ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) — In Switzerland, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, financial planning starts young. The country’s number two bank Credit Suisse on Tuesday unveiled a piggy bank with built-in apps allowing children under 12 to set savings goals, check their balance and make payments. “The financial education of children is a concern to people in Switzerland,” Credit Suisse said in a statement, citing a recent study showing that 90 percent of parents in […]
Tag: Switzerland
Search and rescue efforts continue for 8 missing after landslide
BONDO VILLAGE, BREGAGLIA, Switzerland (Reuters) — Rescue crews continued to search on Thursday (August 24) for eight people including Germans, Austrians and Swiss who have been missing for more than a day after a landslide struck a remote Swiss mountain valley near the Italian border. Authorities evacuated around 100 people from the village of Bondo and airlifted hikers from nearby huts in the eastern canton of Grisons after rocks and mud hit the area on […]
Hunt for Swiss chainsaw attacker widens
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss police issued an international arrest warrant on Tuesday for a chainsaw-wielding attacker who remained on the run after wounding multiple people in an office building rampage. The assailant has been identified as Franz Wrousis, 51, who has a criminal history and had reportedly been living in a forest. Wrousis targeted the CSS insurance company on Monday in the northern town of Schaffhausen, storming into their office where he injured two […]
Robot builders working on Swiss digitally fabricated house
ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) — Construction recently began on a three-storey house near Zurich that was designed and planned using digital techniques, and is now being built using mostly robotic systems and 3D printing technologies. The DFAB HOUSE in Dubendorf brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication who have teamed up with business partners to test new building technologies under real-life […]
Swiss couple found on glacier 75 years after disappearance
Geneva, Switzerland (AFP) — A couple who disappeared in the Alps 75 years ago has been found preserved in a receding glacier, ending decades of uncertainty for their seven children, Swiss media reported Tuesday. The bodies were found lying near each other in the Diablerets massif in southern Switzerland, along with backpacks, a bottle, a book and a watch, according to Le Matin daily. The head of the Glacier 3000 ski resort, Bernard Tschannen, told Le Matin that the […]
Mastering manners at Switzerland’s last finishing school
by Nina Larson Agence France Presse GLION, Switzerland (AFP) — Eight women sit primly around an elaborately set table making pleasant small-talk about the weather, as immaculately starched waiting staff stand at the ready. But as one of the servers steps forward holding a silver soup tureen with white-gloved hands, an instructor helps her adjust the angle of the bowl to make sure the ladle is facing the diner. And a second tutor whispers in […]
Vision algorithms teaching drones to ‘see’
ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) — With demand for drones booming, both for hobby and commercial use, the race is on to develop ever-more intelligent and autonomous systems. Getting drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to effectively understand and interact with their environment has proved challenging. Researchers from the Vision for Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich are teaching drones how to ‘see’. They’ve created algorithms to give low-cost, off-the-shelf, drones the power to explore their environment and […]
Swiss chemical maker Clariant to merge with US Huntsman
ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) – Swiss group Clariant on Monday said it planned to merge with US counterpart Huntsman to create a trans-Atlantic chemicals giant with a combined value of around $20 billion. The all-stock transaction — which Clariant said would be a “merger of equals” — was agreed by the boards of both companies. The combined entity would be called HuntsmanClariant, the Swiss group said in a statement. Clariant CEO Hariolf Kottmann described the […]
Swiss vote for gradual nuclear phaseout, energy makeover
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Swiss voted Sunday in favor of a massive overhaul of the country’s energy system by gradually replacing the power from its ageing nuclear reactors with renewable sources. A full 58.2 percent of Swiss voters supported the shift, according to a final tally after Sunday’s referendum, with only four of the country’s 26 cantons voting “no”. The move has been in the making since shortly after Japan’s Fukushima […]
Switzerland has best healthcare; Indonesia, Brunei, PHL among “underachievers” in Asia
By Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse Neither Canada nor Japan cracked the top 10, and the United States finished a dismal 35th, according to a much anticipated ranking of healthcare quality in 195 countries, released Friday. Among nations with more than a million souls, top honors for 2015 went to Switzerland, followed by Sweden and Norway, though the healthcare gold standard remains tiny Andorra, a postage stamp of a country nestled between Spain (No. 8) […]
Swiss test wireless cameras to monitor newborns’ vital signs
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss researchers said Monday they have developed a wireless camera system to monitor vital signs in premature babies, a move that could replace uncomfortable and highly inaccurate skin sensors. The skin sensors currently used to monitor vital signs in babies born prematurely generate false alarms in up to 90 percent of cases, mainly set off by the baby’s movement. “This is a source of discomfort for the babies, because we have […]
Two killed in shooting at Basel cafe, one badly injured: Swiss police
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Two men shot dead two people and seriously injured a third on Thursday at a cafe in Basel, north-west Switzerland, police said as they hunt for the suspects. “Two men came into Cafe 56” around 8.15 pm local time (1915 GMT) “and fired several rounds of shots,” police said in a statement, without providing information on a possible motive. “Two customers were killed. Another is in a critical condition.” The assailants […]





