Swiss pioneering plane hosted by Morocco as construction begins on world’s largest thermo-solar power plant
Andre Borschberg climbs out of tiny cockpit after more than 17 hours at the controls of Solar Impulse (photo©2012 Solar Impulse / Jean Revillard)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – André Borschberg flew Solar Impulse for 17h 3min 59s Thursday 24 May, to land the experimental solar plane at Madrid’s Barajas airport. He flew from the Payerne aerodrome in Switzerland over the Massif Central towards the city of Toulouse in France, then over the Pyrenees at an altitude of 7,833 metres.
Borschberg called the flight “extraordinary”, noting that “it was incredible to fly alongside the barrier of clouds during most of the flight and not need to hesitate to fly above them. This confirms our confidence in the capacity of solar energy even further.”
His partner Bertrand Piccard will pilot the second leg of the flight, to Rabat in Morocco, after a three-day technical layover in Madrid. The Spanish stop was also a key part of planning for the plane to handle landings in major airports, crucial to planning Solar Impulse’s 2014 round-the-world flight using only solar power.
The team is being hosted in Morocco by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), which is responsible for Morocco’s solar energy plan. The team says in a statement Friday:
“Solar Impulse’s presence in Morocco is meant to participate in Masen’s commencement of construction activities, in the Ouarzazate region, of the solar complex which will hold the world’s largest thermo-solar power plant. Of a capacity of 160 MW, the plant is part of Morocco’s energy plan whose goal is to build, by 2020, five solar parks with the capacity of 2000 megawatts, reducing CO2 emission of 3,7 million tons. Solar Impulse supports this pioneering project which is in line with its own message and its philosophy of renewable energies.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 17th-century Stradivarius cello housed at the Royal Palace of Madrid has been broken but “will be repaired” said an unnamed Spanish National Heritage official who did not confirm when the accident took place. The news were first reported by El País, Spain’s largest daily a couple of days ago.
The cello is part of the only string quartet in the world -two violins, a viola and a cello- entirely made by Antonio Stradivari. The group is known as “the Quartet.”
What makes this accident so significant is that the set of musical instruments was requested directly by the Spanish court to Stradivari in 1694, making it, unique.
According to the Spanish newspaper El País, the quartet “was built by Stradivari as if it were a single instrument. So when the four sound together, it’s as if twenty played in unison.”
The Royal Palace and the National Heritage office have not said how much the Spanish cello is worth, however, the Associated Press reports that the head of the musical instrument department at Sotheby’s auction house in London said he believed it to be worth €15.4 million, or CHF18.4, at today’s exchange rate.
While many versions are circulating on how the accident happened, and what the extent of the damage is, the official version from the Palace is that it “broke” and it “will be fixed”.
Many Spaniards are up in arms as the costs of repairing the instrument will fall on taxpayers; an instrument of such high value, has the backing warranty of the State.
Links to other sites: Associated Press, El País (Spa)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Bolivian president Evo Morales announced the expropriation of Spanish power firm Red Eléctrica Española’s shares in that country during a televised celebration Tuesday to commemorate International Workers’ Day.
Morales justified the move by saying that the company, which operates under the name Transportada de Electricidad (TDE) in Bolivia, had not invested enough in the country. Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos expressed concern that the move may deter investment, but said that Bolivia had agreed to some compensation.
REE, which owned and operated 85 percent of the country’s electrical power lines, bought 99.94 percent of TDE in 2002, leaving the remaining 0.06 percent to Bolivian employees.
The announcement, made at the May Day celebrations in Cochabamba near to the company’s national headquarters, comes just a week after neighboring Argentina announced the expropriation of YPF from its Spanish parent company Repsol.
Links to other sources: BBC, Mercopress, Wall Street Journal
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Standard & Poor’s dropped Spain’s credit rating by two notches to BBB-plus on expectations that the country’s finances will continue to retract due to a prolonged recession and an ailing banking sector.
European stock markets opened lower on Friday morning 27 April following the US rating agency’s announcement that it expects the Spanish economy to keep shrinking into next year.
S&P further warned that the situation could worsen without the measures now being taken at the European level. It said Spain’s outlook could “deteriorate further than we anticipated earlier this year unless offsetting eurozone policy measures are implemented to support investor confidence and stabilize capital flows with the rest of the world”.
