Last Page 2018
1.4 million parcels a day: record Christmas for Swiss Post
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This figure represents an increase on last year’s 1.3 million parcels per day;
Experts say this is due to the growing popularity of online shopping.
All available staff in three of the biggest Swiss Post sorting centres (Frauenfeld in Thurgau, Härkigen in Solothurn and Daillens in Vaud) have been working extra shifts on Saturdays for the last five weeks.
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Swiss Post has expanded its sorting system in the past few years to further help it cope with such high numbers of parcels; It is also currently working on the construction of three new regional sorting centres in Ticino, Valais and Graubünden.
Bankers no longer Top Earners
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The pharmaceutical industry holds today the top place in the Swiss earnings table, newly published data on executive salaries reveals.
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Top-ranking executives in the pharmaceutical industry now have a median gross salary of 645,420 Swiss francs (€565,660) against 526,000 francs for the third-placed banking and financial services sector.
In second place is the insurance industry where the median gross salary for top-flight executives is 643,104 francs
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Record-breaking Swiss Alps postcard sends message against climate change.
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A massive collage of 125,000 drawings and messages from children around the world about climate change was rolled out on the shrinking Aletsch glacier in the Swiss Alps, at an altitude of 3,400 metres.
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The mosaic of postcards of 2,500 square metres aims to boost a global youth climate movement ahead of the next global climate conference (COP24) in Poland next December.
Marie Antoinette pendant fetches $36 million, shattering estimate.
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A pearl and diamond pendant owned by Marie Antoinette before she was beheaded during the French Revolution sold for $36 million at an auction on November 14, shattering its pre-sale estimate of up to $2 million.
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The Sotheby's auction at an ultra-luxurious hotel on the banks of Lake Geneva saw feverish bidding for a 10-piece collection owned by the ill-fated queen, featuring jewels unseen in public for two centuries.
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The 10 items, which had been estimated to fetch a total of $3 million, sold for a combined sum of nearly $43 million, Sotheby's said
Rare pink diamond selss for record breaking $50 million.
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An unusually large pink diamond sold for a record-breaking $50 million at Christie's auction house in Geneva.
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Pink Legacy is categorized as a "Fancy Vivid" diamond, the highest grade of color intensity. Only 1 in 100,000 diamonds receives the grading.
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The diamond is an even rarer find because of its size, as Fancy Vivid Pink diamonds larger than 10 carats are "virtually unheard of,"
Targeted electrical stimulation helps paralysed men walk again
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EFPL in colaboration with Lausanne University Hospital announced that three men with chronic paraplegia were able to walk short distances using crutches or a walker after targeted electrical stimulation was applied to their spinal cords using a wireless implant.
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The men who had been paraplegic for many years were able to walk over ground after undergoing five months of intensive rehabilitation involving extremely precise electrical stimulation of the lumbar spinal cord and weight-assisted therapy.
Queen guitarist praises Swiss soldiers for version of 'We Will Rock You'
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The Swiss army has received some unexpected praise – not for its soldiering but for its musicianship, and from none other than Queen guitarist and rock legend Brian May.
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“Swiss Army - A stonkin’ rendition of WWRY [We Will Rock You],” wrote May in an Instagram post featuring a video of Swiss soldiers performing the classic in the driving snow (go to link for video).
“I feel very honoured. Never in my wildest dreams,” the guitarist added.
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Mansour Celebrates his 90th birthday and 50 years of ETH Automatic Control Division
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Prof. Mansour established the Automatic Control division of the ETH Zurich in 1968 and becam the first non-Swiss division head in the history of the ETH.
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Prof. Mansour was born 1928 in Damieta and graduated from Faculty of Engineering Alexandria university 1951; he joined the ETH 1961 where he obtained his Ph. D. with disinction earning the ETH Sliver Medal and established the Automatic Control division 1968 and was the head of the division until his retirment in 1993.
