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Amazee or Amazon – what’s in a name?

This content was published on May 1, 2009 Amazon has warned it will try to stop Amazee from using its brand in the US on the grounds that the names are too similar, despite the two companies offering different services. The blocking bid follows an earlier threat to prevent Amazee from operating under its own name in Switzerland. Zurich-based Amazee successfully registered the…

Police quash May Day riot with rubber bullets

This content was published on May 1, 2009 Police said about 300 masked troublemakers started brawls and damaging property in the city around 3.30pm on Friday, when officers moved in to restore order. Thirty people were arrested. A demonstration earlier in the day had unfolded largely without incident in Switzerland’s biggest city. Tamils participated in particularly large numbers, observers said, adding significantly to…

Air passengers to Zurich may have flu virus

This content was published on May 1, 2009 Patrick Mathys, a Federal Health Office representative, urged anyone who flew on US Airways flight 804 from Cancún to Philadelphia and US Airways flight 710 from Philadelphia to Zurich on April 25 to contact a doctor. A traveller onboard those flights had been infected with H1N1, an influenza A virus. Fellow passengers may have contracted…

Demand for healthy organs outpaces supply

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 Representatives of Swisstransplant, a foundation that promotes organ donations and transplants, said on Wednesday that the key to resolving the shortfall was simple: find more people willing to give up their organs upon their deaths. Trix Heberlein, president of the foundation, told swissinfo that Switzerland’s number of registered organ donors was currently ranked near the…

Wall Street traders hit the ropes

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 In his latest documentary, Traders, Swiss director Jean-Stéphane Bron captures bankers taking part in the 2008 Wall Street Boxing Charity Championship at the height of the financial crisis. Traders was shown on Monday at the Visions du Réel documentary film festival in Nyon, which runs until Thursday. Six years after his smash-hit documentary, Mais im…

Switzerland demands more fairness from OECD

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 In a letter sent on Tuesday to Angel Gurría, the OECD secretary-general, Swiss President and Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz demanded “fairness, transparency and equal terms”. At the beginning of this month, the OECD placed Switzerland on a “grey” list of countries considered to only partially respect the body’s criteria in tax matters. Merz’s letter contained…

Sweet Taste

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 Hermann Fuhrer is a pensioner and beekeeping is his hobby. (Pictures and text: Christoph Balsiger, swissinfo, 2004).

More Swiss plan to holiday at home this year

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 According to the GfK Switzerland market research institute, residents in French-speaking Switzerland and people with low incomes are most likely to take a less expensive vacation, or cancel their travel plans altogether. The results of the survey, published on Wednesday, found that more than ten per cent were considering spending their time off from work…

Reform of EU trade barriers mooted

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted in favour of a government proposal aimed at lowering prices for consumer goods, despite opposition by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party and the Greens. They argued Switzerland should not introduce the so-called Cassis de Dijon rule unilaterally without winning similar pledges by the EU. However, the house agreed…

UBS expects no 2nd quarter economic recovery

This content was published on Apr 29, 2009 In a report based on a survey of around 400 companies in the first quarter of 2009, UBS said “exporters are particularly feeling the heat”. However, UBS said that domestically oriented industries and service providers are faring better. New orders, production, sales and earnings melted away in the first three months of the year, and…

Internal: Archive

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