GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The weather forecast for the weekend in the Lake Geneva area is better than you might think if you’re currently sitting in a downpour (your editor is watching a snow shower at 2,400 metres, above me). Showers will clear by morning, with just a few clouds left along mountain ridges. […]
Archives for May 2011
Swiss find ID checks significantly reduce under-age sales
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s experience with regular tests in the market to see if customers are asked to show that they are old enough to buy alcohol is paying off, says the government. Ten years of regular checks in 23 cantons has refined the system so that more tests are carried out in the areas […]
Geneva sets out a menu of watches, jewels and fine wine
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This is a week where spending your spare millions will be very easy in Geneva, the week when auctions are offering rare watches, an extraordinary emerald tiara and a bottle of Château Lafite-Rothschild, vintage 1887, Pauillac, 1er cru classé that would make grandfather sit up in his grave and ask for […]
Canada invents the chicken chair for healthier birds
The just-announced academic Chair of Poultry Welfare, at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, is the country’s first such chair, reports The Globe & Mail, saying that consumer concern over healthy poultry is behind the new research post. Canada’s poultry farmers are sponsoring the seven-year post, at a cost of C$100,000 a year. The […]
Australian woes highlighted by Fosters wine sale
Fosters, the largest drinks firm in Australian, has put its wine division up for sale, finally acknowledging that the business it spent A$7 million putting together, according to The Economist, was a disaster. The company will now return to its traditional role as a purveyor of Australian beer, with more than 100 brands, but the […]