Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The judicial commission of the upper house of the Swiss Parliament Friday called for tough new rules on genital mutilation to become part of the Swiss penal code. The greatest change would be to the location where the mutilation is carried out: current law limits this to Switzerland, but the new law, if it makes it through the parliamentary system, would allow charges to be pressed against anyone who is on Swiss territory and who has encouraged or carried out the practice, even outside Switzerland.
The modified law would close a loophole that has brought several cases into Swiss headlines in recent years, with children either mutilated in Switzerland or taken to their parents’ homeland to have it done, even though the children are growing up in Switzerland, where the practice is illegal. The parents are generally from a culture where genital mutilation is considered acceptable and they are often not well integrated into Switzerland themselves.
The commission argues that a change in the law would make it easier to bring charges against these human rights violations because it would eliminate current courtroom debates over definitions and proof.
Swiss cities, Geneva included, are home to enormous wealth, not all of it legitimate
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – For the first time since Switzerland set up its Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS) in 2002, the number of “suspicious activity reports” (Sars) passed 1,000 in a year. The Swiss Federal Police office reports 28 April that in 2010 the total number of Sars was 1,159, a 29 percent increase over 2009.
FATF assessments of Swiss action on money laundering
Switzerland has been tightening its money laundering laws and stepping up preventive measures since the late 1990s, with a review in October 2009 by the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) showing good progess made since a 2005 review pointed out a number of weak spots.
Switzerland was accepted in 2009 into the FATF system of regular two year reviews, with the next one set for October 2011. It was commended on several points, including its improvements in the system to quickly identify assets of politically exposed persons, mainly dictators.
Switzerland has been particularly sensitive on this score, and in early 2011 was quick to freeze assets of people linked to Egyptian, Tunisian and Libyan regimes.
Weaknesses that were pointed out by FATF in 2009 included extending to a larger group the obligation to submit Sars: lawyers, insurance agents, real estate dealers among others.
One of Switzerland’s biggest problems, the task force said, is clearly identifying real owners when property is purchased or insurance contracts bought, with a third party acting for the owner.
Terrorism money laundering “more or less the same” in 2010 as in 2009
Terrorist financing was shown in only four cases, the new federal police reports indicates, although the number of Sars linked to terrorism jumped from 7 submissions in 2009 to 13 in 2010. Ten of these were forwarded by the MROS to the Swiss attorney general’s office, but six “had no hard evidence of terrorist financing”, the federal police say.
One complex case accounted for eight of the Sars and one case alone involved CHF19 million of the CHF23m total assets for the 13 Sars submitted. All in all, “the situation in 2010 remained more or less the same as in the previous year.”
Financial institutions reported 71% of cases
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Barely a whiff of the scandal has reached Switzerland, but it’s top of the news in India this week, and UK media have been following it with interest: the former head of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (CWG) in October 2010, Suresh Kalmadi, was arrested Monday 25 April and appeared in court Tuesday, charged, according to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation with “conspiracy to cause favour to a private firm based in Switzerland in awarding the contract for Timing, Scoring & Result system at an inflated cost of Rs. 141 crore [ed. note: CHF27.7 million].
Kalmadi is the third top official to be arrested since March in connection with the investigation.
A lawyer was arrested for throwing a slipper at Kalmadi as he arrived at court Tuesday.
Wednesday, Indian media report that the Indian Olympic Association have replaced him as president (the IOC in Lausanne has not yet confirmed the information).
The company in question, while not named by the court, is clearly Swiss Timing, based in Corgémont, canton Bern, which is owned by the Swatch Group. The scandal has been whipped up by the Indian press for months, but reached a new peak this week, implying in passing that Swiss Timing might be accused of wrongdoing, and even the Associated Press expressed confusion, saying in reports published Tuesday that “it was not immediately clear if Swiss Timing was also accused of alleged wrongdoing.” The sentence was later dropped from updates, but the older version is still available from several of AP’s client news outlets.
Swatch Group, in a press release issued 26 April, vehemently denies the Indian media reports and clarifies the financial situation, which has been the source of much confusion in the Indian press.
The CWG were pursued by charges of corruption months before the Games took place:
Swatch Group vehemently denies Indian media rumours
Beatrice Howald, press spokesperson for Swatch, told GenevaLunch Wednesday that the company has not been contacted or accused by Indian authorities of any illegal activities, nor has it been able to obtain any information in response to its efforts to determine if there were problems with the contract bid process.
“Swiss Timing would have had nothing to gain by this,” she points out, qualifying the company’s reputation in the field of sports events timing as “excellent”.
