20 Minutes. Base jumpers have been leaping from the 28th floor of the Lignon towers in Vernier near Geneva, Switzerland. The buildings, built in the 1960s and 70s house around 6,000 people or about 1 in 6 of Vernier’s residents. The development, covering around 28 hectares, includes a school and medical centre. The film below […]
Swisscom fined CHF 71.8 million by Swiss competition watchdog
20 Minutes. Switzerland’s competition watchdog COMCO has fined Swisscom CHF 71.8 million. The semi-privatised Swiss telecom operator has been accused of using market dominance to gain an unfair advantage over competitors. The commission said “the Swisscom group with its subsidiaries CT Cinetrade AG and Teleclub AG holds a dominant position particularly with respect to live […]
Nearly 4 tonnes of rubbish removed from Lake Geneva
20 Minutes. Early figures show nearly 4 tonnes of rubbish were removed from the lake and its shores by volunteers during the 8th edition of the lake cleaning event called Net’Léman. “Net” is short for the French word nettoyer and Léman the local name for Lake Geneva, although some locals at the Geneva end of the […]
Stock markets under pressure on US interest rate hike speculation
20 May 2016 – Swiss and global market roundup. Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Swiss stocks are set for a modestly positive end to the week despite stock markets coming under pressure on growing speculation that the US Federal Reserve could raise rates as early as next month. Stocks markets were volatile this week after the […]
Swiss men top world life expectancy
20 Minutes. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) data released this week, Swiss boys born in 2015 will live longer than any other men on the planet. A boy born in Switzerland in 2015 can expect to live on average for 81.3 years, 12.2 years more than the global average of 69.1 years. The lowest […]
Swiss customs sees a huge rise in meat smuggling
Le Matin. Swiss customs couldn’t believe their eyes when they visited the garages of a Vaud resident who they had questioned at a border stop in Geneva. The two garages contained a total of 5,000 kgs of food. Among the stash they found 520 litres of spirits, 1,400 litres of wine, 2,800 kgs of meat […]
Too many Swiss mothers are fired after returning to work
Le Matin. According to statistics from the Conférence suisse des offices de conciliation, 11 cases of dismissal due to maternity were reported in 2013. In addition, there were 6 reported cases of women losing their jobs because they fell pregnant during their job’s trial period. In Switzerland, dismissal is deemed void if it is done during pregnancy or […]
Glencore’s best start to year eases blow from post-IPO slump
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Glencore Plc shareholders showing up for the miner’s annual meeting on Thursday can take comfort in the stock’s best ever start to a year. Less so the loss of about half the company’s value since they met 12 months ago and more than 70 percent since a $10 billion […]
Julius Baer says new money short of target in first four months
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Julius Baer Group Ltd. said net new money from clients amounted to less than 3 percent of managed assets in the first four months of the year, missing its target. Clients in eastern Europe and Latin American showed “slow momentum,” while customers in Asia reduced borrowings and wealthy French […]
Swiss vote on designer baby controversy
The Swiss Evangelical People’s Party (EVP/PEV) has launched an initiative to counter the law on reproductive medicine, which allows all embryos fertilised outside the uterus (in-vitro) to be genetically tested. Under the law, the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) on foetuses in-vitro is possible for carriers of genetically inherited disorders and for patients undergoing regular fertility treatment […]
