Calmy-Rey, fifth from left in front row, meeting with the foreign press association committee in May 2011, has headed Swiss foreign affairs since 2003 (GL editor Ellen Wallace, 3rd from left)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss president for 2011 and long-time foreign affairs minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, is expected to tell the Federal Council today that she is stepping down from the government. The regular meeting of the council this morning will be followed by a news conference.
Calmy-Rey, 66, is in her second term as president, a one-year post that rotates among the seven members of the Federal Council. The French-speaking Socialist from Geneva joined the council in 2002 and has headed the foreign affairs department since 2003. Her departure, to be announced before the October parliamentary elections that are held every four years, will require a cabinet shuffle at a time when Switzerland’s relations with the US are taut over banking secrecy but are generally in better shape with the country’s European neighbours than they have been in recent years.
She was heavily involved in Geneva politics before taking up her posts in Ber; the president was born in Sion, canton Valais.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND
The A1 autoroute between Lausanne and Yverdon will be closed today, 10 August at least until 10h following an accident.
Rainbow 19 June near Chamoson, canton Valais: expect some showers or cloudiness at the start of the weekend, then sun and warm weather Sunday
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Lake Geneva region and canton Valais can expect a bit of mixed weather late Friday and Saturday, with temperatures in the 11-23C range. Bring out the sun cream for Sunday, though, when temperatures will climb to 28C and not a cloud in sight, we’re promised.
You won’t run out of things to do, from watching regattas on Lake Geneva to flea markets to seeing how wine is made, if you check out our weekend events listings. Add in a good dose of exercise by trying out the new Swiss hiking/biking/skating official Swisstopo maps that you can get online and as handy mobile apps, or head for some of canton Vaud’s beautiful outdoor public swimming pools when the air warms up Sunday.
Sion, truck overturned, narrowly missing sidewalk cafe
Sierre, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss sunshine, the Alps, and a morning cup of coffee at the local cafe in Sion nearly turned into something far messier than sand in the coffee, when a large truck carrying several cubic metres of sand inexplicably turned onto its side in front of a sidewalk cafe.
The truck appears to have hit a curb at an intersection on the Avenue de Tourbillon, say police in canton Valais.
The driver, a 35-year-old man from the area, suffered slight injuries but no pedestrians, customers or staff at the cafe, on a main street, were hurt.
Basel’s stinky flower, Geneva’s sexiest fingers study, Cern’s rumoured Higgs particles, US women skate to gold in Zurich
Cern's Alice experiment, particle collisions
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A giant stinky flower in Basel, ring fingers that mean true love, thrilling women’s ice hockey world finals – the international population in the Lake Geneva region disappears during the spring holidays, heading off on travels near and far, but the news doesn’t stop.
Here’s a brief roundup of what you might have missed:
Phew! but beautiful to behold, Basel’s corpse flower
Switzerland was on the world news map, with hundreds of articles about the amophophallus titanium, aka the “corpse flower” that pulled in an estimated 25,000 visitors to Basel. Key facts: it is one of the world’s largest flowers (technically: “largest unbranched inflorescence in the world” according to wikipedia), it smells of rotting flesh, and it grows in the wild only in Sumatra, Indonesia. The first cultivated flowering was at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London in 1889 and since then there have been few sightings of the rarely-blooming flower. Basel’s Botanical Gardens‘ two-metre high plant bloomed this weekend, for the first time in its 17 years, and the first such plant to flower in Switzerland in 75 years.
Check out his length, dear
A man’s ring finger length gives clues to his masculinity, researcher Camille Ferdenzi at the University of Geneva in Switzerland shows in her research on 2D:4D, the name for the ratio comparing second and fourth digits. Her work was published 19 April in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biology Letters. For an easier explanation, LiveScience unravels the mysteries of sex and the ring finger.
God or no god particles, Cern is intense
Swisster will stop publishing 23 December 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swisster, the English-language online news service set up in 2008 by Edipresse, the largest media publisher in French-speaking Switzerland, is shutting down after two-and-a-half years, effective Thursday 23 December.
