Category Archives: Switzerland

Briton’s abseiling death in Swiss Alps was an accident, inquest finds

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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...

World’s most expensive watch sells for £24.2m in charity auction

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

‘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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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’

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Man arrested over death of British woman in Swiss hotel

Posted on by

Anna Florence Reed was found dead after reports of noisy disturbance in middle of night

Police in Switzerland are investigating how a 22-year-old British woman died in a hotel room she was allegedly sharing with her boyfriend.

Anna Florence Reed was found dead on Tuesday at the four-star La Palma au Lac hotel near Locarno, on the banks of Lake Maggiore, after reports of a noisy disturbance in the room during the middle of the night.

Continue reading...

Court overturns referendum as voters were poorly informed … in Switzerland

Posted on by

Incomplete detail and lack of transparency invalidated vote on tax laws, says supreme court

Switzerland’s supreme court has overturned a nationwide referendum for the first time in the country’s modern history, on the grounds that the information given to voters was insufficient.

In a ruling that may resonate in Britain, where remain campaigners have long argued that voters in the 2016 Brexit referendum were not adequately informed, the court said incomplete detail and a lack of transparency had violated the freedom of the vote, which could now be re-run.

Continue reading...

Coffee beans not vital for human survival, Switzerland decides

Posted on by

Government proposes end to decades-old strategy of stockpiling bags of raw product

Switzerland has announced plans to abolish the emergency stockpiling of coffee, a strategy that has been in place for decades, saying the beans are not vital for human survival – though opposition to the proposal is brewing.

Nestlé, the maker of instant coffee Nescafé, and other importers, roasters and retailers are required by Swiss law to store bags of raw coffee. The country also stockpiles staples such as sugar, rice, edible oils and animal feed.

Continue reading...

Vintage ski posters – in pictures

Posted on by

A collection of vintage ski and winter sports posters up to a century old – some worth thousands of dollars – is about to be auctioned in New York. The resorts advertised range from Europe’s Alpine jewels to the mountains of Canada, and all offer fun in the outdoors

Continue reading...