Swiss Timing was responsible for timing and scoring at the Games. A second company, India-based Gem International, may have been involved in obtaining the contract, but the process now under investigation by a court in Delhi, appears murky.
Swiss Timing has long history of timing top world sports events
Swiss Timing is one of the world’s top sports events timekeepers:
Muehleberg peaceful anti-nuclear protest (©2011 Herbi Ditl, flickr.com/photos/herbivore)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss anti-nuclear groups are continuing to call for an end to nuclear power plants, with the latest in a series of peaceful protests taking place Tuesday 26 April at Muehleberg.
An estimated 500 people formed a human chain around the centre from 07:00 to 08:30, but workers were allowed to enter the plant.
A human chain around BKW, which owns the Muehleberg nuclear power plant in Switzerland, 26 April (©2011 Herbi Ditl, flickr.com/photos/herbivore)
The protest was supported by the Socialist and Green political parties, as well as several groups, including Greenpeace. It marked the day 25 years ago when Chernobyl became the world’s worst nuclear accident, with an explosion and fire at the power plant in Ukraine that spread radioactivity across much of Europe.
The Bernese power station received a vote of confidence from citizens in February, who agreed to plans to rebuild the aging plant, but after Japan’s post-earthquake Fukushima nuclear problems Switzerland’s energy minister, Doris Leuthard, called a temporary halt to all nuclear power plant construction.
The groups protesting in Bern have set up a camp in front of the offices of BKW, which owns Muehleberg, and say they will stay there until the plant is closed down. The city of Bern is currently tolerating their presence.
Ed. note: Herbi Ditl on flickr has a collection of photos of the camp as well as protests
Search between Saint Prex and Morges will continue Friday
Police step up investigation into father’s presence in the area 30 January, seek new witnesses to black A6 Audi
Matthias Schepp was driving an Audi A6 Avant, similar to this one, the day the girls disappeared
Police are asking for witnesses who may have seen an Audi like this 30 January, with Matthias Schepp, near Morges
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A massive new effort poured into the hunt for missing six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia Schepp, failed to turn up anything Thursday, despite high-tech equipment used to comb the search area and 13 specially trained dogs and their handlers from three countries, working with a team of 140 persons.
Vaud police organized the search, using 11 dogs that are trained particularly to hunt for bodies, after a man provided new, reliable information in early April that he had seen a man dragging a suitcase in the Boiron beach area about 16:00 Sunday 30 January. The information fit some of the “technical” aspects of the case already in police hands.
The beach, which straddles the boundary between Tolochenaz and Saint Prex, to the west of Morges, has long been a popular gay and nudist beach, but since police began to enforce a CHF500 fine ordinance for nudism the beach has become quieter, and in winter there are few people.
Boiron beach, roped off, with police guard: a lonely stretch of Lake Geneva shore (click on image to view larger)
The area was blocked off on land Thursday, as was the water around the beach, to allow the search to move ahead. Police used a a multibeam swath bathymetry system to sound the river and lake area where the river enters Lake Geneva, as well as an underwater remote-operated vehicle to check the area around the mouth of the river. Dog teams went over the beach area, carrying out a “ minutieuse” search after two St Hubert dogs from the Lausanne municipal police checked and failed to find any traces of Matthias Schepp, the father, in the area.
The Vaud police criminal investigation unit Thursday began new inquiries in the nearby area, looking for possible witnesses – at local dumps, professional fishermen, animal protection and fish protection authorities, rifle practice stands, etc. – who are often in the area or in areas close to the one being searched.
They are asking that anyone who might have information of interest contact the criminal investigation team at +41 21 644 8888. In particular, they would like to talk to anyone who might have seen the father of the twins and his car, a black Audi A6 Avant, in or near Morges, Sunday 30 January.
The police press release notes that:
“The team involved in roping off the area and in the search itself comprised: 55 men from the police in canton Vaud (gendarmes, inspectors and Lake Brigade specialists), 70 colleagues from the Vaud Civil Protection unit, 2 Canton Geneva Police Lake Brigade specialists, 11 dog handlers with 13 dogs from: the Austrian Police Dog unit with 6 men and 6 dogs (Diensthundewesen der Bundespolizei Oesterreich), the national dog tracking investigation unit from the French Gendarmerie in Gramat (2 men, 3 dogs), the Bern police (1 man with his dog) and Canton Zurich Police (1 man with his dog), as well as the Lausanne municipal police (1 man and 2 dogs), in addition to 2 police officers from the Morges commune police and 2 firefighters from the SPSL with a boat.”
