Spas, Syria and the demise of the call box

A thing of the past: Mobile phones have killed the old telephone box. Keystone

Almost every article published by swissinfo.ch contains a percentage, an age, an amount of money or some other figure. Here’s a round-up of some of the most interesting statistics to appear in the past week’s stories.

Monday

20

The number of health spas with which Switzerland’s tourism marketing company has teamed up in a campaign to boost health tourism.  

Tuesday

3

A large-scale operation across three Swiss regions led to house searches targeting 11 people with suspected links to Islamist terrorist groups. The police raids were launched in the cantons of Zurich, Bern, and Schaffhausen, and involved some 100 officers. 

Wednesday

150

The number of people on Syria’s Constitutional Committee, which launched a first meeting in Geneva this week. Syria’s government and opposition agreed last month to form the committee in what the UN called “the first concrete political agreement” aimed at mapping a path to peace. 

Thursday

1

The number of telephone boxes left in Switzerland after the last one in the western, French-speaking part of the country was removed. Operator Swisscom said it would remove the very last one, in the northern city of Baden, on November 28.  

Friday

100 billion

The additional amount of Swiss franc deposits shielded from negative interest rates under the Swiss National Bank’s new tiering system. But the campaign against the sub-zero policy is heating up, with the Swiss Bankers Association calling for negative rates to be scrapped.