Swisscows.com – Switzerland’s answer to Google – is beginning to give the California search engine a run for its money. Since launched by Hulbee AG in June, it has attracted 400,000 users. Responding to Google’s market hold, Swisscows presents itself as the first intelligent “answer engine” based on semantic information recognition coupled with intuitive search […]
Lausanne launches integration fund
With 42% of its population coming from 160 countries and carrying a passport other than Swiss, promoting integration is a key objective for Lausanne. The city announced that it is launching an integration fund of CHF 100,000 to give associations and not-for-profit groups the means to run projects that prevent racism and promote social cohesion. […]
Learning to live in the region
The International Women’s Club of Lausanne’s annual “Living in Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud Seminar (LIL)” will take place the 29th and 30th September 2014 at the IWC Clubhouse, Avenue Eglantine 6, in Lausanne. The IWC has organized this excellent seminar every year since 1983. Open to all, it provides newcomers with valuable information […]
Americans abroad – Pushed to vote
Democrats and Republications Abroad, two non-profit organizations representing US citizens, are pushing hard over the next few weeks for expat Americans to register for the next presidential election. While some states retain permanent overseas registration, most require their citizens to re-register every time. Democrats Abroad Switzerland is holding informal events in Geneva and Zurich to […]
Basel: Public transport with vision
Among European cities such as Helsinki, Copenhagen and Freiburg, Switzerland’s north-eastern city of Basel ranks as having one of the continent’s most visionary approaches to public transport. It is one that the Lake Geneva region would do well to heed if it is to deal with rising car traffic in a more imaginative and environmentally […]
A more communal stance for humanity
While much of the Swiss summer has proved miserable, for those of us who managed to get abroad, there were constant reminders of just how globally relevant the Lake Geneva region is. Somehow Switzerland is mentioned one way or another in any media coverage of the Middle East, banking, football, climate change or Ebola. It […]
Suicide tourism rises
ZURICH More than 600 non-Swiss residents died of assisted suicide in Switzerland between 2008 and 2012, helped by organizations such as Dignitas. In 2012 alone, the majority came from Germany (77), followed by the UK (29), Italy (22), France (19) and the US (7). A study by the Journal of Medical Ethics, which looked at […]
Art therapy – paint your worries away
Today’s lifestyles offer many occasions for new experiences, one of which is living in foreign countries with their various languages and cultures. These life shifts represent challenging opportunities for people to discover new working and living situations that can be stimulating and rewarding. However, such transitions can also bring major changes to one’s professional and […]
Swiss observers to go to Western Sahara
The government announced on 20 August that Switzerland is to send half a dozen military observers to Western Sahara. Stressing that the observers will be unarmed, the government has announced that they will join the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara to reinforce peace-keepers supervising the 1988 ceasefire agreement between Morocco and the […]
Swiss struggles with Russian sanctions and neutrality
A Swiss law professor once bemoaned to me that he had spent 25 years of his career dealing with one word, “neutrality”. We all know that legally neutrality means that a country will not join armed alliances or fight in wars other than for self-defence. But, politically, for Switzerland neutrality can run the gamut from […]