Police boat guards the water near spot where Boiron empties into Lake Geneva, with Morges and west Lausanne in the background; St Sulpice, where the girls lived, is off to the right,further along the lake
International meeting ends without further decisions on aiding Libyan rebels
Qaddafi forces push back rebels
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 30 March formally adopted the UN Security Council’s measures against Libya, taken 26 February, as well as the European Union’s decisions concerning Libya, 28 February and including EU complementary actions. The move by the Swiss cabinet Wednesday cancels Switzerland’s own moves 21 February to unilaterally block funds that may belond to the Libyan leader and those close to him.
The EU’s decisions in particular duplicate Switzerland’s own actions in the financial area: the EU has voted to forbid supplying any materials that could be used for internal repression in Libya, and the list of people affected by financial sanctions and travel restrictions has been lengthened, from Switzerland’s original list.
The move by Bern also brings to a halt criticism from some corners that Switzerland acted too soon and alone in blocking Qaddafi assets.
Switzerland: IMF checks economic winds in 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The IMF (International Monetary Fund) in its annual country report on Switzerland says the economy is broad-based in the aftermath of the global economic crisis. It is forecasting 2.1 percent growth for 2011 and 1.8 percent in 2012, when it expects exports to fall.
“Domestic demand is benefiting from low interest rates, increased employment and continuing immigration. In spite of the strength of the Swiss franc, exports have grown due to increased global demand.” Geopolitical tensions could have a negative impact and are the biggest risk factor, agreed the IMF team, who visited Switzerland from 18 to 28 March. Tensions in the euro zone could also spark difficulties.
The SNB (Swiss National Bank) could consider tightening monetary policy, the IMF group says, with rebuilding its capital a priority. The central bank’s capital was drained during the crisis, as were those of many governments. Future dividends to the cantons and the Confederation should be made subject to the ability of the SNB to replenish its capital.
The heaviest criticism was reserved for the banking regulatory system, which needs further work, according to the IMF. The Federal Department of Finance will create a working group to follow up one issue: the mandates of the SNB and Finma, the financial supervisory body, should be clarified, according to the IMF.
Additional capital requirements provided for in the Federal Council’s “too big to fail” consultation draft will be instrumental in limiting the risks posed by systemically important banks. Consequently, the IMF experts warn against allowing overly generous “rebate” possibilities. Switzerland’s new capital requirements are among the most stringent in the world, going well beyond bank capital requirements that are part of the new, global BIS (Bank for International Settlements) Basel agreement.
In the mortgage market, the IMF sees a certain degree of easing in financial institutions’ lending standards, says Bern. “The interest-rate sensitivity of banks’ balance sheets has increased due to the tendency towards fixed-rate mortgages with long maturities” and the IMF is in favour of “implementing more conservative affordability standards”, which could be bad news for new home owner wannabes.
The IMF has given its support to several ongoing improvements:
- “The neutral fiscal position to be expected over the next few years is considered appropriate” says Bern’s statement on the IMF visit
- the measures to restructure disability insurance must continue
- the IMF welcomes the ongoing efforts to strengthen financial planning and statistics.
Seat of Swiss federal government in Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The neutral Swiss had a very rare glimpse of a foreign military power on home territory Monday 21 March, as 20 British military vehicles, escorted by the Swiss army, crossed the country from Basel to Chiasso in canton Ticino.
The passage, details and the path of which were not divulged by the federal government, would only have appeared remarkable to those who spotted the soldiers because of the type and markings of the vehicles: Swiss military vehicles and soldiers from the citizen militia are a common sight in Switzerland.
The British government requested the right of passage of aeronautic equipment as part of its commitment to prevent the Qaddafi regime in Libya from using force against the civilian population there.
Waving less bravely
Bern and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US State Department figures for 2010 confirm what many Americans who are long-term residents in other countries have suspected: the number of US citizens giving up their citizenship is on the rise. The figure was 1,485 according to renunciationguide.com, but Bloomberg lists 1,534. In both cases, the 2010 figure appears to be about double that for any year since 2003.
Renunciationguide.com, a site maintained by and for people considering giving up US citizenship, points out a number of errors in the figures and notes that clear records are not published, and that it is safe to assume the figures are higher based on inter-agency discrepancies.
The US began, in 1996, publishing in The Federal Register the names of those who renounce, and from this readers calculate the numbers.
