Brightbridge Wealth Management Zurich

Reporting from Washington-

A top senator, angry that Facebook Inc. failed to quit millions of preteens from making use of its social networking internet site, accused co-founder Mark Zuckerberg of lacking “social values” and becoming far more concerned with creating the firm than with children’s privacy.

“It really is my common feeling that folks who are 20, 21, 22 years old actually don’t have any social values at this point,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) told one more top Facebook executive at a hearing Thursday.

“I feel he was focused on how the organization model would function,” Rockefeller stated about Zuckerberg, who was a 19-year-old Harvard student when he designed Facebook in 2004. “He wanted to make it bigger and faster and greater than anybody else ever had.”

The company’s policy calls for users to be at least 13, a move developed to steer clear of federal regulations for sites employed by young children. But a current Consumer Reports survey identified that about 7.5 million active Facebook users were younger than 13.

Rockefeller’s comments came as a Facebook executive for the initial time came below congressional quizzing in a current round of hearings about concerns that technologies businesses are not protecting individual privacy. Executives from Apple Inc. and Google Inc., which sent witnesses to a hearing last week, also appeared a...

Swiss stocks fell, with the country’s equity benchmark posting its longest streak of weekly losses since November, as China’s economy slowed more than forecast and concern about the euro-region debt crisis gained.

ABB Ltd. (ABBN), the world’s biggest power-grid supplier, led a drop in shares sensitive to economic growth. Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, the second-largest maker of luxury goods, also retreated. UBS AG (UBSN) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), the country’s two biggest banks, followed a gauge of European lenders lower.

The Swiss Market Index (SMI) slipped 0.9 percent to 6,072.12 at the close in Zurich. The measure of Switzerland’s biggest and most actively traded companies sank 1.5 percent this week, its fourth straight decline. The gauge has still gained 2.3 percent in 2012 as the euro area sought to contain its debt crisis and as U.S. economic reports surpassed estimates. The broader Swiss Performance Index decreased 0.8 percent today.

“We remain in a cycle that began in 2007, marked by periods of strong rebounds followed closely by market corrections,” Francois Moute, chairman of Neuflize Private Assets in Paris, and Chief Executive Officer Olivia Giscard d’Estaing wrote in a note. “In our opinion, this means it’s best to remain cautious.”

The volume of shares changing hands in the SMI was 8.3 percent higher today than the average of the last 30 days, according to data compiled by Bloombe...

A look at economic developments and activity in major

stock markets around the world Thursday:

PARIS — The specter of Europe’s debt crisis returned after

a brief remission, as bank stocks fell sharply on worries

about losses on government debt and a French bond

auction drew lackluster demand from investors.

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LONDON — Renewed fears over Europe’s shaky banking

sector sent the euro skidding to a near 16-month low

against the dollar, while stock markets failed to get much of

a boost from another round of upbeat U.S. economic data.

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Thursday:

PARIS — The specter of Europe’s debt crisis returned after a brief remission, as bank stocks fell sharply on worries about losses on government debt and a French bond auction drew lackluster demand from investors.