, Europe’s third largest hedge fund group, in a move that the Financial Times suggests heralds “a trend for part-relocations.” The company is moving 50 of its managers to Geneva, out of a head office staff of some 300. Blue Crest was created in 2000 and is worth $15.5 billion today.
The company plans to move staff at a time when the European Union is considering a pay cap for alternative investment managers; Switzerland has many bilateral agreements with the European Union but is not a member.
Blink has 7 air taxis
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The airline industry may be hurting from the gloomy economic situation, but business travelers continue to take to the air, and as of Monday 21 September they will have a new option in Geneva: Blink air taxis. Blink, a company which has been operating from London since June 2008, is extending its service to continental Europe, with Geneva as its first base. Passengers can order service to locations throughout Europe.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – EPFL, the federal polytechnical school in Lausanne, estimates it will receive €40 million in grant money awarded to researchers by the European Research Council (ERC) a grant-making body for frontier research funded by the European Commission. EPFL researchers lead other institutions Europe-wide in the number of grants received.
Tower Office, head of the BIS in Basel, Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Central bank heads from 27 leading countries meeting in Basel agreed Sunday to follow recommendations made Saturday 5 September by finance officials, who met in London, to impose tougher capital requirements on banks. The new measures are designed to avoid a repeat of the collapse of much of the global banking system at the end of 2008.
The Oval, London (GenevaLunch) – England managed to avoid their tendency of seizing defeat from the jaws of victory by beating Australia by 197 runs in the deciding Test at the Oval to win the Ashes.
The Oval, London (GenevaLunch) - England are the firm favourites to win the final Test and regain the Ashes. They batted steadily, with the innings held together by South African-born captain Andrew Strauss and South African-born debut batsman Jonathan Trott, filling in for the injured South African born Kevin Pietersen.
The Oval, London, England (GenevaLunch) – England were in control at the end of an incredible second day of the final Test of the Ashes series in which 15 wickets fell. They started the day on 307 for 8 and extended the score to 332, which looked a little below par at the time. Australia then made a solid start, reaching a somewhat fortunate 61 without loss despite the deteriorating wicket, which is being criticized in the Australian media.
The Oval, London, England (GenevaLunch) – The Ashes reaches its climax this weekend with the series balanced at 1-1 going into the final Test at the Oval. The Australian selection is unchanged from the team that crushed England at Headingley. England replaced out of form batsman Ravi Bopara with Trott. Fast bowler Steve Harmison is fortunate to have been chosen ahead of Graham Onions.
Andrew Strauss won the toss and chose to bat on what looked like a good pitch but England soon lost opener Alistair Cook.
Police in London, UK arrested two men 19 August in connection with the 6 August robbery at Graff Jewelry in New Bond Street in which £40 million worth of jewelry was stolen. The police are studying closed circuit tv footage and DNA samples taken from two cars and a motorcycle discarded after the robbery, as well as makeup and dyes used to alter their appearance. In what was Britain’s biggest jewelry robbery, the police have offered a reward of £1 million for information. BBC, The Times
Two suspects, wanted by police for New Bond St jewelry theft
The second-largest jewelry theft in Britain, with some £40 million worth stolen, Scotland Yard estimates, took place early 6 August at 16:40 in London, at Graff jewelers in New Bond Street. Metropolitan police have now released a CCTV shot of two men they would like to question, as well as some of the pieces of jewelry stolen.
Police say the heist was well organized, with the two well-dressed men changing getaway cars several times. They dragged a female employee out of the shop and onto the street, then fired a shot, and they fired a second shot in busy Dover Street shortly after; the woman was unharmed but police warn that the men are extremely dangerous.
The largest theft was in 2006, when thieves stole £56 million from a Securitas depot in Kent, in southern England, reports the BBC, while the Telegraph says it is the largest-ever gems theft.
Stolen items included a diamond necklace, diamond ring and watch:
Wembley, London, England (GenevaLunch) – Chelsea gave their new manager Carlo Ancelloti his first trophy when they beat Manchester United 4-1 on penalties after the game ended at 2-2. The Community Shield features the winners of the Premier League and the FA Cup and is the traditional opening of the new football season.
Manchester scored first, when Nani drove the ball past Cech in the 10th minute.
Headingley, Leeds, England (GenevaLunch) – England nearly achieved the unusual feat of losing a Test match in two days as they were comprehensively outplayed by Australia. The Aussies bowled out England for 102 and then scored 445 themselves, with Marcus North getting 110 runs. The England openers reached 58 before the loss of Andrew Strauss but then managed to fold to 78 for 5, with Ravi Bopara falling first ball, Ian Bell falling for three and Paul Collingwood for four.