Swisster was launched in March 2008 during the boom phase of Internet media, but shortly before the financial crisis hit the industry. In a statement published 22 December in Cominmag, a publication for the communications industries in the region, Edipresse noted that the site was not able to “take advantage of synergies to develop optimally and thus reach a point of critical mass” during a difficult economic period and in an extremely competitive niche market, despite having doubled its readership between January 2009 and December 2010.
The statement by Edipresse makes no mention of its own imminent takeover by Tamedia, a process that will be completed in January 2011. Tamedia is one of the country’s largest publishers.
Swisster joined what was a growing number of English language media in 2008, with at least seven newspapers, magazines and radio stations in the Lake Geneva region, including GenevaLunch, a volunteer daily news service set up in 2006. GenevaLunch wrote at the time, of Swisster, that “the real “newness” lies mainly in the business model, with Edipresse selling bulk subscriptions [for CHF300] to multinationals and EPFL.
This content will be largely unavailable to the public.” In early 2009 the editorial staff at the online paper changed, with Marcus Berry, who had earlier managed World Radio Geneva before it became World Radio Switzerland, taking over as chief editor and product manager, working under the name Mark Oliver.
The 22 December edition of Swisster makes no mention on the home page of its closure, but editorial staff Wednesday sent out a message of thanks, “to express our warm appreciation to all our readers, partners and sponsors for their wonderful support over the past three years”.
The 11,000 articles published by Swisster in its nearly three years will remain available online, as part of the Tribune de Geneve’s and 24 Heure’s archives.
Buildings go up, but not construction salaries, in Switzerland in 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Travail.Suisse, a union that represents 170,000 workers in three major industries, says it is “satisfied” with salaries negotiated for 2011, up to 3 percent in some cases. The construction business is the only one where negotiators have failed to agree, with companies recommending a 1 percent increase, turned down by the unions. Travail.Suisse would like to see workers continue to make up for weak cost of living increases from 2004 to 2008, when Swiss GDP rose by mor ethan 14 percent, but salaries were barely increased. Real purchasing power for workers rose by 2.6 percent in 2009 thanks to salary increases that outpaced the minimal rise in the cost of living.
Next year should help workers catch up, the group says, with a cost of living increase forecast for 0.7 percent.
Links to other sites: Travail.Suisse (Fre), TSR (Fre)
Title: Free rock-concerts in Carouge
Location: Carouge
Link out: Click here
Description: This weekend, the very hip Geneva-based English-speaking group Aloan will be featured at a concert in Carouge sponsored by Caritas. Also Girls in The Kitchen and the Axel Fisch Group. On Friday night the entrance fee is CHF10. On Saturday and Sunday concerts are free.
On Sunday plenty of activities for kids with: Jacky Lagger and their new “chou chou Geatan.”
Start Date: 2010-03-26
End Date: 2010-03-28
A sad Easter for the Lindt bunny?
Kilchberg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli AG has announced a drop in its net profit: in 2009 the company’s net profit was CHF193 million, a 26 percent drop from CHF265m in 2008.
Group sales fell, although by only 1.9 percent, in 2009 to CHF2.52 billion, from CHF2.57b in 2008.
According to Lindt’s financial report, published 16 March, “for the first time in 10 years, the overall chocolate market declined in volume,” which adversely affected the profit margin. However, the Group operating result (EBIT) stood at CHF264 million with an operating profit margin of 10.5 percent.
The company says it will continue its long-term profit targets.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Inside Switzerland”, which was started in 2007 as a glossy Swiss-wide magazine providing news and features in English, has ceased publication of both the quarterly print magazine and its online newsletter. The magazine was published by Schweizer and Davies Media in Zurich, which was founded by Jennifer Davies and Sabine Schweizer.
Davies is an arts presenter on World Radio Switzerland.
Editor-in-chief Schweizer notes in her letter to readers that the publication “has not been able to withstand current financial pressures.”
