Numerous Swiss ski resorts have been obliged to raise their 2014/15 piste rates even further this winter by one to four francs, despite strong competition with cheaper lifts in neighbouring France, Italy, Germany and Austria. Based on a survey by German language newspaper Blick, the most expensive stations include Zermatt St. Moritz, Laax, Saas Fe […]
French out to tax Basel Airport
Unlike Geneva airport, which is located entirely on Swiss soil but still operates a French side, Switzerland’s third major airport – Basel-Mulhouse EuroAirport – is on French territory, but run by the Swiss. Paris now wants to run the show by taxing all revenue, plus imposing its own rights on both French employees and companies. […]
Book review + Payot’s best sellers of the week
This week’s book review: Us. A new entry into the Payot best seller list, Us by David Nicholls is a book about personal discovery in mid-life. The book has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014. Published by Hodder and Stoughton, it was launched in September. Rank Title Author Published By Genre […]
Le News – 9 October 2014 – edition 33
9 October 2014 We apologise for this change of format but our e-reader provider had a few issues this week so we decided to provide you with a picture of our front page instead. If you click on it you will download a nice PDF of the whole paper for you reading pleasure. Download the […]
Payot’s best sellers of the week
Command Authority
A new entry into the Payot best seller list, Command Authority is the last book written by Tom Clancy before his death in October 2013. A political thriller, it was co-written and completed by Mark Greaney and published posthumously last December by Putnam Adult. Set against a backdrop of the rise to power of Russia under the rule of a strongman, the book is the ninth novel featuring the former CIA agent and President Jack Ryan.
Montreux appoints new Municipal Secretary
Montreux has appointed M. Olivier Rapin (45) as its new Secrétaire municipal (town clerk). A qualified lawyer with a post-graduate diploma in European Community Law, he takes over at the start of February from Mme Corinne Martin who was recently appointed Head of local housing services. Olivier Rapin is no stranger to local and regional […]
Swiss population rise: Mainly foreigners
BERN The population of Switzerland rose by 1.3% in 2013, the overwhelming majority of them immigrants, the Federal Office of Statistics announced this week. With 100,600 new residents, the current population now stands at 8.1 million. An estimated 89,500 of the new influx were immigrants, primarily Germans, Portuguese, Italians, French, Spanish and other European Union […]
Your future: “80 is the new 60”
UBS this week released a survey it carried out on age and pensions. Normally pretty dry stuff – summaries of massive data sets – these findings offer interesting insights into Swiss attitudes and give ample food for thought. We know, for example, that the Swiss are living longer; however the survey also tells us that […]
Lausanne to host symposium on high-mountain communities in the Himalayas
Climate change is already deeply changing the way of life of mountain communities, be they in the Alps or the Himalayas. Do we understand what is happening and what can we do? Over 170 million people eke out a modest living at over 3,000 metres in vast and isolated tracts of the Himalayas. A further […]
Switzerland’s prison population has increased
Switzerland’s prison population has increased by nine percent over the past ten years to 6,599. This is bang on the average rise of prison populations in Europe. The country with the biggest rise was Malta with a door-slamming 49% increase. Estonia, with 3,286 prisoners, enjoyed the largest decrease (39%) in its prison population. The rise […]