The figures reflect completed requests, not demands and there are long waiting periods at some embassies, with Bern, for example, taking appointments for August 2012.
The number of people rose despite an administrative fee of $450 imposed in July 2010. Renouncing citizenship had previously been free of charge.
“The UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights recognizes the right to leave one’s country and to change one’s nationality, but it’s not US law,” notes renunciationguide.com.
New passport remark links passport applications to the IRS for first time
The line may grow longer, as embassies begin to provide new forms published in December 2010 for renewing US passports, which state clearly for the first time, as part of the Privacy Act information, that data will be provided (italics GenevaLunch) to the US treasury, where the IRS tax office is housed:
“Your Social Security Number will be provided to Treasury, used in connection with debt collection and checked against lists of persons ineligible or potentially ineligible to receive a US passport, among other unauthorized uses.” (2008 form, identified by the DS-82 and 02-2008 in the lower left corner, still on some US embassy web sites, and the new 2010 form)
Click on image to view larger and compare the Privacy Act Statements
The same is true for new passport applications: DS-11 from 2008 and from 2010.
The new forms include several other changes and should be read carefully by anyone applying for or renewing a US passport.
The US goverenment does not allow its citizens to renounce citizenship to avoid paying taxes, but people with dual citizenship may find the passport change to be a deciding factor in keeping just the other nationality.
US citizens with assets and income above a certain level have long been considered to give up their citizenship for tax purposes whether or not they have other reasons, as a 1998 Senate Finance Committee report stated, and the law has not changed (ed.note: figures are from 1998):
“Any individual with a net worth of $500,000 or more (adjusted for inflation) on the date of expatriation or who has an average annual net income tax liability for the five years preceding expatriation of $100,000 or more (adjusted for inflation) is irrebuttably presumed to have expatriated for tax-motivated reasons . . . and thereby is subject to tax under section 877 regardless of actual intent. All expatriates are required under the Code to provide upon expatriation a statement indicating residence and citizenship. In the case of expatriates with gross assets having an aggregate fair market value in excess of $500,000, a detailed statement of assets and liabilities is also required.”
The law has eased somewhat, however, and in 2008 a requirement was dropped that obliged wealthy former citizens to file US tax forms for 10 years after giving up citizenship, Bloomberg points out in an article on the growing number of people giving up their citizenship.
Tax compliance and long waits slowing down renunciation process
For those who want to join the line to “renounce” citizenship, as Washington labels the process, an added complication is proof that a person is “compliant” where US taxes are concerned. The issue for these people is rarely fraud, but the complexity and cost of becoming compliant.
Non-compliance may be due simply to the fact that “It’s a daunting and complex task to file a ‘resident’ US tax return, and non-residents have to further complete a foreign tax credit computation and filing. Also, some of the common software tools like Turbo Tax haven’t allowed users to file electronically with a foreign address. Finally, most people have already had to file taxes once in another country, so it’s double the work,” says Gregory Dean of US Tax in Geneva.
A translator in Paris explained to GenevaLunch why he did not file US taxes for the first 20 years of his adult life.
Third avalanche death this week: woman died Thursday in Bern
Update 14 March Geneva and Zermatt, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 57-year-old man from Solothurn died Sunday night 13 March in hospital, the second of two skiers to die from an avalanche near Zermatt Saturday. A 50-year-old man, also from Solothurn, died Saturday shortly after the accident. He was part of a group of 10 people from the Solothurn Swiss Alpine Club who were ski-touring in the Triftjigletscher area near Zermatt when they were caught by an avalanche.
The accident occurred at 17:45 Saturday 12 March.
Three members of the group were carried away by the avalanche, one of whom was dug out by the others. Air Zermatt and canton Valais police sent a rescue team, and the two missing skiers were pulled out and given medical treatment immediately. They were then flown to hospitals in Viege/Visp and Bern, but one of them died en route to hospital.
Skier triggers snow slab break
A 45-year-old woman from canton Bern died Thursday 10 March when she was caught by an avalanche. She and a male companion, both very experienced ski tourers, according to cantonal police, were coming down the Sulegg, heading towards Saxeten, when they decided to cross a slope. She went first and provoked a snow slab to break off. She was carried several hundred metres to her death. Her companion immediately alerted police. He was taken from the area by helicopter.
The woman’s body was found by the rescue team.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Jebril El-Waalfarvi, a representative of Libya’s new opposition group, the National Transition Council (NTC), met Wednesday with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who also heads the foreign affairs ministry. The NTC was formed in the eastern Libyan city of Beghazi 27 February.
