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, […]
Glory Days – Cracking Up
“How much longer do you plan to go on living?” the seven-year-old asked me the other day, after giving me one of those long, appraising looks that children are so good at. I like to think that this question had nothing to do with greed for her inheritance (which currently stands at: my wedding ring; […]
Le News Diary
Change is a constant at Le News so we decided to add this section to keep readers up to date. We are excited about our progress and the role the paper is now playing in the community. We have also taken on three new talented contributors on the editorial side, begun investing further in digital […]
Jihadists, FIFA and the “new” old age
How should we deal with Swiss Jihadists joining ISIS? Berne may not consider it a problem, yet, but all it takes is one or two to return as terrorists, While European Muslims are finally speaking out against the beheadings, crucifixions and Mosque burnings, influential figures such as Tariq Ramadan in Geneva need to condemn ISIS […]
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 […]
Nobody messes with the Easter Bunny
When my children were small, I decided that I would never lie to them. No matter how painful the truth, I would always be the one to tell it to them. (This was before they caught me scoffing the last of the cooking chocolate, and asked me what I was eating. And I said, “Broccoli, […]
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 […]
