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High costs of infrastructure revealed

This content was published on Feb 1, 2011 Some SFr30 billion per annum is currently spent on maintenance alone, the Swiss National Science Foundation study revealed. Two-thirds of the maintenance bill is taken up by technical infrastructure, including transport and communications, with the remainder spent on residential buildings. Researchers warn that there is a risk of a funding shortfall in road and rail…

Genome research could combat ant pest

This content was published on Feb 1, 2011 The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), a native of South America, lives in huge colonies and destroys useful native insects. Its sting is also very painful to human beings. It is estimated to cause $5 billion (SFr4.7 billion) worth of damage every year in the United States alone, including loss of crops and livestock.…

Upgrade of Cern particle accelerator postponed

This content was published on Feb 1, 2011 The Cern management announced on Monday that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – which among other things seeks to answer questions about the origins of the universe – will now run through to the end of 2012 with a short technical stop at the end of 2011. It had originally been planned to close it…

Italians recover assets kept over Swiss border

This content was published on Jan 31, 2011 An Italian crackdown on tax cheats last year yielded €50 billion (SFr65 billion) that was hidden from tax officials. It was a 46 per cent increase on the amount recovered the previous year. Of the total, €10.5 billion was uncovered during investigations into undeclared accounts abroad. Along with Switzerland, around a quarter of those funds…

Concern as Novartis exec approved to WHO group

This content was published on Jan 29, 2011 Paul Herrling, the Swiss head of corporate research at pharmaceutical concern Novartis, was among 21 people approved this week to join a WHO expert group evaluating funding for projects into neglected tropical diseases – those illnesses affecting the poorest populations. He is the only expert in the group who is also an executive in the…

New Tunisian ministers unveiled at WEF

This content was published on Jan 29, 2011 Yassine Brahim, minister of infrastructure and transport, and Sami Zaoui, minister of information and communication technology, joined the new governor of Tunisia’s central bank, Mustapha Kamel Nabli, to announce the country is getting back to business as normal. Brahim and Zaoui, who had both been running businesses in Europe, were appointed in the last 24…

Raging commodity prices sparks fierce debate

This content was published on Jan 29, 2011 The escalating cost of basic food products, such as wheat, has provoked social unrest in the poorer parts of the world. At the same time, the increasing price of oil threatens to put a brake on recovery from the global recession. Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, French President Nicolas Sarkozy…

Biofuel and gold producers named and shamed

This content was published on Jan 28, 2011 Neste Oil was awarded the public prize after more than 50,000 people took part in an online poll. According to the awards organisers, the Berne Declaration and Greenpeace, it beat out competition from petrol giant BP and cigarette maker Philip Morris. Neste is the world’s biggest buyer of palm oil, used to produce its “Green…

Swiss not as democratic as they think

This content was published on Jan 28, 2011 The Democracy Barometer, co-authored by researchers at Zurich University and unveiled on Thursday, found that Denmark, Finland and Belgium had the world’s best functioning democracies. Britain and France were among the worst performers.The barometer, developed with the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and the first of its kind, shows the development of the 30…

Currency crisis is in the eye of the beholder

This content was published on Jan 27, 2011 swissinfo.ch squeezed into the packed school assembly hall at the 41st World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting, but left none the wiser. Sharp elbows were needed to get a seat next to the army of television cameras and it was striking how many of the audience – of what after all was only a side…

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High costs of infrastructure revealed

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Genome research could combat ant pest

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Upgrade of Cern particle accelerator postponed

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Italians recover assets kept over Swiss border

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Concern as Novartis exec approved to WHO group

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New Tunisian ministers unveiled at WEF

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Raging commodity prices sparks fierce debate

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Biofuel and gold producers named and shamed

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Swiss not as democratic as they think

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Currency crisis is in the eye of the beholder

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