El-Waalfarvi presented the group’s political programme and a list of its needs, part of a European tour by NTC representatives, who have also made a presentation to the European Union.
Calmy-Rey expressed Switzerland’s concern over the impact on the population of Libya’s civil war and expressed Switzerland’s commitment to providing diplomatic and humanitarian assistance to help the Libyan population.
Overnight stays up in Switzerland despite strong franc
Bern's new riverside bear pit is a popular attraction, although crowds thin on a snowy day
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of visitors to Switzerland rose in January despite record highs for the Swiss franc at the start of 2011. Asian tourists provided a strong boost, with numbers up 5.4 percent. Tourism, calculated on the basis of overnight stays, rose 1.6 percent overall, compared to January 2010.
The overall increase in foreign tourists was 0.4 percent.
Fewer Germans and Italians, but Belgians made up for it
The good news hides a worrisome fall in the number of German tourists, down by 5,000 overnight stays (-1 percent) compared to a year earlier. Ski resorts in German-speaking areas in Switzerland, notably Graubuenden, rely heavily on German tourists, but the canton nevertheless showed an increase of 10,000 nights for the month.
The British had 4,300 fewer nights and Italians 3,600 fewer nights, in Switzerland as a whole.
Bern lists 26 whose assets must be blocked by banks and others
Update 21:40 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department Thursday announced that banks and other financial institutions have been given the order to block assets belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, his family and those close to him, starting at 18:00 24 February, for a period of three years. The step was taken, Bern says, to avoid the possibility of any Libyan state funds that remain in Switzerland from being misappropriated by the Qaddafi clan.
The 26 persons whose assets must be frozen are listed below but it is not clear how much money or real estate they may hold in Switzerland and that would thus be blocked.
Libyan assets in Swiss banks likely to be relatively small
Libya once reportedly held considerable assets in Switzerland, but following the 2008 affair where Hannibal Qaddafi, the Libyan leader’s younger son, was arrested in Geneva, much of the money was pulled out of Swiss banks, the Libyan state news agency said in June 2009, citing a figure of CHF7 billion. Swiss sources at the time said the figure was closer to CHF5 billion.
The 2009 Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) annual reports on banks show Libya to have had only CHF613 million invested in Switzerland, in liabilities, a drop from CHF1.2 billion in 2005, figures well below those given by Libyan sources. Fiduciary funds had also dropped to half of the 2005 level, from CHF402m to CHF205m.
The SNB numbers cover all investments in Switzerland, by the government, companies and individuals.
Switzerland has been quicker than other countries to freeze the assets, with Qaddafi still technically in office, just as it was with assets of Egypt’s fallen leader Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben Ali.
Once the government in Bern gives the order to freeze assets banks and financial institutions are obliged to report these quickly to the government. The fine for not providing information is CHF20,000, plus a fine of 10 times the value of the object.
Qaddafi clan named
Google publishes the locations where it is filming: while the court case is heard in Bern, Google Street View crews are out in cantons Ticino, Valais and Zurich Thursday
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Swiss high court today will hear the case for Google’s widely popular Street Views, which have been the subject of a legal tangle in Switzerland almost since the company began publishing them in August 2009. The court will have a full house for the 10:00 hearing, with all seats reserved.
The government and Google in December 2009 reached an agreement limiting the use of Street Views in Switzerland until the case could be heard by the high court.
The Swiss Federal Administrative Tribunal, one of Switzerland’s three high courts, Thursday 24 February hears “A-7040/2009, Google Street View”, brought by the federal data protection and information commissioner against Google Inc. and Google Switzerland.
Today Google will argue 10 reasons why Street Views should be allowed in Switzerland, with the emphasis on equal treatment: its street views provide no more information than images carried by Internet media of people and places or, for that matter, the company argues, the federal government web site.
Its case will be watched carefully because of court cases in other countries, with Canada and Australia among the countries where Google has had legal problems over Street View.
Its other arguments include:
Update 18:05 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland in 2010 exported CHF640.5 million in “war materials” to 69 countries, down 12 percent from the previous year (CHF727.7m), compared to overall Swiss export, which rose by 8 percent, Bern announced Tuesday 22 February.
Arms exports accounted last year for less than half a percent of the country’s exports, 0.32 percent but with governments in several Arab nations using arms against their own citizens, observers in Switzerland are likely to look more closely this year at the details of Swiss arms exports.