The quarterly print publication sold for CHF35 for four issues before it folded.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The circumstances surrounding the death of 66-year-old Catherine Ségalat of Vaud-sur-Morges, a longtime political figure, are being called suspicious, say Vaud police. They have taken in her 45-year-old stepson for questioning in relation to her death, reports wire service ats.
Ségalat was the town manager of the tiny hamlet of Vaud-sur-Morges.
Inflation at a 50-year low
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Inflation in Switzerland reached its lowest point in 50 years which according to experts leaves the Confederation at risk for potential deflation.
Hot weather grape harvest 2009, La Colombe, Fechy
Golf-ball-sized hail 23 July, outside Ikea in Allaman, Vaud
Nyon, Switzerland (Geneva, Switzerland) – Swiss wines, vintage 2009, will be among those loved and remembered by consumers, thanks in large part to a warm, sunny and dry August that was enjoyed equally by humans and grapes. The 2009 official wine results are in, from the federal agricultural station Changins, near Nyon, and the news is good. The harvest, which began in September and for the most part ended in mid-October, was “very good”, with “exceptional” ripening conditions in August and early September. The one exception is some areas in canton Vaud’s La Côte region, hit hard by 15 minutes of hail 23 July, which wiped out some vine parcels’ (growing areas) grapes.
Grapes developed fully, with little rot occurring, thanks to dry weather in most parts of Switzerland: an “exemplary” situation where all climactic conditions came together to keep the grapes healthy.
Apple eaters choose first by looks, then by smell, say the Swiss
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A government study to determine what causes us to choose or reject apples shows that it depends on what kind of apple-eater you are: big apple fans select their fruit based on looks, but smaller apple eaters need to smell the apple and will buy it only if convinced that it smells good. The second group tends to reject darker apple varieties, which they associate with over-ripeness, unless they can smell or taste them. They also tend to reject apples that do not resemble varieties they already know.
Switzerland: great trains, great mountains, but fewer visitors in 2009
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government’s figures for tourism during the summer of 2009, from May to October, show a gloomy picture, with a 4.2 percent drop in the number of overnight stays compared to 2008. Swiss tourists fell by 2.1 percent but a sharp drop in foreign tourism, down 5.8 percent had a significant impact.
Overall, the Swiss tourism industry registered 19.7 million overnight stays for the summer season.
WRS news conference
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - World Radio Switzerland (WRS), public radio in English, moves to 101.7 on the FM band 8 December, in the Geneva region, the station announced 3 December. Change your settings before next Tuesday! The move does not affect listeners who pick up WRS via online streaming, satellite, cable or DAB.
WorldRadio Switzerland, 101.7FM
The move is the result of musical chairs, or in this case FM slots, ordered by Ofcom, the federal telecommunications regulatory body. Radio Lausanne FM was awarded a license to start broadcasting in the Geneva area, but since it currently broadcasts on 88.4 in Lausanne a new slot had to be found for it: 88.4FM in Geneva, which WRS currently uses. WRS moves up as a result, to 101.7FM, currently used by Espace 2, also a member of the RSR public radio group in the region.
The changes for the three stations, in the Geneva area, will not occur at the same time:
- Thursday 3 December, Espace 2 stops using 101.7 and moves to 100.7FM
- Tuesday 8 December at midnight, WRS stops using 88.4 and moves to 101.7FM
- Tuesday 15 December, Lausanne FM starts broadcasting in the Geneva area on 88.4FM
WorldRadio Switzerland provides a mix of locally-produced news, information, entertainment and music to people who live in Switzerland. The BBC is its partner for international news and some additional programming.
Links to stations’ sites: Espace 2, Lausanne FM, WRS
Exports, port of Basel
Update 11:40 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland officially moved out of recession in the third quarter of 2009, Bern announced Tuesday 1 December. Real GDP (gross domestic product) was up 0.3 percent compared to the previous quarter. Private consumption (+0.6 percent) and building investments both grew, and healthcare plus the financial and insurance industries also rose. Investments were up “massively”, with industrial goods investments rising by 5.5 percent.
