Angelina Jolie Revisits Ecuador

Angelina Jolie Revisits Ecuador, originally uploaded by UNHCR.

Vineyard awaits better days ahead

Vineyard awaits better days ahead
Originally uploaded by oobwoodman

Winter, vines and snow above Lake Geneva.

GenevaLunch weekend pause

To our visitors: GenevaLunch has been very busy for the past few weeks preparing for a major changeover, a move to an exciting new site that will offer you more. This is our weekend to move and the site is likely to be down briefly, with a few bumpy moments while we move to a new hosting programme as well as software. We apologize for any inconvenience and for our shorter than usual news fare today, Friday, while we pack up the old site.

Check out our September events before the weekend - the weather promises to be fair, with some spots of rain and cloud late Saturday and Sunday. In addition to those we've listed, you might want to consider heading to Crans-Montana for the big Omega golf tournament or to Grandvaux for their annual wine label festival, with great scenery and lots of food! Enjoy the weekend, see you Monday with our new look.

FEATURE: Swiss wine fair offers St Emilion first

Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The opening of the 6-7 September (Saturday-Sunday) Vinea wine fair in Sierre promises its usual spectacular weather, with pleasant temperatures and sunny skies.

Some 1,200 wines from 110 Valais producers are ready to be sampled at this largest of Swiss wine festivals, where 10,000 people are expected. The special guest wine production area this year, for the festival's 15th year, is St Emilion, France - doubly special because the producers' group there, the Collège des Vins de St-Emilion  is offering Vinea a first: open-air tastings of its wines, offered to the public. The festival will also be showcasing different risottos from neighbouring Italy, Nez du Vin aroma kits, and there are activities for children as well as hikes through the vineyard and guided tours along the Vinea street. The entry fee is CHF30 (all wines tasted for free as long as you have a Vinea 2008 glass).

Ed. note: GenevaLunch will carry several wine features related to Vinea after the festival

Programme for the weekend

Avenue Général Guisan, city centre, Sierre
Saturday 6 September, 10:00-17:00
Sunday, 7 September, 10:00-17 :00
details: www.vinea.ch

Tasting passport: CHF30/day
Free parking at the Plaine Bellevue
Public transport: the event takes place very near the CFF train station

Childcare, free for children age three or over, maximum three hours
Location: La Terrasse shopping centre, first floor
Daily from 11:00-17:00

Vinea Junior
Specially designed for children, an opportunity for them to explore their senses of smell and taste, through a blind tasting of different flavoured drinks.

Photos: Anchette, above Sierre, Friday morning

New this year: Download the VINEA tasting notebook to your cell phone, free of charge. See www.vinea.ch for details

Guided tours: ask at the entrance

Wines from the rest of Switzerland and the world: You can explore the wines of the Collège des vins de Saint-Emilion and the Baronnie du Dézaley whose grapes are grown on the magnificent hillsides of Lavaux, a Unesco World Heritage site, as well as those from Ticino, and meet the men and women who produce these wines.

Valais raclette, 2008 summer pasture cheeses

The food stand, Ovronnaz : Cheese and mountain, invites you to mix the wonderful smells of VINEA’s wines with Valais raclette cheeses. Start by sampling three raclettes from the Valais alpine pastures from the summer of 2008. The cheeses are selected by Claude Luisier, master cheesemaker.

Also on offer: The Maison de Courten cellars, photo exhibit: “Wine is a natural emotion”

After more than 10 years of travels, crossing 16 countries, Jan yng joon, South Korean photographer, presents his “Wine is a natural emotion” exhibit which shows his vision of the world of wine, rich in colour, line and form.

Maison de Courten cellars
Rue du Bourg, free entry
During VINEA, 6-7 September, open 10:00-19:00

Cheney in Georgia - Chappatte

© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon

More cartoons on Chappatte's web site

Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.

Post office runs trial morning mail deliveries

Vaud, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) - La Poste, the Swiss postal service, is running six-month trials, in several parts of Vaud, of afternoon-only mail deliveries to households, with business areas given priority for morning delivery. Newspapers continue to be delivered in the morning in the tests that began last week. The trial, designed to make the post office more competitive in preparation for the market opening up in 2012, will give the postal service a chance to study the financial implications of the change. Business areas are defined as sectors where at least 3% of those receiving mail have a minimum of 10 items delivered a day.,

Federer makes it to US Open semi-finals

Flushing Meadows, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer defeated Luxembourg player Gilles Muller in three sets, 7-6 6-4 7-6  and now faces Novak Djokovic, who Thursday night defeated Andy Roddick in four sets. (details on TSR, Fre and Bloomberg).

