Update 11:00 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Currency markets have reacted to the news of a US Congressional debt ceiling deal with volatility. The Sunday 31 July announcement of a deal was followed by a boost in the dollar, when then lost its gains against the Swiss franc, sinking to an all-time low Monday of CHF0.7729 to the dollar. The franc and the yen were safe havens Monday against the dollar, following news last week of slower growth of the US economy than that reported earlier.
Tuesday morning the dollar had climbed back slightly against the Swiss franc, to CHF0.7787, but the euro slipped below CHF1.10 Tuesday morning and also slipped against the dollar, over concerns about European economic growth slowing and the sovereign debt crisis.
Investors in currency, stock and other financial markets have been jittery recently over the political game going on in Washington to prevent the US from defaulting on its loans. The Financial Times writes 2 August that even the deal announced Sunday but still subject to a vote wasn’t enough to “Even though there was a sense of calm in Washington that the deal would be passed following Sunday’s agreement between the US president and congressional leaders, there was plenty of last-minute drama to keep investors on edge.
TSR reports Tuesday morning that the Swiss franc is, more than ever, a safe haven currency.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Financial Times
Australia creates flood tax
Displaced Afghan refugee Gul Hassan is taking refuge on a road side near Hajizai Afghan refugee village which was destroyed by recent floods; August 2010 (UNHCR / R. Ali)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsoon floods that devastated Pakistan in 2010 continue to cause extreme hardship in the face of a funding shortfall, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva says.
“This natural disaster, unprecedented in terms of destruction of housing and infrastructure, has necessitated an unprecedented response,” the IOM notes in a statement issues 27 January.
The UN agency coordinates some 300 agencies and NGO (non-governmental organization) groups involved in the Shelter Cluster programme to re-house people in the region.
It says international donors have contributed US$1.1 billion or 56 percent of a UN appeal for US$1.96b launched in September 2010. Agencies in the Shelter Cluster appealed for US$322 million and have received US$126m or 39 percent.
Some 11 million people were left homeless, with 1.7 million houses destroyed. Punjab province alone saw twice as many people lose their homes as did in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Those caught by the floods include Afghan refugees.
Millions have been helped but “unless more funding is forthcoming, at least half a million families who lost their homes and need help to rebuild either a one-room or a transitional shelter will receive nothing,” according to the IOM.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss inflation for the month of December was flat compared to the preceding month and rounds off the year with a rate of +0.7 percent, according to figures released by the Swiss Federal Statistics Office (FSO). The consumer price index at the end of 2010 stood at 104.2 (December 2005 = 100). The cost of transportation, education, leisure and culture, and hotels and restaurants increased slightly according to the FSO.
Despite the strong Swiss franc imported goods increased 1 percent in 2010.
The FSO also announced the beginning of a new series for the inflation index, which will now begin December 2010 = 100. The new series will incorporate changes such as the housing rental index, an updated “family basket” of goods, and new means to capture improvements in the quality of goods being measured, as well as the nature and frequency of consumer surveys.
French researchers have found, and put on display at the Natural History Museum in Paris, the fossilized remains of what could be described as a “sea monster.”
The findings of a 12 million-year-old creature dug from the Peruvian dessert, is being explained in the most recent edition of Nature magazine.
The fossil found in an expedition in 2008, has 36 cm-long teeth, located on the mandible and the skull. Researchers believe this means “Leviathan” – as the giant predator whale is being called – could have fed off other whales, and might have engaged in fierce battles.
The jaws of the “Leviathan Melville” is 3 meters long, that is 2 meters more than the bite of killer whales nowadays.
Video by Nature magazine
A British-Norwegian, and a Norwegian national have been sentenced to death on charges of espionage and murder.
Former Norwegian soldiers, Joshua French, the dual national, and Tjostolv Moland, had been previously convicted of allegedly murdering their driver and attempting to murder a witness.
Human rights group have called the judicial process, a “military show trial” and accused the government Congolese military of obtaining the evidence through torture.