Links to other sources: El Pais, The Telegraph, Reuters
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A Spanish judge investigating a corruption case involving the king of Spain’s son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarín, 10 April ordered the freezing of Swiss bank accounts used for “opaque payments”. The case, which has gripped Spain for weeks, flared up again with the announcement. But a spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Justice Office, which handles foreign requests to block accounts, told GenevaLunch 12 April that the office “has no knowledge of a request for judicial assistance in this case”.
A foreigner’s bank account in Switzerland cannot be blocked except by order of the Swiss government after it receives a request from foreign government authorities or in some cases, such as the fall of dictators, the Federal Council will act on its own.
Urdangarín, a former Olympic handball player married to the king’s daughter, Cristina, has been accused of siphoning euros 5.8 million of public funds intended for the Noos Institute, a Spanish non-profit foundation, which he headed between 2004 and 2006. The institute sponsored sports and tourism congresses with the regional financial backing of Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
Swiss accounts resurface during testimony
The Duke of Palma, as he is also known, was jeered at as he entered court in February, the Guardian reported at the time. The lengthy interrogation that followed turned up an Irish fiduciary, Alternative General Services Ltd, that was allegedly involved in transferring payments.
Britain, France, Germany, Italy Spain: US citizens’ bank data in exchange for US reporting some of their citizens’ bank accounts
Overseas Americans already caught in crosshairs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A proposed deal that is being hailed by the six countries involved as a step forward in their fight against international tax evasion ironically borrows from a Swiss solution proposed as part of new double taxation treaties. In both cases data on foreign citizens is not turned over directly to the other government by financial institutions. Instead, the banks would hand data on foreign clients to their own governments, which would pass it on.
The US and EU-5 proposal comes as Swiss and US negotiators grapple with differing interpretations of a pending a new tax treaty. Strict Swiss data protection laws have been a sticking point. The Swiss have insisted they will not accept “fishing expeditions” but will accept bulk requests where tax fraud or evasion is shown to be likely.
Switzerland proposed for its recently negotiated double taxation treaties with Germany and the UK that Swiss banks collect withholding taxes that the Swiss government will then pay to these countries. Their citizens can elect to declare the assets and get the withholding tax back or cede it to their governments if they do not want to declare their accounts.
The news of the six nation proposal came at the same time 8 February as the publication of 355 pages of regulations for Fatca, new US legislation designed to fight tax evasion.
EC applauds government to government approach
Europolitics reports that the European Commission was happy with the news.
“The European Commission issued a statement applauding these arrangements: ‘Thanks to this intergovernmental approach – the only one conceivable for now because it is rapid – to the exchange of tax information, the extra administrative costs, compliance costs and legal impediments (related to data protection) that financial institutions in the EU would have experienced will be considerably reduced’. The financial sector itself has estimated at US$100 million the extra costs for a multinational European bank as a result of implementation of the new legislation.
“For the Commission, which opened the debate on FATCA with Washington in April 2011, any EU member state should now be able to adopt this government-to-government approach to information exchange by concluding ‘coordinated bilateral agreements’ with the United States. Washington is considering developing other partnerships with third countries.”
Automatic data handover part of the likely new deal, but reciprocal
The new agreement between the US and Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain would see financial data for all Americans automatically handed by these countries to the IRS, the US tax arm.
In return, the US would hand over data, too, but, in addition, the other countries’ financial institutions would benefit from being included in a group registration with the IRS. The result: complying with Fatca would be far less expensive.
The US argues the new arrangement would lower the cost of implementing Fatca—and that it will at the same time bring the other governments information about bank accounts held in the US by some of their own citizens, those with offshore accounts.
Significantly, too, “the Fatca partner [country] would not be required to terminate the account of a recalcitrant account holder”, an American who did not report account information to the IRS, according to the US Treasury.
The reporting requirements and burdens would not be the same: the US is asking for all US accounts to be reported because it is the only country besides Eritrea to tax its citizens on the basis of citizenship rather than residence. The five European countries would be given data only on their citizens who have US accounts but who are resident in the home country.
Ed. note: Eritrea was condemned in 2009 and again in December 2011 by United Nations Security Council resolution 2023, for destabilizing the Horn of Africa region. Eritrea is sanctioned in part for its diaspora tax, used for military purposes. The US voted in favour of the sanctions. The only other country, according to Wikipedia, that has a citizenship-based tax system as opposed to residence system, was the Philippines, but it changed to a residence system in 1995.
Fatca: data privacy concerns circumvented by reporting to banks’ own governments
Fatca, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, is a US law that went into effect in March 2010 but which is only gradually being implemented. It requires foreign financial institutions (FFI’s) to report to the US government US accounts, according to the US Treasury Department’s press release on the six-nation proposed agreement Wednesday 8 February.