Bern is putting the accent on transparency, pointing out that it remains high on the annual barometer for transparency established by the Small Arms Survey, which is attached to Geneva’s Graduate Institute. Small arms and light weapons account for only about CHF24 million of the total CHF640.5m arms exported by Switzerland last year, however. They fall under legislation covering arms and war materials.
Change in Swiss arms exports, 1983-2010 (source, Seco)
Top, Swiss arms exports in francs. Bottom, Swiss arms exports as a percentage of all exports. Source: Seco (click on image to view larger)
Air defense system sold to Saudi Arabia in 2006 covered 2010 delivery
One of the largest arms exports in 2010 was to Saudi Arabia, a partial delivery of an air defense system worth CHF132.6, which Bern is quick to point out was authorized in 2006.
Zurich’s yes makes it an urban vs rural vote
Geneva says no to tax amnesty and single state housing body
Swiss army soldiers: the guns will stay at home
Update 3, 18:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss citizens Sunday 13 February at 16:30 were close to resoundingly rejecting (TSR map) a popular initiative that would end the long-standing practice of keeping military arms at home.
Final official results are in from 25 of 26 cantons: 20 have rejected the initiative and 6 have approved it. Zurich is the latest one in, voting “yes” but in a close vote, approved by 50.4 percent with 49.6 percent saying “no”.
Zurich, Geneva, Basel and canton Vaud with Lausanne have all approved it, turning the vote into an urban versus rural Switzerland divide, as well as a language regions divide.
Bern, however, with its urban and rural mix, rejected the proposed change to gun laws, voting 59.4 percent against it.
The “no” vote in several German-speaking cantons was more than 60 percent and in some cases 70 percent.
Overall, close to the final count coming in, the “no” vote was 57 percent.
Geneva, Vaud, Jura, Neuchatel and Basel City voted in favour of it, with 61 percent in favour in Geneva and 58.9 percent in Basel City while the others were 52-53 percent.
The arguments during the run-up to the vote were often emotional, with the rationale behind the initiative being to reduce the number of deaths and in particular suicides by firearms. But other issues underlay the votes, including state versus federal balance of power, since an approval would have created a national gun registry to replace cantonal ones and it would have made it more difficult to keep arms at home for sports purposes.
Fewer than one-quarter of registered guns in Switzerland are military issue firearms, the government has estimated.
Socialists and Greens as well as a number of church groups supported the initiative but the Federal Council opposed it, saying current legislation is adequate and the problems need to be addressed elsewhere.
Those in favour have argued that the easy accessibility of guns makes suicide too easy: if a gun is not handy many suicides could be avoided.
Some groups against the initiative have argued that tightening the rules would create a black market in guns, which could prove equally dangerous.
Switzerland has the highest rate of suicides by handguns in Europe, 24-28 percent from 1996 to 2005, according to a pre-vote report by Swissinfo. It trails well behind the United States, where the figure is 57 percent, says Swissinfo.
It is not the leading country overall, however: Switzerland, with 3-4 deaths by suicide a day, ranks 20th in the world for suicide according to World Health Organization figures, with 19.1 per 100,000 (USA: 11.1 per 100,000, ranks 40th).
Canton issues: Geneva says no to two initiatives, Bern votes for a nuclear power station
Geneva voters firmly rejected two initiatives, one that would have given a tax amnesty to those who have defrauded the government and another that would have brought under one roof four separate state bodies that are involved in construction for low-income and needy groups.
Bern agreed to a new nuclear power station in Muehleberg while canton Nidwald has said no to storing nuclear waste on its territory, at Wellenberg.
Le Temps and NZZ will be publishing US cables on Switzerland, from WikiLeaks
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss newspapers Le Temps (registration required) and NZZ will publish, in French and in German starting next week, selected cables from the 5,814 that WikiLeaks collected. The two negotiated an agreement to receive the entire collection and several journalists from the two publications are meeting this weekend to determine which to publish.
The cables cover the period from 1978 to 28 February 2010.
Le Temps explains its decision: “It normally takes several decades for the reality, on which we want to shed some light, to surface.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – In the third such incident in two years, a group of Swiss students have been arrested for violence while on a school trip abroad. Four young men, age 18, were arrested by police in Berlin, Germany after knocking down a couple and stealing money and a cell phone from them.
Police have not provided the name of their school in Bern.
The incident, which left the couple with minor injuries, took place Friday morning 4 February in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood in Berlin. The 38-year-old man was thrown to the ground and the 27-year-old woman with him also fell.
Similar incidents occured in Munich in 2009 and in Rome in 2010.
