Adelboden, Switzerland - Benjamin Raich completed a hat-trick of giant slalom victories in Adelboden on Saturday and with it claimed first place in the overall World Cup and discipline standings.

The Austrian Raich, 30, hung on to his first-run lead for a winning total of 2 minutes 24.95 from two runs.

Massimiliano Blardone of Italy came second in 2:25.19 minutes. Rising Norwegian 72 Kjetil Jansrud got his first career podium in third place with 2:25.67 minutes, up from 14th place in the first run.

"It is a very tough hill, that's good for me," said Raich.

Geneva  - UBS and Credit Suisse, Switzerland largest banks, made two large deals Wednesday to close off what were bad years for both.

UBS AG announced in a statement that it has sold approximately 3.4 billion of its shares in Bank of China Ltd. to institutional investors.

The second largest bank, Credit Suisse, said it agreed to sell part of its Global Investors asset management business to Aberdeen Asset Management in return for stock worth 361 million dollars, giving it an almost 25 per cent holding in the company.

The sale comes with 70 billion dollars of assets under management.

Geneva - The ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has caused the displacement of over 250,000 people, has put children at particular risk of recruitment into armed groups, the UN's Children Fund said Wednesday.

UNICEF called on "all armed groups to end the recruitment and use of children," Pierrette Vu Thi, the agency's chief in the DR Congo, said in a statement. They must "immediately release the children within their ranks."

Geneva - While airlines have dropped capacity to cope with the expected global economic downturn, the drop in air travel was steeper than the companies could keep up with, statistic released Tuesday showed.

November saw a 4.6 per cent drop in international passenger traffic, the third consecutive month of decline, and cargo fell by 13.5 per cent, according to the International Air Transport Association.

St Moritz, Switzerland  - The women's alpine ski super-G World Cup race in St Moritz was called off Sunday because of stormy weather.

A new date for the race has not yet been set.

London, Dec 20: Two new studies have suggested that the Swiss glaciers are melting away at an accelerating rate and many will vanish this century if climate projections are correct.

According to a report by BBC News, both studies have been done by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

One assessment found that some 10 cubic km of ice have been lost from 1,500 glaciers over the past nine years.

The other study, based on a sample of 30 representative glaciers, indicates the group''s members are now losing a meter of thickness every year.