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His previous Ph.D. students celebrtated his birthday on September 8th while the ETH celebrated the division Diamond Jubilee on 10 and 11 Sept.
Amelia Edwards Award 2018 to Dr. Ibrahim Karim
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The famous architect and founder of the Biogeometry Science, Dr. Ibrahim Karim, was awarded the Amelia B. Edwards Award for outstanding work in the field of pyramid research at the 2nd Annual Global Pyramid conference in Chicago.
Canton St. Gallen overwhelmingly votes for 'burqa ban'
A second Swiss canton will introduce a regional "burqa ban", after voters in St. Gallen overwhelmingly voted Sunday to prohibit all face-covering garments in public spaces.
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Nearly 67 percent of voters in the northeastern Swiss canton voted in favour of the new law, according to official results, paving the way for it to follow the example of the southern canton of Ticino, where a law was introduced two years ago that appeared to be aimed at burqas and other Muslim veils.
Swiss Federal Criminal Court orders Geneva warehouse firm to return statue to Egypt
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The statue had been held by the Swiss company in a warehouse at the Geneva Free Port, one of the world's largest depots for art and antiquities, since 2013
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Egyptian authorities, who filed a request in 2017 for the statue to be returned to Egypt, claim it was illegally sourced from a site in Giza, home to some of the world's most famous monuments.
The court ruled that the storage company based at the Geneva Free Port, a global hub of ancient artifacts and valuable artworks, is to hand over the identity documents of a statue of King Djefedre to the Egyptian government, which claims the statue was illegally acquired from a site near the Great Sphinx.
Pope celebrates mass before tens of thousands in Geneva
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Up to 40,000 people attended a mass by Pope Francis that marked the culmination of his one-day visit to Geneva on Thursday June 21, the first papal visit to Switzerland in 14 years.
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A mixed crowd filled the Palexpo exhibition hall, with many children and young people present, the Catholic online news agency Kath.ch reported.
The Swiss government was represented by cabinet minister Doris Leuthard, herself a Catholic, of the Christian Democratic Party.
The service was multilingual: the pope delivered his homily in Italian and celebrated the liturgy in French.
He spoke of the blessings of forgiveness and the need to forgive one another.
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Egypt, first country to hold all world top titles in squash
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Summer 2018 witnessed Egyptian squash players winning all major titles in the game.
All World Championship titles for Men and Ladies single, Junior Boys and Gilrs Under 19, Teams Men and Teams Ladies, Teams Junior Boys and Team Junior Girls.
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The top 10 men include 5 Egyptian players of which the first rank is held by Mohamed El Shorbagy; the top 10 ladies include 4 Egyptian ladies of which Raneem El Welily.
Switzerland has sixth 'most powerful' passport in the world
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Global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners produces the Henley Passport Index each year using data from the International Air Transport Association; the 2018 edition for 199 countries ranked Switzerland’s passport as the sixth best in the world as it provides visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 185 countries.
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The ranking puts Switzerland on the same footing as Belgium, Ireland and Canada.
Japanese passport came first with easy acces to 190 nations, Singapore came second (189), Germany France and South Korea third (188), Denmark Finland Sweden Spain and Italy fourth (187), USA UK Norway Luxembourg Austria Portufal and Netherland fifth (186).
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Countries belonging to Europe’s 26-member Schengen Area have traditionally topped the Henley index due to providing open access to large parts of Europe, Henley & Partners noted, but Asian countries are catching up thanks to strengthened international trade and diplomatic relations.
Switzerland's New 200 Francs Note
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The hi-tech banknote with will be unveiled on August 15th and go into circulation a week later, said the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
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The note will join the stylish new 10-franc, 20-franc and 50-franc notes that have been gradually rolled out over the last two years.
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Each note in the state-of-the-art new series depicts a characteristic of Switzerland, illustrated by various graphic elements including a hand and the globe, which appear on every note.
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The heavy-duty 1,000-franc note and the 100-franc note are expected to be released in 2019, the SNB said late last year.
