Luxury goods group Richemont has posted its earnings for the 2011—2012 fiscal year.

The Swiss maker of IWC watches and Cartier jewellery said net profit rose 43 percent to 1.54 billion euros—beating analysts’ expectations.

The group said demand for its products was especially strong in Asia.

In a statement Richemont CEO Johann Rupert said he was very happy with the results in light of the strong Swiss franc and rising cost of raw materials.

One of Europe’s most historically significant diamonds went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Geneva last night.

The Beau Sancy diamond fetched 9 million francs and sold to an anonymous bidder.

The price was five times its original estimate.

The stone had been used to used to reinforce alliances between nations for the past 400 years and had been pawned to pay off royal debts. 

Beginning today Vaud police are authorized to use a new radar technology to catch motorway speeders.

Authorities will use it on the A-9 beween Aigle and Bex.

Traditional radars measure the speed of a car when it drives past a fixed point.

But the new radar is designed to measure the average speed of a car over an 8 kilometer stretch—recording the time they enter and exit the area.

That would make it easier to catch drivers who simply hit the brakes when they see a radar camera, and speed up again once they’ve passed it.

The Federal roads office and Vaud police have already been testing the technology.

And they say drivers took notice with speeding dropping 40 to 60 percent.

A second system has also been in tests on the A2 near Basel.

The technology’s already in use in several European countries including Italy and the UK.

The man who set out to swim the entire length of the Rhine is throwing in the towel.

Ernst Bromeis said the unusually cold weather had left him exhausted and that he wasn’t able to continue.

He ended his journey yesterday in Breisach in Germany after finishing the day’s stretch in a kayak.

Ernst Bromeis started his journey in Lake Toma in Graubünden and had hoped to reach the mouth of the river in Rotterdam.

His swim was part of Switzerland Tourism’s water-themed summer campaign.

Mountain cantons say they want to exempt existing homes from the application of the strict new initiative on secondary residences.

In February, voters approved the text to limit second homes to no more than 20 percent of a town’s housing.

The Conference of Alpine Cantons says locals in some cases could see the value of their property drop if it can’t be resold as a vacation home.

They’ll send their demands to Bern.

That’s where a working group convened by the Federal government is examining what legal changes are needed to conform to the initiative.

Six people have been injured, one seriously, after a fight broke out last night in Fribourg train station.

Police say asylum seekers from North Africa were involved in the altercation.

Five were arrested and one man escaped.

A Tunisian man was stabbed in the chest and is being treated in hospital.

Two police officers were slightly injured when they were attacked with a broken bottle.

The incident came just hours after Fribourg police said their efforts to crack down on crime from North African asylum seekers had paid off.

They claimed their operation helped arrest more than 60 asylum seekers and bring crime levels back down.

Fribourg officials emphasized at their news conference yesterday that not all North African asylum seekers are criminals.

The EU will not negotiate directly on tax issues with Switzerland.

Austria and Luxembourg blocked an accord between EU finance ministers today in Brussels.

Officials from those two countries said a mandate for negotiations with Switzerland could lead to them having to accept automatic information exchange.

For the better part of a year the European Commission has been pushing to obtain a green light for negotiations with Switzerland.

Passengers of Lausanne’s LEB train will get twice as many trains as early as December.

Vaud cantonal officials say rail work allowing trains to pass each other have begun.

That would allow trains to run every fifteen minutes on a portion of the line.

Officials say ridership has more than doubled over the last 12 years.

Employees at Merck Serono are holding off on a strike for today.

The company has extended the consultation period with employees for three more weeks.

Unions say the time is needed for employees to come up with proposals to save the Geneva headquarters.

The head of Merck Serono’s board of directors, Francois Naef, says he’s already received constructive suggestions from employees.

But he says that consolidation of the company’s European operations is inevitable.

Swiss youngsters are on the whole happy.

That’s according to the World Health Organisation.

Switzerland ranks eighth out of 34 countries polled in the study.

Leader of the pack was the Netherlands, where an average 96 percent of young people said they felt upbeat.

In Switzerland 10,000 young people between the ages of 11 and 15 were asked various questions to find out how they feel about life.

And for the most part their outlook was rosy.

Eighty-four percent of girls and 88 percent of boys said they were happy.

According to the study the Swiss results were remarkable for what they said about parental relations.

Over 70  percent of 11 to 15-years-olds said they felt they could talk openly with their mothers.

The head of Geneva Universitiy’s youth health department, Francoise Narring, says she’s not surprised by the results.

Narring said that more often the real challenges of youth come up between 16 and 20.