International news digest 5 September 2008

Friday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso could be in line to be the next prime minister, after announcing he will run for his party's presidency. CNN
• Asif Ali Zardari, The widower of Benazir Bhutto, former head of Pakistan, is expected to be elected president on Saturday, despite being shadowed by past unproven charges of corruption and little experience in political leadership. International Herald Tribune
• Condoleezza Rice begins a tour of North Africa Friday with a "historic" visit to Libya, the first by an American secretary of state since 1953, agreed to following Libya's promise to move hundreds of millions of dollars into a humanitarian account, compensation money for the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing. The money has not yet been paid. BBC
• Moscow has had to "shore up the rouble" by intervening heavily, reports the Financial Times, in the wake of what analysts say is $21 billion in foreign capital taken out of the country to support the fight in Georgia.
• US lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to an additional four years on corruption charges, to be served at the same time as the six years behind bars he is already doing. He is credited with helping the Republicans lose control of Congress in a far-reaching scandal. Reuters

Europe up against Russia - Chappatte

© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon

More cartoons on Chappatte's web site

Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.

Geneva insists its police can spell correctly

Geneva, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) - AS Geneva tests its second batch of candidates this year for its police force, a surprising statistic has surfaced, reports 20 Minutes: two-thirds of them don't make it through because they fail the dictée (dictation), where they are allowed 10 spelling mistakes. The reason: a large part of police work is writing reports and since some of these may end up in court, they need to be correctly written.

Credit Suisse among latest banks hit by US auction rate securities

New York, USA (GenevaLunch) - The continuing and widespread investigations in the United States into auction rate securities abuses by banks have netted two former Credit Suisse brokers, both under arrest for misleading their clients (see Securities and Exchange Commission press release). Several banks have been investigated by the SEC and various states in the US since the collapse of the auction rate securities market; widespread complaints by clients that they were told the market was relatively safe when in fact it was increasingly unstable has led to a number of settlements by banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse.

Today's story, TSR, Fre

Background: "UBS shares fall on news that New York files civil charges," 25 July 2008, GenevaLunch

Nestle surprise news: Polman's abrupt departure (is Unilever's gain)

Updated 09:30  Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nestlé, in an early Thursday morning brief press release with no details, announced the departure of Paul Polman, executive vice-president in charge of the company's Zone America," with immediate effect in order to pursue other interests." Unilever, meanwhile, announced that Polman will move into its CEO slot effective January, when current CEO Patrick Cescau retires. Unilever is the world's second largest consumer group, according to Bloomberg.

Polman moved from Procter & Gamble to Nestle in 2006 as the food multinational's chief financial officer and he was widely tipped in 2007 to take on the job of executive president when Peter Brabeck-Letmathe retired and moved to the post of chairman of the board. The company in a surprise announcement in September 2007 named Paul Brucke, head of Zone Americas, to the top job and in January 2008 Polman moved from his finance job to head the Americas unit.

Polman, who is Dutch, will be heading a company based in The Netherlands.

Financial Times story on the Unilever appointment

International news digest, 4 September 2008

Thursday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• Sarah Palin's first public speech as John McCain's choice for vice-president wowed the Republican convention crowd in St Paul, Minnesota, almost overshadowing the fact that McCain was voted the Republican's official candidate for president. CNN, International Herald Tribune
• The US is close to filing a case at the World Trade Organisation against China for export restrictions on steel; the European Union already has three investigations underway against China for dumping. Financial Times
• Tropical storm Hanna is heading for the Bahamas, where it could hit Haiti very hard, a country that has already been badly battered this year, with three major storms in 21 days killing 170 people, leaving thousands homeless in a situation the president says is a "catastrophe." BBC
• Serena Williams beat her sister Venus in a "heart-stopping" game, writes Reuters, in "the greatest duel yet" between the sisters: 7-6 7-6.

Post-George (Clooney, that is)

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There is a kind of post-George hangover in the air in Geneva today, after George Clooney's brief visit to raise $1 million-plus for Barack Obama. The Irish broadcasting network made his fundraising stopover headline news, picking up the story from Reuters (as did Yahoo News), Swisster, part of the Edipresse publishing group, made a flash in the pan Clooney autograph signing session in Carouge its main story on the Tribune de Geneve, and WRS, ran an interview with Charles Adams, Clooney's host, Tuesday morning, to ask if there were any seats left for the $10,000 dinner (answer: no) among the 75 on offer. You can check out the photo of him on the WRS page if you missed the real George.

Palin's daughter pregnant - Chappatte

© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon

More cartoons on Chappatte's web site

Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.