Additional links: CNN, Associated Press
British Petroleum Oil shares plummeted in early trading in London after the US administration signaled huge penalties, and possible legal action to stop a dividend payment to shareholders amid anger over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP Oil shares fell 16 percent on Wall Street and over 11 percent in early trade in London.
Peter Hitchins, analyst at Panmure Gordon, talks about the implications of the disaster on the oil industry and how this could change the face of deepwater drilling.
Breaking news: Two Bosnian Serbs have been sentenced to life in prison for their role on the Srebrenica genocide in 1995 and five others have been given sentences ranging between five and 35 years.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced seven defendants at The Hague.
Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara were among seven former high-ranking military and police officials to be sentenced.
Five other Bosnian Serb army and police officers were also convicted of war crimes.
Additional details: Radio Netherlands, Associated Press/Yahoo News
Peruvian news report say a 22-year old Dutchman, who was once a suspect in the disappearance of an American teen in Aruba, has confessed to killing a young Peruvian woman in his Lima hotel room.
Joran van der Sloot’s is believed to have killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores on May 30 after she found out he had been questioned in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, 18. Holloway is presumed dead. The teen was celebrating her high school graduation in Aruba when she met van der Sloot a former Aruba resident.
Van der Sloot was arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru after authorities found Flores’ body in his hotel room. That same day, the man was charged in the United States with trying to extort $250,000 from Holloway’s family in exchange for disclosing the location of her body and describing how she died.
Flores died five years to the date of Holloway’s disappearance.
Further details: Associated Press
The public funeral of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has begun. His body has been taken to the Catalonia state headquarters to the sound of the Olympic hymn. Samaranch who for years worked in Lausanne, Switzerland died 21 April.
A civil ceremony attended by athletes and heads of State, including Spain’s King Juan Carlos, will take place at the regional government headquarters. Samaranch’s coffin will then be taken to the Barcelona cathedral for a Roman Catholic funeral mass.
Several governments have expressed condolences for Samaranch’s death. China remembered him as a “good friend” for easing its return to the Olympic movement.
Additional details: Associated Press, Television Española TVe,
A German catholic bishop investigated for severe physical abuse of children and for financial misconduct has issued a public apology and has offered to resign. Bishop Walter Mixa is being investigated for physical abuse of children during the 70s, when he was a pastor at a children’s orphanage. Mixa is also accused of financial irregularities at the orphanage.
Additional details: Deutsche Welle
The man who, according to the Guinness World Records, was the shortest man alive, died in Italy while waiting to participate in a TV show. He Pingping, a 22-year-old Chinese man, was 74.6cm tall. He had complained of pains last week, was hospitalized and died a few days later, but the family and Italian authorities have not given the cause of death. He’s first name, Pingping, means wine bottle.
Links to other sites: Guardian, Yahoo news
Estimated site of earthquake, west of Port au Prince. © 2010 ReliefWeb. Click to enlarge
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Relief operations are being coordinated for the victims of a massive earthquake in Haiti, which struck the island nation late afternoon 12 January, and rocked the nearby capital city of Santo Domingo as well.
A Swiss emergency rescue team is on its way to Haiti, the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs said early Wednesday 13 January. The team will “strengthen the SDC programme office and the Swiss embassy in the country, identify what needs to be done and initiate emergency measures”. The Swiss government is considering deploying Swiss Rescue, a dedicated earthquake search and rescue team.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The trials on charges of “illegal economic activity” of two Swiss businessmen held in Libya against their will since July 2008, have been postponed till early January, the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs said 20 December. The trial of Max Goeldi, country head for engineering giant ABB, has been set back to 2 January. His countryman Rachid Hamdani’s trial has been scheduled for 3 January.
The two men were sentenced to 16 months prison for visa irregularities and tax evasion in November, and have appealed.
