Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent
Continue reading...Category Archives: Switzerland
Malfunction at Swiss chocolate factory sends out plume of cocoa ‘snow’
Fine particles dust the ground around Lindt & Spruengli factory in town of Olten after ventilation defect
A real-life Willy Wonka would have been proud. But residents of a Swiss town got a bit of a shock when it started snowing particles of a fine cocoa powder after the ventilation system at a chocolate factory malfunctioned.
The Lindt & Spruengli company confirmed local reports on Tuesday that there was a minor defect in the cooling ventilation in an area making roasted “cocoa nibs” in its factory in Olten, between Zurich and Basel.
Continue reading...Swiss authorities seek owner of gold worth £151,000 left on train
Officials say mystery passenger has five years to present ‘justified claims’ of ownership
If you happened to leave more than £150,000 worth of gold bars in a Swiss train, you can now come forward to claim it.
Authorities in the central city of Lucerne have said a package containing bars worth about 182,000 Swiss francs was found in a train that arrived from the northern town of St. Gallen in October, and efforts to find the owner failed.
Continue reading...Women stage ‘mass scream’ in Switzerland over domestic violence and gender pay gap
Thousands of marchers screamed for a minute at 3.24pm – the time of day when women in effect start working without pay
Women across Switzerland have let loose with screams during a national protest demanding equal treatment and an end to violence at the hands of men.
Last year half a million people marched to highlight the nation’s poor record on women’s rights. This year’s version of what organisers call the Women’s Strike was more subdued on Sunday due to coronavirus restrictions.
Continue reading...Cross-border love – a photo essay
Photographs of an unusual situation by Roland Schmid. Switzerland and Germany have been divided by the coronavirus pandemic. Fences, concrete obstacles or barrier tapes separate them after the borders were closed to slow the spread of the virus. But love cannot be locked away
“Look, we even marked the border on our blanket,” laughs Sabrina. And indeed; just below the barrier tape a black line divides the cloth in half. Lying on one half is Sabrina, from Basel; on the other, Davor from Wiesbaden. We are in Riehen, the rich suburban community of Basel.
Continue reading...Hundreds queue for food parcels in wealthy Geneva
Over 1,000 poorer working people and undocumented migrants waited for hours for basics
More than 1,000 people queued on Saturday to get free food parcels in Geneva, underscoring the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the working poor and undocumented immigrants even in wealthy Switzerland.
The line of people stretched for more than 1km outside an ice rink where volunteers were handing out about 1,500 parcels to people who started queuing as early as 5am.
Continue reading...Briton’s abseiling death in Swiss Alps was an accident, inquest finds
Hayden Prince, 24, fell to his death when large rock to which rope was tied became dislodged
A British man fell to his death in the Swiss Alps when a rock holding his abseiling rope toppled over as he descended a mountain, an inquest has heard.
L/Cpl Hayden Prince, 24, was on a private trip with two mountaineering friends while on annual leave from the British army. The group set out from the Hornli hut at the base camp of the Matterhorn at 6am on 2 June last year with a plan of turning around and descending by 2pm regardless of whether they had reached the summit.
Continue reading...Geneva motor show organisers brace for coronavirus disruption
Key event in European automotive calendar could be under threat as crisis deepens
Carmakers are monitoring the development of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe amid concerns that a key motor show in Geneva could be affected.
The spread of the disease has forced the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress, a tech trade fair in Barcelona that had been expected to host more than 100,000 delegates from about 200 countries.
Continue reading...Swiss vote to approve legislation to protect LGBTQ+ rights
Referendum approves law that was passed in 2018 but was opposed by rightwing parties
Swis voters have given their backing in a referendum to extending anti-racism legislation to cover sexual orientation, defying critics who had claimed such a move would be an infringement of free speech.
Unlike many of its western European neighbours, Switzerland has no law in force that specifically protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination or hate speech.
Continue reading...Tidjane Thiam: the man who traded politics for finance after military coup
Ousted Credit Suisse chief transformed Prudential before City regulator censured him
Tidjane Thiam is the scion of an influential family whose political connections and history spread across two West African countries: Ivory Coast and Senegal.
The 57-year-old came to prominence in the UK when he was named as the head of Prudential in 2009, making him the first black chief executive of a major British company.
Continue reading...Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam ousted after spying scandal
The 57-year-old loses boardroom battle with Thomas Gottstein set to replace him
The Credit Suisse chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, has been ousted in the wake of a saga involving corporate espionage, an alleged car chase and personal vendettas that has sent shockwaves through Switzerland’s famously discreet banking community.