The government’s own “consumption expenditure” rose by 1.3 percent.
Exports of goods and services both climbed, by 2.2 and 0.3 percent respectively, for the first time “after a considerable one-year slide” the government statement reports.
Outer and inner faces of the 2010 Swiss autoroute sticker
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Drivers have until the end of January 2010 to put them on their cars, but the 2010 Swiss autoroute sticker, called a vignette in French, goes on sale today. The background is metallic orange and the date reddish-brown. The CHF40 annual road tax has been sold at the same price since it became law in 1985, managed by the Swiss customs office.
The proof of tax paid sticker must be displayed by cars but also trucks and motorbikes on the autoroute.
Background on local and national Swiss votes 29 November, GenevaLunch
Update 16:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss voters turned Sunday voted to ban the construction of new minarets in the country, with 57.5 percent of voters approving the initiative and 42.5 percent opposed to it. The vote went along language lines, with Swiss Germans voting for the ban and French speakers voting against, although cantons with both languages, such as Valais and Bern, voted soundly to support the ban.
The result is widely seen as a slap in the face to the government, which has strongly opposed the initiative. But it will also be read as a vote against the current situation of Muslims in Switzerland, say most Swiss media. On the one hand, approving the ban will send a signal that the Swiss are worried about “creeping Islamization”, a phrase that was used by the UDC (right-wing People’s Party) during the campaign, and on the other hand, a signal that Muslim ghettoes are not acceptable, reports Swissinfo. The Muslim population has increased by about 350,000 and is now around 4.5 percent of the Swiss population, according to Swissinfo.
Switzerland set to continue arms exports
Voters rejected by 68 percent, early results indicate, a popular initiative to stop Swiss arms exports.
Geneva says yes to Ceva regional transport, Vésenaz tunnel
The years of debate are over for Ceva, the regional transport system that would link Geneva to Annemasse. Voters approved by nearly 62 percent a CHF113 million credit that will allow the project to go ahead. They also approved the covered tunnel for Vésenaz.
Map of incoming results on TSR: “la carte”
Expect tight security around the WTO buildings, but mainly at the CICG where the conference takes place
Several thousand in Geneva for WTO meeting, demonstration
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The barriers were being readied in front of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Thursday 26 November along the lake road in Geneva, and security measures around the area began to move into place for the start of the Seventh Ministerial Conference Monday 30 November, with several thousand people expected to take part.
Hotels have little space, but for local residents the main sign of the global talks will be disrupted traffic.
Detours and road closings begin Saturday 28 November, when 3,000-5,000 demonstrators are expected to take part in an anti-WTO march that starts at 14:30 at the Place Neuve.
Anti-WTO march Saturday after in centre of Geneva
The Vengeron exit (where the road split before the airport) on the A1 autoroute into Geneva, coming from Lausanne, will be closed early Saturday 28 November until the end of the march late afternoon. Traffic will be directed to the airport exit.
The march itinerary supplied by Geneva police:
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government Tuesday afternoon 24 November approved a 2010 budget deficit of CHF2.68 billion, going into the red for the first time in several years. The total budget approved is CHF58.2b. The drop in revenues due to the economic crisis is behind the shortfall, but even if the economy picks up it appears unlikely that Switzerland will finish the year in the black, observers quoted by Swiss media say.
Swiss, aloft
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Airline Swiss will offer more connections between Britain and Geneva starting 10 January 2010, with six new flights daily to Heathrow. The company is reducing the number of flights between Geneva and London City from the current six a day to four. The additional flights will be provided in part by an additional Heathrow-based airplane, but Swiss will be working closely with British Midlands and some of the new connections will be codeshare flights.
Bern / Chur, Graubuenden, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two guides who have been on trial for their part in the deaths of six soldiers during a military mountain training expedition on the Jungfrau have been acquitted. They were on trial in a Swiss military court for involuntary manslaughter and for not observing military regulations.