Police bust pedophile ring in Switzerland, Germany, Austria

St Gallen, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve/ATS, Fre) - Swiss police arrested four people and are investigating another nine as part of an Internet pedophile ring in eastern Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The site, where pedophiles have been sharing their experiences and tips for contacting children, reportedly started in Germany, and some 600 people are under investigation there. The Swiss Coordination Unit for Cybercrime Control uncovered the Swiss part of the ring.

Goran Bezina signs with Geneva for another five years

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva Servette hockey player Goran Bezina and the Geneva Servette Hockey Club announced this morning that the contract for the Eagles' captain is being extended for another five seasons. The contract for the defenseman, who arrived at the club for the 2004-05 season, comes just two days before the club's season starts, with a game in Davos Friday. The first home game of the season comes Saturday at Geneva's Les Vernets stadium. Bezina's contract reportedly nevertheless carries a clause that he is free to go to the NHL at the end of the season.

Photo: club manager Chris McSorley, left and Goran Bezina, right.

Swiss rail company CFF has strong half-year

Photo: popular Lausanne-Bern train rides through the Lavaux Unesco heritage site.

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The CFF rail company Wednesday morning reported a 13% increase in profits for the first half of 2008, compared to January to June 2007: CHF104.8 million. Of that, CHF101.8 comes from increased passenger traffic, up 5.8% with freight traffic continuing to lag. A CHF2 million loss was recorded for the company's additional rail traffic, some two million additional passengers, during the Euro 2008 football championship. Extra hours related to the additional 4,700 trains were responsible for the loss.

The Geneva-Lausanne route accounts for one of the largest increases in passengers, up 10.8% for the six-month period, well above the national average but below the increases around Zurich and Bern, and strong traffic increases (24%) for the new Loetschberg tunnel trains.   

Bern approves 9 new national parks

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The federal government in Bern has given the green light to plans for nine new national parks and one regional nature reserve. The parks cover 3,000m2, or 7% of Switzerland - an area the size of canton Ticino. The stamp of approval means the parks will now receive CHF7.4 million in federal funding, allowing their development to move ahead.

The projects are:

Landschaftspark Binntal (Valais)
Projet Parc régional Chasseral (Bern/Neuchatel)
Projet Regionaler Naturpark Diemtigtal (Bern)
Projet Parc Ela (Graubuenden)
Projet Regionaler Naturpark Gantrisch (Bern/Fribourg)
Projet Regionaler Naturpark Thal (Solothurn)
Projet Naturpark Thunersee-Hohgant (Bern)
Projet Val Müstair (Grisons)

Sihlwald, in canton Zurich, is the new regional nature reserve. In July another, already approved regional nature reserve, Entlebuch in canton Lucerne, was awarded the label of Unesco biosphere park, which it will celebrate on Switzerland's national parks day 6 Setember. It is considered to be a pioneer park project for Switzerland.

Ed.note: the web pages, in English, about Entlebuch, do a good job of explaining the idea behind a biosphere, where efforts are made to preserve a landscape and nature, while encouraging sustainable development, with an emphasis on planning participation by the population.

International news digest 3 September 2008

Wednesday news gathered by GenevaLunch from sources around the world

• International tennis: Roger Federer made it through his game at the US Open in New York, USA, in a "thrilling game" where both his strength as a player and his recent frailty were on display (BBC), while Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters are expected to put on a real show Wednesday, Reuters writes.
• US Republicans: Palin continues to lead the Republican convention news, with a New York Times article on her odd start in politics, the Huffington Post carrying numerous blogs sounding off on the pregnant daughter subject and other Palin matters, and Reuters pointing out that her appearance at the convention Wednesday will give most Americans their first opportunity to see the Alaska governor. CBS is checking out the rumours that she was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, saying it looks like maybe it was her husband, not the governor, who belonged to the separatist group. The Guardian in the UK kindly lifted the focus from the pregnant teenage daughter to Governor Palin's husband's arrest 20 years ago for drunk under the influence of alcohol, at age 22.
• US forces appear to have been involved in an attack that killed 15 people in Pakistan, just over the border from Afghanistan. BBC
• India is starting a major rescue and aid operation in the face of major flooding, as criticism of its slow and too-weak response continues at home and abroad. CNN
• Coca-cola is offering $2.5 million for a Chinese juice company, the largest-ever foreign buyout of a Chinese firm, if it goes ahead. Beijing-based Huiyuan had 2007 sales of $380 million and owning it would give the US beverage multinational a strong footing in China. International Herald Tribune
• A man was arrested in Washington state, not far from the Canadian border, after a shooting spree that killed six people and injured two others. Reuters
• [Reuters video] Chopsticks in pure gold for $7,000: what more could you want? If you live in China, one Japanese company figures, quite a lot. They've manufactured a $1 million 13-piece dining set, all gold, aimed mainly at the very wealthy in China, the world's largest gold producer.