Born in Switzerland and now heading from Hawaii to California, Solar Impulse 2 took off early this morning from Kalaeloa in Hawaii, as it continues its round-the-world flight. In silence, the 100% solar-powered aircraft took off across the Pacific at 6:15am Hawaii time (UTC-10) bound for California. The plane belonging to Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, […]
Archives for April 2016
Champion Swiss freerider dies in avalanche
20 Minutes. The Swiss freeride champion Estelle Balet, lost her life after getting caught in an avalanche during filming at Orsières in Valais, Switzerland. She was 21. Estelle Balet won first place in the recent Freeride World Championship held at Verbier on 2 April 2016. On Tuesday, she was being filmed in the Swiss Alps […]
Ticks active again in Switzerland
Le Matin. Tick season has started early this year. When the temperature reaches 7 degrees disease-carrying ticks spring back into action. Ticks spread nasty diseases such as Lyme disease and Tick-borne encephalitis. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Lyme disease, a bacterial infection, is common in Europe, where around 35,000 cases were reported in […]
Roche sees its first cancer immunotherapy winning U.S. nod soon
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Roche Holding AG said its most advanced experimental drug to harness the immune system in the fight against cancer may win U.S. regulatory approval this year, becoming the first such treatment to help the roughly 430,000 people diagnosed annually with bladder cancer. The medicine, called atezolizumab, may generate around $3 […]
SNB could increase scope of negative interest rates
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank could reduce the amount of leeway it grants banks on its negative deposit rate in a bid to prevent an already “significantly overvalued” franc from strengthening, President Thomas Jordan said. Still, reducing the threshold — currently 20 times an institution’s minimum reserves — isn’t an imminent […]
Rising tiger numbers are nothing to cheer about
When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) roared the news last week that “for the first time in 100 years, tiger numbers are growing”, the media, including the New York Times, splashed the headline around the world. Few journalists checked out the headline or the facts. After all, WWF said so. Yet, as science writer […]
Paleo 2016 music festival tickets soon on sale
The Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland boasts an amazing variety of artists every year. Held in fields just above Nyon, it is the annual rock festival of the region. What started as a small and eclectic get-together by the lake in 1976, has become one of Europe’s leading open-air music festivals. Over 230,000 music lovers attended last […]
Family involved in school handshake refusal applies for Swiss nationality
The Basler Zeitung, has learned that the family of the two brothers who refused to shake the hand of their female teacher at Therwil secondary school, in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, has applied for Swiss nationality. The brothers, 14 and 15, requested exemption from handshakes for religious reasons and the school’s administration granted it, according […]
Swiss buy more and more meat across the border
Swiss are buying increasing amounts of meat in neighbouring countries according to Switzerland’s professional meat union (UPSV). Over the border After three years of rising, Switzerland’s appetite for meat appears to have declined by around 1% in 2015, or 2% on a per capita basis, to an annual average of 51.4 kg per person. These numbers […]
Handsome reward paid to man who found wallet full of cash
Last Thursday in Lucerne, Switzerland, a man lost a wallet with 7,070 francs in it according to 20 Minuten. Fortunately, it was handed in and the owner was tracked down by the lost and found team at Lucerne’s police station, who returned the wallet containing a number of cards and the large sum of cash. The 20 year […]