Update 2 25 November Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and Russian officials have been meeting in Geneva since Sunday according to Michael Parmly, spokesperson for the US Mission in Geneva. The Russian Permament Mission would not comment on the talks but confirmed that they had taken place. Mullen’s office says he met Tuesday with Russian armed forces chief of staff General Nikolai Makarov, AP reports.
Geneva is the site of negotiations between the US and Russia to replace the 1990s-era Start treaty on cuts to both countries’ nuclear arsenals, which expires 5 December. A major obstacle has been the verification process. The Start talks have been the subject of high-level meetings between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over the course of 2009.
Mullen also met with the head of the Swiss army, André Blattmann, for a working lunch in Geneva Tuesday.
Background: “Start treaty talks may take longer, Obama says“, 16 November 2009, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Adm Mike Mullen on Facebook, US Mission in Geneva, Permanent Russian Mission in Geneva and ABC News, AP/WGN-TV, Chicago
Only by prescription in South Korea © 2009 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drug giant Roche confirmed Friday, 6 November, it was under investigation by the South Korean Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for illegally helping British bank HSBC and other companies in South Korea to acquire the drug tamiflu. The FDA raided the local offices of Roche 4 November and seized documents and computer files. It is illegal to purchase tamiflu in South Korea without a medical prescription.
Alinghi in less contentious waters. Photo: © Dinah Roberts
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The oldest, most prestigious sailing competition may be decided in a New York courtroom instead of in the Persian Gulf waters off the Arabian peninsula. The defending team Alinghi, representing Geneva’s Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) put their huge catamaran into the water off Ras al-Khaimah (RAK), United Arab Emirates Saturday 17 October, but a New York judge must still decide whether the venue, traditionally chosen by the defender, may be allowed to stand.
On Saturday, Ernesto Bertarelli, the billionaire backer of Alinghi, called on the BMW-Oracle team to get down to business and start sailing.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UN Human Rights Council, meeting in a special session 15 and 16 October, has approved the report into possible war crimes during the December 2008-January 2009 incursion by Israel into the Gaza Strip. The council will forward the report to the UN General Assembly for consideration. At the end of the session countries voted, 25-6, to approve the report, and 11 countries abstained.
Israel argued that the report was one-sided and ignored the attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians which precipitated the war. The US voted against approval, saying that it would hamper Mideast peace efforts.
Updated 17:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edward Kennedy, US senator from Massachusetts, 77, has died of brain cancer, diagnosed in May 2008. He was one of the longest-serving senators and a leader of liberal Democrats. Reuters describes him as a “consummate dealmaker.” Kennedy was also known as the head of the large political clan of Kennedys after the deaths of his older brothers: Joe, who died during the second world war, and two brothers who were assassinated: US President John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, attorney general who later ran for president.
Tributes from around the world began to pour in within hours, among them this one from head of the Geneva-based UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), António Guterres:
The origins of his fortune
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A family dispute over the inheritance of Italy’s richest man, Gianni Agnelli, who died in 2003, has opened a crack in the hermetic family’s financial affairs. Margherita, a daughter, claims in a court filing that she was excluded from a part of the inheritance because it is possibly abroad.
In a Canale 5 tv interview 13 August, Attilio Befera, head of the Italian tax collection agency, said that the government was investigating up to 170,000 Italians suspected of evading taxes by keeping money abroad, which could include the alleged Agnelli fortune. He said Swiss authorities were cooperating with Italian requests.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is increasing pressure on the UK to take back the 1,400 tons of hazardous waste in 41 containers exported from the UK to Brazil early July 2009. The foreign ministry has asked its permanent mission in Geneva “to report the traffic of hazardous waste from the UK under the terms of the Basel Convention”, according to Brazil’s official government (Por) site.
Update 27 July 11:15, Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US authorities may be taking a new approach to going after the names of US-based clients of Swiss bank UBS. They are reportedly asking for the names of clients its advisors saw in the US. Reuters carries a lengthy article that states this, citing Swiss newsweekly Sonntagszeitung.
