Zurich - There were over 200,000 applications for 2010 World Cup tickets in the first 24 hours since tickets went on sale via FIFA's online ticket portal, football's ruling body revealed Saturday.

Applications from 128 countries for 216,975 tickets had been received via the website, excluding the hard paper applications handed in by residents of host nation South Africa at the country's First National Bank (FNB), a sponsor of the tournament.

Zurich  - Swiss Re announced Thursday net losses in 2008 of 864 million francs, mostly on investments, as the insurance giant's credit rating was downgraded, increasing its funding requirements.

In 2007 Swiss Re had turned a 4.2 billion francs net profit.

Stefan Lippe, who was appointed CEO earlier this month, said in a statement that the result was "clearly disappointing," but that January had proved to be a better month for the company.

He said the core insurance business was solid and that Swiss Re was working "to de-risk the investment portfolio." The group was also cutting costs.

The company posted a fourth quarter loss of 1.75 billion francs.

Zurich - The mystery of a Brazilian woman who claimed she was attacked by three skinheads in Zurich earlier this week deepened Friday as new details emerged that cast some doubts on her story.

Police responded to a train station in the major Swiss city on Monday after reports that a pregnant woman was attacked with a knife during a racially motivated crime. The
26-year-old Brazilian, who said she was three months pregnant at the time of the attack, said she went into a bathroom afterward and miscarried.

However, the Institute of Forensic Medicine determined Friday that she was not pregnant at the time of the attack. Police also said the wounds on her body could have been self-inflicted.

Zurich - Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss bank, announced Wednesday it had suffered a net loss of 6 billion francs (5.2 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter of last year, owing to bad trades and restructuring costs.

This made for a larger-than-expected net loss of 8.2 billion francs for the whole of last year, compared to a profit of nearly 7.8 billion in 2007.

Already in December, the bank said the two previous months had brought losses of 3 billion francs.

Geneva  - Though the biggest issue of Sunday's Swiss referendum was the open market and free movement agreements with Europe, other issues were also at stake, including a proposal to scrap a unique tax break for wealthy foreigners in Zurich.

Local media reported Monday that some 53 per cent of voters in Zurich, the financial hub of the Alpine country, voted to do away with a system that enabled wealthy foreigners to pay taxes as a lump sum, based on their home expenses and not their income.

Zurich  - Football's governing body FIFA on Tuesday announced that they had received 11 formal expressions of interest to bid for the 2018 and/or the 2022 World Cups.

The deadline to register an interest in staging the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 expired on Monday.

In a statement issued by FIFA the organization said that Australia, Belgium/Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Spain/Portugal and the US had registered their interest.