Zurich  - Adecco, the largest staffing company globally, announced Thursday it had appointed Patrick De Maeseneire as the new Chief Executive Officer to replace Dieter Scheiff.

De Maeseneire, a Belgian national, had worked for Adecco for four years until 2002 and he currently serves as CEO of Barry Callebaut, a cocoa and chocolate company.

Adecco took a 22 million euro loss in the final quarter of last year and its profits for 2008 fell 33 per cent to 495 million euros. Its revenues for the entire year fell by 5 per cent to 20 billion euros.

Geneva  - Swiss Reinsurance Co, the world's second larger re-insurer, announced Thursday it would cut by 10 per cent its current global headcount of 11,560 employees over the next 12 months.

The company also named Agostino Galvagni as Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Executive Committee, starting the beginning of next month

Swiss Re said cost-cutting measures, including the layoffs, would lead to reductions of running costs of 400 million Swiss francs (350 million dollars) by the end of 2010.

Zurich  - Football's ruling body FIFA asked Tuesday that all member associations scheduled to hold midweek 2010 World Cup qualifiers observe a minute's silence prior to kick-off in memory of the 22 victims of last weekend's Abidjan stadium disaster.

Geneva  - One of Switzerland's largest private wealth managers will have a new chief executive officer come May, aged only 34 years old, the Julius Baer bank announced Tuesday.

The private bank said Boris Collardi would take over from current CEO Johannes de Gier.

Collardi, a Swiss national born in 1974, worked for Credit Suisse before joining the private wealth manager in 2006.

The previous CEO of Julius Baer, Alex Widmer, died suddenly in December 2008 at the age of 52, amid rumours that it was a suicide.

Geneva - Ahead of a large international conference on Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Monday that the humanitarian needs in the region were not being met and there was growing need to protect civilians from raging violence.

"The civilian population is bearing the brunt of the armed conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Jacques de Maio, the head of the ICRC's South Asia operation, told reporters in Geneva.