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Switzerland counts the costs of weekend storms

This content was published on Nov 18, 2002 Clean-up operations are underway but the damage is severe and repairs are expected to cost millions of francs. Some 300 people from the villages of Schlans, Panix and Tersnau in the canton of Graubünden, who were evacuated this weekend, are still unable to return to their homes. According to the cantonal police, the situation has…

Levitating train fails to get off the ground

This content was published on Nov 18, 2002 Some of its main supporters are pulling out of the project and its capital has shrunk dramatically. The kiss of death appears to have been a newspaper interview in which the Swiss transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, said he no longer believed in the scheme. The Employers Federation in French-speaking Switzerland is withdrawing from the project,…

Swiss Life aims to raise SFr1.1 billion

This content was published on Nov 18, 2002 The company said on Monday it would issue 10,839,704 shares in a rights offering expected to raise SFr856 million. The new shares have been priced at SFr79 – a discount of more than 50 per cent on Friday’s close of SFr160. A convertible offering is set to raise a further SFr200-SFr250 million. Switzerland’s largest life…

Severe weather hits Switzerland

This content was published on Nov 17, 2002 Hundreds of people were evacuated from the village of Schlans after a mudslide left the village cut off from the outside world. A police spokesman in Schlans, a village in canton Graubünden, said the landslide had gone right through the middle of the village, injuring several people. Bruno Pfister, one of around 100 people who…

Expo.02 leftovers go under the hammer

This content was published on Nov 17, 2002 Around 30,000 objects – from teepee tents to a rusting monolith – are going under the auctioneer’s hammer. The auction comes just under a month after Expo.02 closed its doors to the public for the last time on October 20 following a five-month run. Expo organisers have commissioned the liquidation company, Used Market, together with…

Multilingual Switzerland – an affordable luxury?

This content was published on Nov 17, 2002 The Swiss Academy of Social Sciences has stressed the importance of preserving Switzerland’s linguistic diversity. Economist François Grin told delegates at the Academy’s one-day conference in Biel, that moves to introduce English tuition in schools at an earlier age posed no real threat as long as Switzerland continued to invest in its national languages. Last…

Swiss banks set sights on Muslim customers

This content was published on Nov 16, 2002 UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, recently became the first Western bank to open a branch operating under Sharia law in an Islamic country. “By setting up Noriba bank in Bahrain, UBS has opened up Swiss banking to Muslims who want to use Sharia banking practices,” financial expert Gian Trepp told swissinfo. Switzerland already houses a number…

Bankers cut their losses after hours

This content was published on Nov 16, 2002 swissinfo’s Dale Bechtel prowled around Zurich’s traditional and trendy bars and discovered that traders, investors and asset managers are still savouring fine wines, whiskies and cigars. “No banker wants to admit that they’ve got a problem – to say ‘listen, I’m not earning as much as two years ago’ – so they’re pretending they can…

Divisions run deep among the Swiss

This content was published on Nov 16, 2002 Almost half of respondents thought regional differences could even lead to the break-up of Switzerland. The study by the GfS research institute found that while 73 per cent of Swiss Germans liked their French-speaking neighbours, just 51 per cent of Swiss French returned the compliment. And 29 per cent of French speakers said they would…

Credit Suisse faces questions from Swiss bourse

This content was published on Nov 15, 2002 This follows allegations that the group leaked information to financial analysts about its third quarter figures before their release on Thursday. “We have started an initial investigation to see what really happened,” the Swiss Exchange spokesman Leo Hug said on Friday. “We will go to them and see if there is reason to start a…

Internal: Archive

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Switzerland counts the costs of weekend storms

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Levitating train fails to get off the ground

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Swiss Life aims to raise SFr1.1 billion

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Severe weather hits Switzerland

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Expo.02 leftovers go under the hammer

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Multilingual Switzerland – an affordable luxury?

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Swiss banks set sights on Muslim customers

More

Bankers cut their losses after hours

More

Divisions run deep among the Swiss

More

Credit Suisse faces questions from Swiss bourse

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