Swiss households' real estate assets, now more transparent
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The net worth of Swiss households fell in 2008 from an average of CHF334,000 per capita to CHF312,000. About CHF200,000 of this is real estate and claims against insurance and pension plans. The drop in assets, the first since 2002, was due to sharp falls in stock market values. It would have been worse but for higher real estate values, which provided something of a safety net. Real estate assets, CHF1,315 billion in total, accounted for 43 percent of all household assets at the end of 2008, up from 39 percent the previous year.
Real estate prices climbed in 2008
The total value of households’ real estate rose by CHF73 billion in 2008.
The figures were released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) Friday 20 November, as part of the national financial accounts. This is the first year that assets include households’ real estate. The report notes that:
“financial assets held by households declined by CHF199 billion (10.4%) to CHF1,718 billion, while assets held in real estate increased by CHF73 billion (5.9%) to CHF1,315 billion. Liabilities rose by CHF15 billion (2.4%) to CHF629 billion. As a result of these developments, households’ net worth fell by CHF 141 billion (5.5%) to CHF2,403 billion.”
Philipp Hildebrand, SNB
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The incoming head of the Swiss National Bank, Philipp Hildebrand, says Switzerland needs tighter banking regulations than most countries, due to its size relative to the country’s economy. Total banking assets exceed seven times Switzerland’s GDP, he notes, and they are very concentrated, with the two big banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, having two-thirds of the total.
Recovery may be underway but the costs to the global economy, longer term, loom large. “The potential costs of the support measures taken – capital injection, asset purchases, and guarantees of bank debt – in the G7 countries together with Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland amount to about 20 percent of GDP in these economies,” he says, although actual outlays have been about 8 percent.
Hildebrand, who takes over as SNB chairman in January 2010 when Jean-Pierre Roth retires, made his remarks in a speech Wednesday evening 18 November at the University of Geneva.
The SNB is focusing on two areas of bank regulation changes, in line with recommendations drawn up by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) The FSB was created in April 2009 and is housed at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.
Expect more roadworks around Geneva and Lausanne areas
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and the Lausanne-Morges area are likely to see an improvement in public transport to ease traffic congestion, if new federal funds for to improve traffic go through as planned. The Swiss federal government has told Parliament that it will allocate CHF1.5 billion for co-sponsored (with cantons) projects starting in 2011 to improve traffic in 26 key areas, mainly cities and urban built-up areas. The list of projects includes several in the Lake Geneva region:
A1 autoroute roadworks near Morges, Switzerland
Morges / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Workers have now completed a key part of the roadworks to widen the A1 autoroute between Morges and Lausanne thanks to a series of night closings. A system of 120 variable signs and 40 fixed ones have been put in place, a system with 8 kilometres of cables and 850 electrical connections.
Photo: Seco
Basel / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss economy remains relatively steady, but with Credit Suisse’s Swiss manufacturing index dropping slightly and the forecast for tourism showing lower but stable figures in coming months. The manufacturing figures “still [show] however that the Alpine economy is leaving the deep recession behind,” reports news agency Reuters. The tourism forecast is gloomier and follows publication of figures by BakBasel, an economic research institute, showing that tourism from November 2008 to October 2009 was the second lowest since the end of the second world war: only 1995 was lower.
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two people died Sunday 1 November on Geneva roads, and details have not yet been officially released for a separate accident, where another person reportedly died. The police have not yet been able to identify the victims in the first accident, which took place at 04:30 on the Route des Jeunes, as the driver left the A1 autoroute, coming from Perly in the direction of Geneva.
Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss president, finance minister
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz has put negotiations on the new Swiss-Italian double taxation treaty on hold until further notice. The move follows a raid by Italian tax authorities on Italian branches of Swiss banks last week and rumours of Italian officials spying on their countrymen in canton Ticino, which has caused outrage in Ticino. The tax treaty was ready to be ratified by the parliament, reports Sonntagsblick in an interview 1 November.
Merz has designated Renzo Respini, a former member of the upper house of Parliament, to be the government’s special political advisor in tax questions concerning Italy.