Fatca’s implementation has been rescheduled several times and it has been the subject of much heated debate in the financial industry. The US Treasury Department in its press release concedes that Fatca “has raised a number of issues, including that FFIs established in these countries may not be able to comply with the reporting, withholding and account closure requirements because of legal restrictions.”
Data protection laws have been part of this debate in the UK, for example.
Questions have also been raised about the legitimacy of the American government writing laws that apply to non-US businesses, the FFIs, outside the US.
Fatca and Americans living outside the US: not tax evaders
US expatriates have voiced a number of concerns about Fatca, starting with its failure to distinguish between Americans in the US with offshore accounts and Americans who are resident, particularly long-term, overseas.
American Citizens Abroad (ACA), a Geneva-based international non-profit organization, in 2011 and after public debate in town hall meetings, called for the outright repeal of Fatca, saying it “destroys lives and the US economy”.
Growing number of Americans in Switzerland refused regular bank accounts
A Town Hall meeting of Americans in Geneva Wednesday 8 February called for a show of hands of those who have been turned down for a bank account in the past year: an estimated 50 percent said yes, and afterwards some people admitted privately they haven’t told their banks they are American for fear their accounts will be closed.
The US is currently investigating 11 Swiss banks for aiding wealthy Americans based in the US to evade taxes. More importantly, for Americans who live in Switzerland, Swiss banks, like those elsewhere, are preparing for Fatca, and US clients may be viewed as a liability.
ACA has been gathering growing evidence that US residents abroad, even if they file taxes, are being refused bank accounts and that financial institutions are beginning to divest themselves of US securities.
The New York Times in an article published 9 February says “Fatca has also been criticized by American expatriates because it imposes new reporting requirements. Some have said it makes Americans less attractive as clients for financial institutions, raising the cost of doing business overseas. Those criticisms were not addressed in the proposed rules.”
Tax evasion effort tacked onto jobs bill
Fatca was passed by the US Congress to little fanfare in 2010, tacked onto a much larger jobs bill called the Hire Act. President Barack Obama when he signed it, made reference to four of the five parts of the Hire Act, never mentioning the foreign tax compliance section. The IRS web page devoted to Hire initially failed to mention Fatca as well (Hire Act (pdf).
The US Treasury Department press release yesterday mentions that the five Fatca partners of the US would look at “certain accounts” as part of the agreement.
The law itself is more precise, stating that FFIs will be obliged “in the case of any United States account maintained by such institution, to report on an annual basis” several pieces of information:
“(A) The name, address, and TIN of each account holder
which is a specified United States person and, in the case of any account holder which is a United States owned foreign entity, the name, address, and TIN of each substantial United States owner of such entity.
(B) The account number.
(C) The account balance or value (determined at such time and in such manner as the Secretary may provide).
(D) Except to the extent provided by the Secretary, the gross receipts and gross withdrawals or payments from the account (determined for such period and in such manner as the Secretary may provide).”
It defines a US account: “In general.—The term ‘United States account’ means any financial account which is held by one or more
specified United States persons or United States owned foreign entities.” The exception is an individual whose aggregate accounts at one financial institution, including for example retirement accounts, are under CHF50,000 in a given year.
Max mating back in March 2011 - Photo ©H.Burgermeister
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Keep the woolens handy, for Max the stork is sitting tight in Catalonia and she isn’t in a hurry to come home.
Groundhog shadows may give us clues to the length of winter in some countries, but in Switzerland it’s Max the stork, banded and followed by the Fribourg Natural History Museum.
She began her migration north about a week ago, from central Spain, but she is now sitting in Catalonia without appearing ready to head up to a Switzerland that is far colder than usual.
Background, Max, GenevaLunch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Tuesday 27 December was the last day that descendents of those who fled Franco’s Spain and the 1936-39 civil war could claim Spanish passports, and in Latin America in particular, the lines were long. Some 66,000 Cubans have already received Spanish passports and another 180,000 may have qualified.
Links to other sites: BBC, Latin America Herald Tribune
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The impact of Europe’s economic woes hit home in Spain Sunday, with the right winning strongly in the country’s general election. Mariano Rajoy conservative People’s party won with a 16-percent lead over outgoing Prime Minister Zapatero’s Socialists, who lost one-third of their seats.
Spain’s unemployment stands at 23 percent and the economy, says the Guardian, is one of Europe’s “shakiest”. But Rajoy’s election leaves many questions, points out Le Monde in France, with few clues about his programme, who will work with him and more.
