Many of those in favour of the Swiss health insurance changes proposed for the 28 September 2014 referendum believe they will deliver cost savings and reduce average compulsory insurance premiums. Swiss health care costs were the second highest in the world after the US and 66 percent higher than in the UK, according to a recent analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Often […]
US mid-terms: What Americans need to know!
With US mid-term elections coming up, expatriate Americans need to be aware of their rights and how to go about voting. GENEVA An American friend recently recounted how his parents, after many years of living in Switzerland, were surprised to learn that they still had the right to vote in US federal elections. In fact, […]
FIFA accused of cover-up: Qatar to lose cup?
The refusal by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) to release the findings of its 350-page report can only lead to further speculation regarding allegations of corruption over the granting of the World Cup to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. It also suggests that nothing has changed within the powerful Zurich-based organization, […]
Swiss jihadists – foreign fighters recruited by extremists over the internet
Are Swiss Jihadists a danger? The silence of Switzerland’s moderate Muslims was broken last week following the arrest in Kosovo of two imams who had travelled to Switzerland to recruit for Syria and Iraq. Four days later, the Albanian Islamic Centre of Lausanne denounced what it called “the brain washers” whose actions “daily shock the […]
Ebola nurse arrives in Geneva from Sierra Leone
According to the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs, a foreign nurse who was working for an international organisation in Ebola affected Sierra Leone, arrived in Geneva yesterday suffering from a bite inflicted by a child suffering from the Ebola virus. The communiqué stated that this is the first person to land in Switzerland from a region affected […]
Solving Switzerland’s bike theft problem
According to Le Matin Dimanche in 2013 over 40,000 bicycles were stolen in Switzerland of which fewer than 500 were recovered. The costs are enormous. Insurers pay out around CHF 60 million in claims a year, a cost that is ultimately borne by policy holders via premiums. In Geneva, Bern and Zurich, Le Matin Dimanche put GPS trackable chips […]
More than just highways
Switzerland’s worsening commuter nightmare may find some relief with the Federal Council’s decision to grant CHF 2.7 billion this year to improve highways, part of it to be channelled toward the Lake Geneva region’s own heavily populated zones, notably Lausanne and Geneva. While some Swiss are not particularly happy about this emphasis on the “Arc […]
Scotland’s independence vote – what does it mean for Switzerland?
Scotland, you might think, is just a small country populated by roughly five million people. But it is far more. Discounting its history and disproportionate achievements (you’re only as good as your last mega-invention – Grand Theft Auto), the country has Edinburgh, a vibrant, world-class financial centre; a significant oil industry; an unassailable whisky industry; […]
Apple’s U2 iTunes stunt has polarised opinion
Le News went to Swiss iTunes and found U2’s new album “Songs of Innocence” there for free. Yes free! This is Apple’s latest marketing stunt. Millions of U2 fans were happy to find it. Macrumours.com reported that the album had been downloaded over 2 million times by users just three days after being made available. Many others however have […]
Changing times at Le Temps
The Swiss Competition Commission last week approved publisher, Ringier’s take-over of flagship Swiss daily Le Temps. Managing director, Valérie Boagno has left the company and Daniel Pillard, CEO at Ringier Romandie, assumes operational management in the interim. From April 2015, Stéphane Benoit-Godet (44), Bilan’s current editor-in-chief, will be the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. Benoit-Godet worked for […]