Thiam, widely seen as one of the finance world’s leading lights, resigned after losing a boardroom battle that erupted when the bank admitted to having hired private detectives to spy on former staff.
Continue reading...Swiss bliss: Teju Cole’s Alpine wanderlust – in pictures
The German Fernweh translates as a longing to be elsewhere. For Teju Cole this means Switzerland – which he visits ever year to write and photograph the country’s desolate beauty
Continue reading...World’s most expensive watch sells for £24.2m in charity auction
All proceeds from sale in Switzerland go to research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy
A Patek Philippe watch has sold for a record 31m Swiss francs (£24.2m) at a charity auction hosted by Christie’s in Switzerland. It is by far the highest price ever paid for a wristwatch, and all of the proceeds will be donated to research into muscular dystrophy.
The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime 6300A-010, which was created specially for the charity auction Only Watch, was bought by a private telephone bidder following a five-minute auction at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, in Geneva, on Saturday. It had been expected to sell for SFr2.5-3m.
Continue reading...‘A tectonic shift’: Green Party makes historic gains in Swiss vote
‘Tidal wave’ of support for environmentalist party but anti-immigrant Swiss People’s Party remains the largest
Switzerland’s Green Party have made historic gains in national elections, while the anti-immigrant rightwing remained the largest party in parliament despite a slip in its support.
Definitive results confirmed a pre-vote forecast that rising concerns about climate change would trigger an electoral “green wave”.
Continue reading...Senior Credit Suisse executive quits over ‘extraordinary’ spying scandal
Bank rules surveillance of outgoing head of wealth management Iqbal Khan was ‘wrong and disproportionate’
Credit Suisse has sacked its chief operating officer over an “extraordinary” James Bond-style corporate espionage scandal in which the bank hired private detectives to tail a senior executive and his wife through the streets of Zurich following a row with his boss at a cocktail party.
Switzerland’s second-biggest bank said on Tuesday that Pierre-Olivier Bouée had left with immediate effect after the board of directors ruled that the seven-day spying operation was “wrong and disproportionate and has resulted in severe reputational damage to the bank”.
Continue reading...Swiss to auction 25 supercars seized from son of Equatorial Guinea dictator
Luxury cars seized from vice president Teodorin Obiang Nguema are expected to fetch $18m at Geneva auction
A collection of luxury cars seized from Equatorial Guinea’s vice president, Teodorin Obiang Nguema, will be auctioned off in Switzerland and are estimated to bring in 18.5m Swiss francs ($18.7m).
“This is an exceptional sale,” Philip Kantor, of British auctioneers Bonhams, told AFP. “It’s a private collection of supercars, with very low mileage.”
Continue reading...Assisting a suicide is not always a crime, rules Italian court
Trial of a euthanasia activist who helped a tetraplegic, blind DJ to die may lead to new law
Italy’s constitutional court has ruled it was not always a crime to help someone in “intolerable suffering” commit suicide, opening the way for a change of law in the Catholic country.
Parliament is now expected to debate the matter, which was highlighted by the Milan trial of an activist who helped a tetraplegic man die in Switzerland.
Continue reading...Switzerland’s wine festival – in pictures
The Swiss town of Vevey has staged a once-in-a-generation celebration of its winemakers, with fancy dress, alpine horns, cows and dancers kicking off a festival that dates back to the 18th century. The three-week Fête des Vignerons, which began in 1797, is held roughly every 20 years and on Thursday 5,500 locals donned costumes, wigs and makeup to take part in the gala opening
Continue reading...Former Manus Island detainee tells UN ‘human beings are being destroyed’
Abdul Aziz Muhamat delivers a plea for urgent action to the Human Rights Council
Since Abdul Aziz Muhamat left Manus Island for the last time, he has climbed a mountain in his new home of Switzerland, and then returned to advocating for the resettlement of the hundreds of men and women he left behind.
The Sudanese refugee spent more than six years in Australia’s offshore processing and detention system in Papua New Guinea, before he was granted residency in the European nation earlier this month.
Continue reading...‘Hell is coming’: week-long heatwave begins across Europe
Temperatures could hit 40C from Spain to Switzerland, with authorities urging children and older people to stay indoors
Authorities have urged children and older people to stay indoors and issued severe warnings against dehydration and heatstroke as an unprecedented week-long heatwave begins its advance across continental Europe.
Meteorologists said temperatures would reach or even exceed 40C from Spain to Switzerland as hot air was sucked up from the Sahara by the combination of a storm stalling over the Atlantic and high pressure over central Europe.
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