Police have hotline for the many people affected, open 07:30-19:00, at +41 31 634 34 34
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Mr X, whose names will not be released under strict Swiss privacy laws, sexually abused at least 114 persons during the 29 years he worked in nine institutions and residential homes for the mentally and/or physically handicapped, in Switzerland and Germany.
The 54-year-old man, who worked as an assistant in homes, was arrested in April. He has admitted to abusing 114 adults and children.
Another eight cases are being considered by police as attempted abuse. The case is referred to by canton Bern authorities as “unprecedented” and a team of 100 people have been assigned to the case, from investigators to counselors for the victims and their families.
Switzerland has more than 22,000 residents of homes for the handicapped, and another 20,000 people have daycare places in residential homes, of which there are 554.
Abuse occurred mainly at night or when providing intimate care
Most of the abuse occurred during the night, according to police, or when the worker, who has cooperated with investigators, was providing intimate physical care for his victims, who were mostly young men.
The abuse, say police, involved “touching the private parts of his victims. Sexual relations took place several times as well as anal touching. The abuse was sometimes carried out on the same victim several times during one day. In order to avoid anyone suspecting what he was doing the man often had a change of clothes with him. In 18 cases, he took photographs and made films. The inquiry has not turned up any evidence that any of the material was posted on the Internet.”
Police in canton Bern called a press conference Tuesday 1 February to make public the information.
The case came to light when two men, adults living in care homes, told their parents they had had sexual relations with a member of the staff. The parents took the matter up with the administrators of the home, who contacted the police.
The man was arrested at his home in canton Bern, but the investigation began in Aargau, where he worked.
Old case to be re-opened, with another assistant jailed in 2003
The case was kept quiet by police to allow them to investigate the case, which posed special problems because many of the possible victims do not speak. The man had been investigated earlier, in 2003, for a likely case of sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl, but there were doubts about the reliability of her testimony. She had accused the man now under arrest, but another assistant fell under suspicion and was eventually sent to prison for sexually abusing the girl, who had limited speech.
Thomas Déruns
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chris McSorley’s message Monday 31 January to his team and supporters was grim: the acclaimed top forward for the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, Thomas Déruns, 28 and Swiss, is moving to Bern. By Tuesday the club’s site sported a video that drew a large number of fans, with teammates’ reactions to Thomas leaving.
Déruns has been “one of its key players” for some 10 years, says McSorley, but the GSHC was obliged to let him move to SC Bern “in order to reduce the structural deficit of the club in the short and medium term if it cannot balance its budget which is amongst the four smallest of the League.” The player “has been in a position to negotiate a new contract for four or five seasons in the last few months,” McSorley’s statement notes. “The GSHC is no longer able in its current situation, to match the offers made by other clubs of the LNA (national league A).”
GSHC’s tight budget looked like it would get help from Geneva in the form of an improved and enlarged arena before the current 2010-2011 season opened, which would have let the team sell more VIP seats and get more sponsors. McSorley, who has been careful to speak well of Geneva authorities’ efforts to improve the aging (1958) Vernets arena, which has been in the political hot seat in Geneva politics, issued these remarks in a statement published on the team’s web site Monday:
Sarah Meier from Zurich, European freestyle figure skating champion, 2011 (Photo ©2011 Philipp Zinniker/EM Bern)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Sarah Meier, 26, Swiss skater and the oldest competitor bidding for the European figure skating title, saw her dreams come true as she won gold in the final competition of her career Saturday 29 January.
Meier has suffered for the past three seasons from injuries and disappointments, but her Saturday performance in the free skate won her a top mark of 170.60 and crowned her the European figure skating champion at the end of a week of competition.
She was the only skater not to fall, and her lively, emotionally charged skating Saturday enchanted the crowds and judges alike.
“I’ve always dreamed of this moment, but it hasn’t sunk in yet,” the happily tearful skater said afterwards.
Diableret, canton Vaud, still drawing skiers
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – All eyes have been on Davos this week for the World Economic Forum (WEF), which also means journalists covering it have had a chance to ski there. And they says that what they’ve seen confirms what they suspected: the strong Swiss franc is keeping foreign tourists away. The problem is, they have the story wrong.
The franc has appreciated 9 percent against the dollar in the past 12 months and 18 percent against the euro. Mountain visitors account for 47 percent of Swiss overnight stays, so if resorts are in a slump, Swiss tourism will be hurting.