The move, if confirmed, may be a compromise in the legal dispute involving UBS and the US tax authority IRS, which wants the bank to divulge details on 52,000 of its US clients. Reuters reports that 60 UBS client advisors visited the US on average three times a year, for three weeks each visit, and saw four clients a day. John DiCicco, acting assistant attorney general in the tax division of the US Justice department, in March 2008 testified to a senate subcommittee investigating the case that “An internal UBS memorandum filed with the court demonstrates that, in 2004 alone, UBS bankers traveled to the United States where they held approximately 3,800 separate meetings with US clients to discuss their clients’ Swiss accounts. (Ed. note: the Sonntagszeitung article speculates that UBS hopes that the US Dept. of Justice may acccept the names of clients visited by UBS client officials as a way to avoid violating Swiss law by having to hand over all client data demanded by the IRS).
The number of account holders has been an issue since the case began, with the US putting forth the number of 52,000 US citizens evading taxes through UBS accounts as an educated guess.
DiCicco, using provocative language, made the announcement in February 2009 that the Department of Justice was seeking 52,000 client names from the bank, a day after the DOJ and UBS appeared to have reached an agreement.
The DOJ statement sparked the diplomatic and legal standoff between the two countries, moving the issue from a banking one into a diplomatic tiff over the bilateral tax treaty.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Lima, Peru traveled to the Amazon areas where protests by indigenous peoples turned deadly violent 5 June. Native groups blocking the main highway to the coast had been violently attacked by police forces sent to open the road. In retaliation, dozens of policemen held by the natives elsewhere were killed in cold blood. It was the country’s most serious violence since the end of the war with the Shining Path rebels in the 1980s and 1990s.
Among the dead are 24 policemen and 10 natives. Some human rights groups have accused the police of covering up more deaths of natives, Luis Jaime Cisneros of Agence France-Presse in Peru told GenevaLunch.
Collombey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The large Tamoil refinery in Collombey, canton Valais, announced Wednesday 10 June that it is closing. Police from the cantons of Valais and Vaud had raided the offices of the refinery 9 June, citing repeated violations of environmental laws.
Libyan-owned Tamoil is one of Switzerland’s major providers of crude oil, importing 2.5 million tons, or 20% of Switzerland’s needs, according to federal government figures in 2008. Oil imports from Libya were halted for several weeks following the July 2008 arrest of Hannibal Qaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son, in Geneva. Relations between the two countries have been tense since then, with two Swiss engineers held in Tripoli, Libya for nearly a year, despite diplomatic efforts that include a visit by Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in May 2009.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – After an emergency meeting early this afternoon the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the the A/H1N1 (swine) flu pandemic had entered its highest phase 6, denoting “sustained community-level outbreaks in at least two WHO regions.” In its latest update 10 June, WHO reported almost 28,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in 74 countries worldwide, with 141 deaths. Sudden spikes in confirmed cases in the past few days have been reported from widely-separated countries like Australia and Chile, prompting WHO concern.
Friday /
- Sudan’s famous goat wife has died after presumably swallowing a plastic bag. The story of the man who was forced to marry a goat after he was caught having sex with her became one of the BBC’s most widely circulated stories on the Internet in early 2007.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, meeting in Bangkok, has come up with a final report and recommendations after five days of tough haggling that says nations can do much to halt global warming, but greenhouse gas emissions must start declining by 2015 to make a difference. China led efforts to highlight the role of industrialized nations in creating the global warming crisis. AFP, Washington Post
- Former mayor of New York John Giuliani broke rank with other Republican candidates for the US presidency in the first debate with the 10 candidates when he said he supports the Supreme Court’s ruling that permits abortions. CNN
- Financial news service Reuters said its shares jumped 20% on news of an offer to buy it by an “unidentified suitor.”
Thursday /
- The BBC’s David Shukman pays a visit to the shining example of solar power south of Sevile, Spain that is Europe’s first commercial power venture using a solar tower surrounded by mirrors. The 660 mirrors below the 40-storey tower generate 11 MW (megawatts) of electricity and should eventually be able to supply the electricity needs of the city of 600,000.
