Swiss adventurer crosses Alps in wing-suit
Swiss daredevil Remo Läng flew 26 kilometres over the Alps in a wing-suit on Saturday, completing his vertiginous journey in just seven minutes.
Day: March 12, 2012
Switzerland
Sweden
First conviction in Gothenburg bribery trial
The fourth case in the ongoing Gothenburg bribery trial has led to a conviction, as a district manager at the municipally run housing company Poseidon was sentenced to a probationary sentence and a fine equalling 80 days’ pay on Monday.
Germany
More than half of parents hit their kids – sons most
More than half German parents still hit their children, and a new survey shows that boys are hit twice as often as girls, although most parents feel terrible afterwards.
Switzerland
Swatch rejects Tiffany lawsuit
Swatch, a leading watchmaker, said on Monday that a lawsuit by US jeweller Tiffany had no legal basis and that it would contest the action in a battle between the luxury product groups.
Norway
Norway MP stars in ‘big girl’ music video
Norwegian Labour Party politician Jette F. Christensen has broadened her career portfolio by starring as a dancer in a music video for the song ‘Big girl (in all the right places)’.
Germany
Anxious Germans skip lunch to stay at work
More and more Germans are grabbing a fifteen-minute falafel at their desks for lunch – rather than taking an hour for a proper plate of schnitzel and chips, like in the good old days - a new survey says.
Sweden
Twitter ‘unknown’ to 75 percent of Swedes
Three out of four Swedes say they don't know Twitter, a new survey has found, but many nevertheless believe the social media channel has a lot of influence in Swedish society.
Sweden
Swedish Plopp lovers report ‘joyless’ chocolate
Love-hungry Swedish consumers have reported Scandinavian chocolate giant Cloetta to the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) after the company's false promises of finding love and joy in a bag of candy left them broken hearted.
Sweden
District court ‘forgot’ child porn crime case
A 34-year-old man under suspicion of aggravated child porn offences after police confiscated 13,000 child porn images from his computer was never called to trial, as the court in southern Sweden forgot about him.
Germany
‘Scared’ German tourists ‘avoiding Greece’
German tourists are "afraid" to come to Greece due to widespread anger at EU-mandated austerity cuts that have left the country in a deep recession, the Greek culture minister said on Monday.
France
Time to tackle water crisis, global forum told
A global meeting on water opened in France on Monday with demands to provide billions of poor people with clean water and decent sanitation and address the spiralling demands of the future.
Switzerland
Swiss central bank in new trading controversy
The Swiss central bank is in the spotlight for the second time in three months over alleged currency trading by a key official during sensitive times for policy over the Swiss franc.
Sweden
US ambassador: change Swedish VAT rules
The US ambassador to Sweden, Mark Brzezinski, recently wrote a letter to the Swedish minister for finance Anders Borg, advising him that Sweden would do better following Austria’s example on value added tax (VAT) reimbursements for diplomats.
Germany
Commuter leaves 13-kilometre oil leak
Commuters driving into Berlin on Monday morning were hindered not only by the usual road works, but a 13-kilometre oil leak which fire fighters rushed to cover to prevent an accident.
Germany
Germany’s eleven sexiest women
Germany’s women are in the spotlight this week - having recently dealt with the sexy men, this edition of The Local List features a selection of the country’s most delectable ladies.
Norway
Scientists stunned by Oslo meteorite find
Space watchers in Norway expressed major excitement on Monday after a meteorite ripped through the roof of a hut in an Oslo allotment garden.
Sweden
Train kills reindeer ‘like meat grinder’: farmer
A new high-speed railway in northern Sweden has already claimed the lives of 200 reindeer since it opened three months ago, forcing the farm owner to move to safer pastures.
Germany
German schools ‘either unfair or no good’
German schools are only good in areas where they are unfair – and where they are fair, they are generally no good, according to a damning report published on Monday by the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Switzerland
Cantons vote to hike taxes for rich foreigners
The canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden decided on Sunday to abolish lump-sum tax arrangements for wealthy foreigners.
Switzerland
Swiss canton to record nationality of offenders
Voters in Solothurn, north-western Switzerland, voted on Sunday for an amendment to the law requiring police and judicial officers to record the nationalities of offenders and suspects.
Germany
Speed trap turned into bird house
Officials in southern Germany whose speed trap was smashed into by a car turned it into a bird house – and say it is now home to a family of great tits.
Switzerland
Swiss to place cap on second homes
In future, only 20 percent of residences in any one community in Switzerland can be used as second homes, voters decided on Sunday.
Sweden
Three in four Rosengård children ‘live in poverty’
In the Malmö district of Rosengård over 70 percent of children are living in relative poverty, according to fresh figures from Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyran, SCB), which measures the growing economic divides across the country.
France
Schoolgirls launch skirt-wearing campaign
A group of schoolgirls decided to show their own support for International Women's Day by showing up to lessons wearing skirts, flouting the school's rules.
Norway
Lysbakken gets Socialist Left nod despite scandal
The Socialist Left (SV) party on Saturday selected Audun Lysbakken as its new leader just a week after he resigned as equality minister over the misuse by his department of public funds.
France
French tourists among world’s worst: survey
An international survey asking people to rank the world's worst tourists has placed the French just behind Americans and Chinese.
Germany
Daimler ‘altering own Wikipedia page’
Daimler’s Wikipedia page has been altered – removing criticism of the firm’s lobbying work - from an IP address belonging to the company, it was reported on Monday.
Sweden
Swedish military ‘sold’ arms to Saudi Arabia
Much of the Swedish weaponry sold to Saudi Arabia in recent years actually came from the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten), according to a new report.
Germany
Police nab suspected rhino horn robbers
Munich police have made three arrests in their hunt for an international rhino horn robbery ring which has been stealing from museums, auction houses and zoos across Europe.
Sweden
Swedish skier Anja Pärson calls it quits
Swedish alpine skier Anja Pärson, who amassed six Olympic medals in her 14 year career, announced on Monday that she would retire from competitive skiing this week.
Germany
Merkel questions Afghan pull-out timetable
Chancellor Angela Merkel called into question Germany's planned pullout from Afghanistan as she made a surprise trip to the war-torn country on Monday, a day after a US soldier massacred 16 civilians.
Sweden
Social Democrats return to top of Swedish politics
The Social Democrats have regained their position as Sweden's largest political party, according to a new poll, helping Sweden's three centre-left opposition parties amass more combined support than the centre-right Alliance government.
France
Sarko junior pelts police woman with tomatoes
The 15-year-old son of President Sarkozy was in trouble after throwing tomatoes and other pellets at a policewoman guarding the Elysée Palace where the president lives.
France
Sarkozy threatens to quit Schengen zone
President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened in a key election rally on Sunday to pull France out of Europe's 26-nation visa free zone unless the European Union does more to keep out illegal immigrants.