WikiLeaks founder to appear in Westminster to answer sex charges from Sweden
London, England (GenevaLunch) - Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, has been arrested in London, after turning himself into a police for a 09:30 appointment Tuesday morning 7 December. Assange has been in hiding since he was in Geneva in early November, after Swedish police announced they were looking for him in relation to the charges, brought by two women. He is expected to appear before a judge in Westminster later, but the process of deciding if there are grounds to extradite him could take months, British media report.
International sports, tennis
O2 Arena, London, England (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer rounded off one of his best weeks of tennis for some years with a masterful win over his Spanish rival, and current ATP number one, Rafael Nadal, in the end-of-season ATP World Masters series in London 28 November. The Swiss player won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to follow up his 6-1, 6-4 crushing of Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Rafa Nadal had a much harder time before edging out Andy Murray 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. Federer dominated the first set with immaculate serving, driving forehands and unusually aggressive whipped backhand shots. He dipped slightly in the second set but quickly took command in the final set as Nadal appeared to run out of energy and ideas.
International sports, tennis
O2 Arena, London (GenevaLunch) - Andy Murray looked in excellent form as he swept past Robin Soderling 6-2 6-4 in their round-robin match on the opening day of the end of season ATP World Tour Finals 21 November. Roger Federer also made short work of his match with David Ferrer, winning 6-1 6-4. The winners will meet Tuesday.
Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir al Saud, 34, a grandson of the ruler of Saudi Arabia has been found guilty of murdering his valet in a luxury London hotel, after only 90 minutes of deliberation by the jury at London’s Old Baily court, 19 October. He faces a life sentence in prison. He bit and and strangled his assistant to death in February after a night out celebrating Valentine’s Day. The prince had previously been caught on CCTV mistreating his assistant, who the court said was the victim of a sadistic campaign of abuse.
Al Saud was not covered by diplomatic immunity, and faces the death penalty in his home country for his homosexuality, which is a capital offense in Saudi Arabia. His defense team attempted to keep evidence of his homosexuality from being read out in court.
Exceptional catastrophic events play role in halving profits
Lloyd’s of London, the fabled insurers, saw profit cut in half in the first six months of 2010, to £628 million for the half-year period ending 30 June 2010. “The result reflects a period of significant claims and extremely challenging investment conditions,” the company’s director, Lord Levene said in a statement, adding that “The first six months of 2010 were the costliest on record since we began interim reporting, testing not only Lloyd’s but insurers around the globe. While events such as the Chilean earthquake and the Deepwater Horizon loss have proved challenging, paying these claims and supporting our policy holders is what we are here to do.”
Commuters in London faced hell as Underground workers went on strike Tuesday 7 September and closed down most of the Tube. The buses were filled.
In France public sector workers went on strike to protest the government’s plans for raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. Commuters were hit the most as trains were cancelled and flights into and out of Paris were sharply reduced.
French trade unions hope to mobilize up to 2 million people in demonstrations around the country against the proposed new pension law, which the French National Assembly begins to debate today. The strike lasts until Tuesday night, 7 September.
Easyjet at Cointrin airport, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Easy Jet is hoping to reproduce its success with London-Tel Aviv flights when it begins operating Geneva-Tel Aviv Monday 30 August, with the first low-cost flights between the two countries. The company began its UK-Israel flights in January and has since flown 100,000 passengers. In October it will increase flights from six to seven days a week between London and Tel Aviv.
International sports, football
Stade de Suisse, Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - The Bern Young Boys looked like they were going to thrash Tottenham Hotspurs but had to settle for a narrow win on points. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp called the result “a great defeat” as the north London team came back from 3-0 down to lose 3-2.
Young Boys attackers repeatedly carved through the static Spurs defense, hitting the post before scoring three goals, by Lulic, Bienvenu and Hochstrasser, in the first half hour. Spurs gradually adapted to the artificial surface which is not suited to the muscular English style, and were rewarded with a goal by Bassong before half time. In the second half Young Boys wasted a number of chances before Pavlyuchenko struck a vital second goal for Spurs. The London team needs only a 1-0 victory in the return match at White Hart Lane to move to the group stage, where the financial rewards increase rapidly.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in London, United Kingdom for a five-day visit Wednesday 4 August. Following comments by UK Prime Minister David Cameron concerning Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism, Pakistani officials pressed Zardari to cancel the visit. Cameron has invited Zardari to a private dinner to explain his remarks.
The president is facing increasing criticism at home as more than 1,400 people have died in the worst flooding to have struck northwest Pakistan in decades, leaving three million displaced and 1.8m people in serious need of food aid in the coming weeks.
Also, in the southern port of Karachi, the death toll has risen to above 70 people killed in violence following the murder of a local politician. Commentators note that the Pakistani government response has been poor.
Links to other sites: Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, Reuters, The News International
Le Repas Frugal print for sale in London
A collection of 57 prints, including three by Pablo Picasso, will be up for sale in London in September.
The Spanish painter’s works, to be auctioned off at Sotheby’s, are expected to bring over £2.5 million ( CHF4 million).