- There is “open revolt” on the web, reports the New York Times, after lawyers letters followed publication of a secret code used by film companies to protect high-definition movies. The number is becoming the Internet’s hottest celebrity and “its relentless spread has already become a lesson in mob power on the Internet and the futility of censorship in the digital world.”
- Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, will most likely have to wait until next week to hear the recommendations of the seven-person panel invetigating the pay raise given to his companion, reports Bloomberg.
- An international conference to find ways to bring peace and economic recovery to Iraq that is taking place Thursday in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt has shifted its attention to possible meetings between the United States and Iran and Syria. Reuters
- France’s candidates for the presidency squared off in debates Wednesday evening in front of 20 million television viewers and both claimed to have won but analysts say it was a draw. AFP, BBC
Wednesday /
- The oldest family business in the world is a Japanese hotel, Hoshi Ryokan, created in 718 in Komatsu. This year it celebrates its 1,289th birthday. Le Temps, Fre
- African Union peacekeepers have begun to patrol the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, for the first time since their arrival in March. They are to replace Ethiopian troops called in by the government, which Saturday declared it had won the months-long battle against “Islamist fighters and clan coalitions.” In a sad footnote to the article, the BBC notes that “Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.”
- A “fight that has been brewing for three months” between the US Congress and President George W Bush has moved into a new phase following the six-minute speech in which the president announced he was vetoing a congressional bill to tie funding for the war in Iraq to a troop withdrawal. Democrats in Congress do not have enough votes to override the veto, but Bush’s use of the veto is likely to step up the rate of bargaining between Congress and the president. CNN, Huffington Post, New York Times and Washington Post
- High prices for gold, an uncertain property market and a facelift for the pawnshop industry in Britain is breathing new life into the ages-old debt solution of pawning possessions. Reuters
Tuesday /
- Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vows to stay in office despite a damning report on the Lebanon war from the commission Olmert established to look into the way the war was handled. “The committee found that Ehud Olmert’s decision to go to war was taken ‘rashly’ and ‘hastily’ with ‘no comprehensive plan’,” writes the BBC.
- Five Britons have been given life sentences for “al-Queda-inspired” planned bomb attacks across Britain, in a trial that involved the longest jury deliveration in British history. The five have been linked to the suicide bomber who killed 52 people in London 7 July 2005. Reuters
Monday /
- Pilot Miles Hilton-Barber, who is blind, has landed in Sydney after flying from London. His 21,000 km flight in a microlight aircraft to raise money to fight blindness in developing countries comes after 25 years of blindness. He has a sighted co-pilot but uses speech output from navigation instruments to steer his course. Times of India
- More than 100 US troops have died in Iraq in April, making it one of the “deadliest” months for the American military since the Iraq war began. Reuters Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, six former CIA officials wrote to former CIA head George Tenet to say his new book, “At the Center of the Storm” is an admission of “failed leadership” and that he should have resigned rather than help build up the war in Iraq. CNN
- One person was killed, 99 injured and 300 arrested in Estonia’s worst riot since the country separated from the Soviet Union in 1991. An initially peaceful
GenevaLunch, by Nicholas Bates – Wasps beat Northhampton 13-30 in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup. They will meet Leicester in the final. BBC
GenevaLunch, by Nicholas Bates – Chelsea failed to take advantage of a slip-up by Manchester United. Man U drew 1-1 at home against Middlesbrough, while Chelsea drew 0-0 at Newcastle. Man U star Cristiano Ronaldo was named Player ofthe Year by the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association). The PFA star team included eight Man U players, with only one from Chelsea. BBC
GenevaLunch, by Nicholas Bates – England ended their World Cup, and Duncan Fletcher’s period as coach, with a consolation win against the West Indies. Kevin Pietersen scored a century to help England to a one-wicket victory on the second last ball of the game. West Indies captain Brian Lara was run out for 18 on his final international game. Guardian