SPAIN – Spain’s justice minister, José Blanco, says the Basque pro-independence coalition, Amaiur, can participate in next month’s general elections as it has found no evidence of affiliation with terrorist separatist group ETA.
After 43 years, ETA announced last week it was giving up violence as a tool for achieving Basque independence.
Links to: Taiwan news online, Europapress (Spa)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Ratings agency Fitch says 14 October it has lowered the credit rating of Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, by one notch, from A+ to A, citing reduced backing by the Swiss government. The change was one of scores by Fitch, with several French and British banks also targeted. The agency notes that UBS no longer has stronger government support than Swiss competitor Credit Suisse, which has a AA- rating.
The Spanish government was also targeted, but by rating agency Standard & Poor’s, which dropped the country’s sovereign debt rating from AA to AA-, citing weak growth and in particular concerns over the country’s banks. Fitch had lowered Spain’s sovereign debt rating earlier in the week.
Some of the stolen property recovered by police in Vaud and Valais
CANTON VALAIS, SWITZERLAND – A gang of 16 that had stolen some CHF650,000 in goods from homes in Valais, with similar levels of theft in cantons Vaud and Fribourg, has been dismantled, Valais police say.
Three members of the band were caught in March near Ollon, canton Vaud, and police in the three cantons worked closely together to uncover the rest of the group.
Those arrested, ages 20 to 38, are from Spain, Ecuador and Chile.
They worked by breaking into homes and stealing mainly cash, jewelry and electronic equipment, valued at CHF650,000.
In addition to the amount of the thefts, several thousand francs in damage were reported to police.
Update 8 August, 07:30 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The European Central Bank late Sunday agreed to buy Spanish and Italian government bonds, Reuters reports late Sunday night 7 August, based on information from a “monetary source” and noting that the ECB will shortly issue a statement to that effect. “‘The Euro system will intervene very significantly on markets and respond in a significant and cohesive way,’” the source is quoted as saying. The move is designed to prevent the sovereign debt crisis, which has been aggravated by Friday’s downgrading of the US debt, from worsening the situation for Italy and Spain, two of the euro zone’s most exposed countries in the crisis.
Markets open Monday for the first time since the US credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s Friday 5 August. The euro jumped Monday morning as currency markets opened, following the late Sunday decision by the ECB.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Economist, Guardian, Financial Times, Reuters
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).
©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).
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne will welcome Spain’s King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sofia, Friday as part of a two-day state visit, the king’s first since 1979.
The lakeside city has special significance for the couple, in addition to being the place where they will meet with representatives of the 90,000-strong Spanish community.
Swissinfo reports that the king, when he was 24 years old and still 13 years away from the throne, proposed to Sofia in Lausanne, in 1962.
(GenevaLunch) – The town of Lorca, about 120km from Alicante in southeastern Spain, was struck by an usual earthquake Wednesday evening 11 May, that toppled buildings and killed at least 10 people, with some reports claiming 12 have died. Residents in the area spent the night outdoors with many buildings, including the hospital considered structurally unsafe, according to initial reports. The worst hit area was the main street of the town.
The 5.2 earthquake was only 1km deep and is reportedly the worst in more than 50 years. A dramatic moment was captured by Spanish TV crews as the old church tower from the town’s main church crashed to the ground next to them.
Links to other sites: BBC, El Pais, Sky News
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.”
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain was reopened in the afternoon of Tuesday 19 April after firefighters extinguished a fire started by a suspected arsonist on Tuesday morning. Four workers were transported to hospitals to be treated for smoke inhalation and 1,500 tourists were evacuated from the Unesco World Heritage Site.
Tuesday morning, two tourists saw smoke coming from the sacristy and alerted a worker to the fire. Another group of tourists and workers detained the suspected arsonist in the crypt until he was arrested, reports El País.
“[The suspect] appears to be a disturbed man of around 55 who was found with several lighters in his pocket,” says Joan Rigol, Sagrada Familia Foundation president.
The Gaudi masterpiece that attracts more than 2 million visitors every year to Spain’s second-largest city did not suffer any damage, but many furnishings on the inside were burned.
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.
Spain 2 January joins Britain, Italy and France in making its indoor cafes, bars and restaurants no-smoking areas, as part of a ban on smoking in all public enclosed spaces. The outcry by bar owners and smokers in a country where one-third of the population smokes has been loud, but the government points out that similar bans in other parts of Europe have not had the disastrous impact on business that was feared, in the long run.