The new Swiss notes have “state-of-the-art anti-counterfeiting protection” which includes design features that can only be seen under a microscope or using UV light. Older banknotes from the eighth series, released in 1995, will remain legal tender until further notice.
EPFL is ranked the top internationalniversity in the world.
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Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne has been named the most international university in the world in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) ranking.
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Switzerland also took silver in the list with Zurich’s ETH technology institute coming second. This reverses the positions the two institutes claimed in the inaugural 2017 ranking.
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In equal sixth position this year was the university of Geneva while institutions in Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Australian filled out the top 10.
Omar Shariff Garffiti in Geneva
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Egyptian graffiti artist Aya Tarek immortalizes the image of legendary Egyptian actor Omar Sharif on Geneva’s streets.
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Aya began her passion for graffiti in Alexandria 2008 at the age 18; she spent 5 days suspended by a crane to finish her Omar Sharif graffiti which was completed on February 4th 2018.
Roger Federer wins Rotterdam for 97th title and becomes oldest world No.1 ever.
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Roger Federer celebrated his return to the top of the world rankings by winning the Rotterdam Open, his 97th career title, and declared it "one of the best weeks of my life".
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At 35, Federer has surpassed Andre Agassi as the oldest player to occupy the summit of the men's game - the American was 33 when he was last on top in September 2003, on the other hand only American Jimmy Connors has won more titles with 109.
Switzerland wins 15 medals and ranks seventh at 2018 Winter Olympics
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The largest ever Swiss Olympic Team exceeded expectations at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
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With 166 competitors in 14 sports, the Swiss won 15 medals in total (five gold, six silver and four bronze), ranking 7th in the medal table.
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Next Winter Olympics 2022 will be held in Bejjing; Sion is competing to host the following Winter Olympics in 2026.
Geneva and Zurich among world's worst for traffic
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Drivers in the French-speaking city spend an average of 52 hours in relatively slow traffic every year while that figure is 51 hours in Zurich, according to the newly released Global Traffic Scorecard from US firm INRIX which specializes in traffic analytics, these results put the two largest cities in Switzerland in 32nd and 33rd place globally out of the 1,360 cities and towns studied by the US firm.
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Geneva and Zurich are a long way behind world leader Los Angeles where drivers have to put up with 102 hours of slower-moving traffic a year, or New York and Moscow, where the figure is 91 hour
Unfortunately the study did not include Cairo.
’Swiss Schindler’ honoured with room in Federal Palace
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The meeting room in west wing of the Swiss Federal Palace in Bern where foreign policy decisions are forged was named after Carl Lutz on the 43rd anniversary of his death.
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A commemorative plaque bearing his name and those of Harald Feller, Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser, Ernst Vonrufs and Peter Zürcher – all of whom worked with Lutz to help save the lives of over 60,000 Jews from Nazi extermination camps – was also placed in the room.
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From 1942 to 1945, Lutz worked as vice-consul for neutral Switzerland in Budapest. When the Germans occupied the country in 1944, the diplomat managed to hammer out an agreement for the Germans to provide safe passage for 8,000 Jews. He then applied the diplomatic letters of protection he obtained to whole families instead of individuals. When the 8,000 documents were used up, he simply began the numbering series again.
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Lutz and his colleagues also set up safe houses around the Hungarian capital where thousands of Jews took shelter. An estimated 62,000 Jews are thought to have been saved by these efforts.
Tearful Federer wins Australian Open for 20th Slam title
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Federer, playing in his 30th Grand Slam final, sixth Australian open, won his 20th Grand Slam Titel; he joined Novak Djokovic and Australian great Roy Emerson as joint top for the most Australian Open men's titles.
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Last July, Federer claimed his 19th Grand Slam title in Wimbeldon to become - at 35 - Wimbledon's oldest men's winner of the modern era, succeeding Arthur Ashe, who was almost 32 when he won in 1976.