Heading the sale are three very important Picasso works expected to fetch over CHF2 million alone: The Frugal Repast (Le Repas Frugal) from his Blue Period, The Weeping Woman (La Femme qui Pleure) from 1937, and The Minotauromachy (La Minotauromachie) considered to be the artist’s masterpiece of printmaking.
In early May Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” sold for a record $106.5 million (CHF122 million).
UK report shows London bankers earn twice as much – even after new 50% tax
London, where bank salaries are comfortably higher than in Geneva, Zurich
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s two big banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, have just found a new friend in the form of a report by UK-based international financial recruitment firm Selby Jennings. The report argues that fears bankers will leave London for Geneva and Zurich are “overblown”, with London’s top bank managers making twice as much as their Swiss counterparts after taxes, and that includes the new 50 percent tax on salaries over £150,000.
UBS and Credit Suisse at the time of the annual general meetings in April countered charges that they are still paying salaries which are too high by insisting they must, in order to remain competitive.
The Selby Jennings report indicates that middle management bankers are earning 15-20 percent more in London, after taxes, than those in Zurich and Geneva.
The study was summarized in the 17 May edition of the Financial Times, which cites Swiss accountants Revitrag Treuhand as saying that top bankers in Switzerland are likely to pay 41 percent of their salaries in tax.
BA wins injunction against cabin crew strike
Update 2 19:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick were cancelled early Monday, but the two airports later re-opened, as did several others in the UK and Ireland. The airspace situation throughout the British Isles has been changeable since Sunday thanks to the latest volcanic ash cloud, which has now moved towards the continent. Swiss authorities said Monday afternoon that although the cloud will reach Switzerland by Tuesday it is not dense enough to force them to close Swiss airspace.
Pilots are still obliged to visually check for ash particles and airlines must continue nightly checks for ash damage, as part of Switzerland’s standby measures.
BA cabin crew in the UK said they would be striking between 18 May and 9 June but late Monday evening a British court ruled in favour of BA and issued an injunction to stop the strike, saying the unions had not sent out letters by mail to everyone.
Background, GenevaLunch
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Flights from Switzerland to western and northern parts of the UK, as well as Dublin in Ireland, risk being delayed or canceled, with many of the airports closed due to a volcanic ash cloud. Easyjet’s 21:50 flight to Liverpool Sunday night was canceled. London’s airports remain open for the time being, but are under threat as the cloud moves south late Sunday. Dublin airport closed early in the evening and will remain shut until at least noon Monday 17 May.
Geneva Airport recommends checking directly with the airlines for latest information.
The charts issued by the UK Met office show that the cloud is predicted to move towards the continent during the morning – but not at levels that would disrupt air travel.
Links to other sites: BBC, Irish Times, Met UK
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Airports in the UK were reopened at 22:00 (9pm) Tuesday 20 April. Long-haul flights are landing at Heathrow in London, which will begin to significantly ease pressure on other airports, as planes are allowed to return to or pass through one of Europe’s busiest hubs. Heathrow was nevertheless warning travelers not to head for the airport without first checking with their airlines, since flights will be reinstated gradually.
Geneva airport, few takers for the trolleys this week
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva airport flights began to take off and arrive Tuesday, but the majority of flights have not yet been reinstated. Airport officials are asking travelers not to go to the airport unless they have confirmed flights, and in any event to check the online timetable.
Flights arrived during the day from Palma de Mallorca, Athens and Zurich. They left for Vienna and Brussels, but flights to Marseilles and London have been canceled.
British airspace was partially opened Tuesday, but only briefly, with officials scrapping a plan to open the rest when a second cloud of volcanic ash began to arrive.
Links to other sites: Met Office, UK, Times, UK
Surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London have nearly completed a marathon 20-hour surgery to separate Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf of East Cork, Ireland, born in December as conjoined twins. Their parents were told before the birth the two boys might share a heart, but they do not in fact share any major organs.
Links to other sites: Belfast Telegraph, Reuters video
Cambridge, the winners . . . (BBC TV coverage)
. . . and Oxford, the losers (BBC TV coverage)
The Thames, London (Geneva Lunch) - The 156th Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge ended in a surprise victory for the light blues of Cambridge. Cambridge have now won 80 to 75 for Oxford. Oxford won the previous two races and looked like they would make it three as they led by almost a boat length but the Cambridge boat clawed back and took the lead going into the last mile.
The teams are multi-national, including four Canadians, but the celebrity stars are two twins from Harvard, now rowing for Oxford.
The Winklevoss brothers, Cameron and Tyler, recently gained an estimated $65 million settlement from Facebook after they alleged that Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook, had used their idea. The twins also represented the United States at the Beijing Olympics. They were not able to earn a victory for the dark blues in one of the oldest sporting contests in the world.
Links to other sites: BBC, which provided live coverage, The Times,Telegraph
Geneva's Cointrin International Airport, departure lounge
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The spring schedule for Cointrin Airport in Geneva went into effect Sunday 28 March with several companies adding flights and two near airlines coming to Geneva. Ukraine Int’l offers three flights a week to Kiev, a new destination for Geneva. And Twin Jet has 10 flights a week to Milan’s Malpensa Airport.
Among the destinations added or increased:
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
