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Fewer people spend the night at Swiss hotels

This content was published on May 7, 2009 The Federal Statistics Office reported on Thursday that a reason behind the March decline could be that the Easter travel season came in April this year. Swiss hoteliers hosted proportionately fewer foreign guests in March than Swiss ones. Foreign travellers accounted for 1.8 million overnight stays, a drop of 411,000 or 19 per cent compared…

Athletics meeting highlights sponsorship fears

This content was published on May 7, 2009 Organisers of Zurich’s Weltklasse Golden League athletics event are still not sure if main sponsor UBS will continue beyond 2010. The Swiss bank has already ended its association with two other sporting events. The bank was hit hard by the subprime financial crisis and announced last month that it needs to save SFr4 billion ($3.5…

Holcim profit crumbles

This content was published on May 6, 2009 It fell to SFr74 million ($65.22 million) compared with SFr370 million for the same period last year. The world’s number two in the sector said on Wednesday that its sales had tumbled by 17.9 per cent to SFr4.5 billion, adding that 2009 would be a “difficult year”. Business in Europe and North America had suffered…

Potential parents willing to donate embryos

This content was published on May 5, 2009 According to an article in the scientific journal, Human Reproduction, published on Tuesday, 70 per cent of couples surveyed who received or are receiving medical help with in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) said they would be open to donating their excess embryos for research. Although Swiss law currently forbids the practice, 52 per cent of those surveyed…

Tamiflu stockpiles released as flu cases climb

This content was published on May 5, 2009 The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said it was preparing to ship roughly 2.4 million courses of the antiviral drug, Tamiflu, to 72 countries “most in need”, including Mexico. “Part of the stock will be dispatched today [Tuesday],” said Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokeswoman in Geneva. Swiss pharmaceutical concern, Roche, which owns the rights to…

Numbers rise in adverse drug reaction cases

This content was published on May 5, 2009 Swissmedic, which is based in Bern, said that for human medicines the number of reports received had risen by 15 per cent to 4,833 – a figure that has more than doubled since the agency was founded in 2002. It said that spontaneous reports of adverse events were an important tool for identifying risks related…

Job loss fears trigger fall in consumer index

This content was published on May 5, 2009 A survey of 1,100 households in April showed Swiss consumers took a more sceptical view of the economy and their personal finances, while fears about job losses increased sharply, reaching the highest level since 1997. So far, consumers have kept up spending, cushioning some of the slump in exports and company investment that has dragged…

UBS confirms loss in first quarter

This content was published on May 5, 2009 Switzerland’s largest bank said the change was due to lower risk positions from businesses now divested or in the process of being divested by the ailing investment bank. First-quarter performance was negatively affected by a goodwill impairment of SFr631 million from the sale of its Brazilian unit Pactual and costs of SFr184 million. The net…

Army unit isolated amid swine flu scare

This content was published on May 4, 2009 The defence ministry said two recruits in Fribourg had been hospitalised after complaining of flu symptoms. One had been in contact with a Mexican. The precautionary measure will be upheld until at least Wednesday when the test results of the flu suspects are known. At total of 20 cases are still under examination, while one…

Third rescue package in the works

This content was published on May 2, 2009 A package of around SFr1 billion ($880 million) is in the works, to be decided by the cabinet in June, Mortiz Leuenberger, the minister for environment, energy, transport and communications told Saturday’s edition of the Mittelland Zeitung newspaper. The economic stimulus measures would follow two earlier rounds of funding in the past year totalling SFr1…

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Fewer people spend the night at Swiss hotels

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Athletics meeting highlights sponsorship fears

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Holcim profit crumbles

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Potential parents willing to donate embryos

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Tamiflu stockpiles released as flu cases climb

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Numbers rise in adverse drug reaction cases

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Job loss fears trigger fall in consumer index

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UBS confirms loss in first quarter

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Army unit isolated amid swine flu scare

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Third rescue package in the works

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