Links to other sites: CNN, El Pais (Spa), GoSpain on About.com
Fifa named best for press facilities for 2010 World Cup by world sports journalists
Rafael Nadal wins US Open 2010 (photo, Ella Ling)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The AIPS (International Sports Press Association) has named Rafael Nadal the world’s top male athlete and Blanka Vlasic the top female, in its annual sports awards. Nadal, Spanish is the number one tennis player in the world and Vlasic, from Croatia, has won 18 of 20 high-jumping competitions in 2010, and she currently holds the world indoor and European titles.
The AIPS named Fifa, the world football federation, as the organization providing the best media facilities, at the 2010 football World Cup matches in South Africa. The IOC, International Olympic Committee, was second, for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. The AIPS and the IOC are both based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The International Monetary Fund gives the UK generally high marks in its appraisal of the government’s economic and fiscal recovery package, but warns that Britain’s banks are dangerously exposed to sovereign risks in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece. Saying that “economic revovery is underway in the UK”, the IMF also recognizes that UK’s banks performed relatively well in the European Central Bank’s stress tests this summer.
UK banks’ exposure to the more indebted and fragile European economies is similar to that of German or French banks in absolute terms, the IMF says in its report (p.78/79), but is much higher as a percentage of GDP, because the UK banking sector contributes much more to GDP than banks in either Germany or France. It notes that the four main British banks have sovereign exposure of £7.8 billion.
Links to other sites: Daily Telegraph, The Independent
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has announced a major reshuffle of his cabinet, dropping two ministries and naming a new foregn minister and a new deputy prime minister. The ruling Socialist party is trailing in the polls ahead of a general election next year, unemployment in Spain is at 20 percent and the country has been in recession since 2008.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba becomes the new deputy prime minister and keeps his portfolio. The current health minister, Trinidad Jimenez, goes to the foreign ministry, taking over from Miguel Angel Moratinos.
The government is trying to convince investors that it can reduce a public spending deficit of 9 percent of GDP, and reduce spending levels overall.
Links to other sites: Business Week, El Pais (Spa),Wall Street Journal
Max's 2010 winter migration path
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – That Swiss symbol of seasonal changes, Max the white stork, confirms what every parent of school children has suspected for the past two weeks: summer is really, truly over. Max has headed south in her annual winter migration.
Max is the world’s longest banded tracked stork, followed by the Natural History Museum of Fribourg for 10 years.
She suddenly left her summer home near the Swiss-German border 8 September and headed southwest across France to Spain. She arrived in Madrid 14 September, Tuesday, where she has been relaxing since.
All bird-watching eyes are now on Max to see if she opts for a winter in Spain or if she decides to head to yet warmer temperatures in Morocco, as she has done some years.
Max is a cover girl this month, featuring on the front of the Swiss bird magazine Nos Oiseaux.
Don’t book your low-cost cold weather flights yet. Max may yet give us more clues about the best places to winter.
Sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Location: UN Geneva
Link out: http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/calendar.nsf/%2…
Start date: 6 Sep 2010
End date: 24 Sep 2010
International sports, golf
Miguel Angel Jimenez, winner Crans-Montana European Masters golf tournament
Crans-Montana, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain won the European Masters gold tournament held high in the Swiss Alps 2-5 September, finishing strongly with two birdies over his closing four holes for a three-under-par 68. Italian Edoardo Molinari was second. The final round of play Sunday, under blue skies and cool balmy weather, gave the 46-year-old Jiminez his 18th career title, 11 of which have been won since he turned 40, reports AFP. The next generation of stars held its own, with 17-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero coming third and 19-year-old South Korean Noh Seung-yul in fourth place.
A record crowd of 52,000 attended the event, according to the organizers.
Link to European Masters Crans-Montana
The Catalan Parliament in Spain Wednesday morning voted to abolish bullfighting, that most traditional of Spanish art forms, entertainment, sports or butchery, the label depending on your point of view on a subject that has left few Spaniards indifferent. The parliament voted initially in favour of a ban in 2009, but to take effect a second vote this year was required. Catalonia thus becomes the first mainland Spanish region to abolish las corridas (bullfighting), although the fiestas to which they are sometimes linked will continue.
The vote was 66-55, with nine abstentions. The Canary Islands was the first Spanish region to vote against bullfighting, in 1991.
Links to other sites: Times, UK on 2009 initial vote, AFP/Swedishwire