But they have the story wrong
Not just an uphill battle for resorts, despite the franc's strength (photo: Les Mosses, juncture between Vaud and Bernese Alps)
There are two problems with this: one is that Davos is far from representative of Swiss ski resorts, and the other is that while shop and hotelkeepers grumble everywhere that business is down, statistics show that the situation is far from dire.
Skiers are still coming to Switzerland, and in substantial numbers, and this despite a strong franc and a snow base that is adequate if not as deep as many skiers would like, especially in parts of canton Valais.
2011 decrease of 2-3 percent expected
Véronique Kanel at the Swiss national tourism office in Zurich puts the currency problem in perspective. “We are concerned that the impact of the strong Swiss franc will be increasingly felt by the tourism industry over the coming months. Switzerland Tourism believes that a decrease of 3-5 percent in overnights for 2011 (not only the winter season) for markets of the euro zone, and overall, a decrease of 2-3 percent in all overnights would be realistic, should the euro remain at its current level against the Swiss franc.”
Statistics to the end of November 2010, the latest available, show an overall 2.4 percent decrease in overnight stays from January to end-November for the five euro currency countries that bring in 50 percent of the foreigners visiting Switzerland: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Two other important markets for the Swiss are Britain and the US, both of which have currencies that have weakened against the franc.
November and December were good and January promising, but some dips
But overnight stays from the US rose nearly 9 percent in 2010, and the number of visitors was up nearly 11 percent in 2010, bouncing back from a 2009 dip.
And November was generally a good month, with hotel overnights up 4.9 percent during this weakest months of the winter season. Christmas and New Year’s traffic was good at most resorts, with canton Valais, for example, saying it was at 90 percent of capacity for bookings up to New Year’s. Canton Vaud told Swiss public television TSR in late December that books for January were relatively strong.
The Matterhorn's appeal is perennial, no matter where the Swiss franc stands
Zermatt saw things somewhat differently, but it depends more heavily on foreign traffic than some resorts. Daniel Luggen has an upbeat take on the situation:
“It is certainly not an easy time for Swiss tourism, especially for a destination like Zermatt, where 70 percent of the guests are coming from abroad. We have felt the influence during this last two months in terms of fewer overnights, with December down approximately 8 percent and January down about 10 percent, but also in the consuming habits of the guests. Thanks to a strong number of loyal vistors, the decrease was not too bad—among the Zermatt guests there are 75 percent repeaters.
“Even though we would appreciate it if the Swiss franc would lose its power, the decrease has also a good side: Zermatt suppliers actually have more time to take care of and pamper their guests.”
A personal observation from this journalist: easyJet at Geneva airport, which carries hordes of British skiers, continues to have large crowds.
Davos is different. It and most of canton Graubuenden rely very heavily on German tourists, so when the Germans stay away, the drop can be dramatic. And while the slopes are magnificent, some skiers would rather be on them when the WEF show and military presence have ended.
Three out of five Swiss residences are single-family homes
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has counted the country’s homes, officially, for the first time. The new Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings statistics show that at the end of December 2009 the number of buildings with residential use in Switzerland was 1,623,000 with a total of 4,008,400 dwellings.
Switzerland has a population of 7.4 million, giving it on average 1.85 persons per dwelling.
More houses than apartments, and homes are getting larger
Three out of five dwellings are individual homes, surprisingly almost as many in urban areas, 57 percent, as in rural, 59 percent. But houses supply only 25 percent of lodgings. Three- and four-room apartments account for 53 percent of all residential living space.
The five largest cities vary, with Zurich having not quite twice as many individual houses as apartments, while Geneva has three times as many houses.
Source: Swiss Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings, 2009 figures. Left to right: total buildings, total housing, individual homes, multi-dwelling housing
The study does not look at the number of square metres of dwellings but in terms of the number of rooms, apartments have been getting larger.
More than 60 percent of apartments built after 1990 have four or five rooms, with a steady fall in the number of three-room apartments. Geneva is the only city to have more five- and six-room apartments (combined) figure than four-room ones.
Number of dwellings, by the number of rooms, Swiss-wide, 2009 (source: Federal Statistical Office)
The figures for the first housing tally are limited, based on figures gathered on the basis of the 2000 census, but the register will be expanded in coming years.
It is part of the new federal approach to gathering annual statistics for a more comprehensive government data base in the place of a census every 10 years.
Bernese Alps, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Guardian‘s latest batch of leaked cables from the US diplomatic bag include one sent by then-Ambassador Pamela Pitzer Willeford in January 2006, an assessment of how good a friend Switzerland was to the US government. Switzerland was deemed to be a cooler friend than Liechtenstein, which comes across as a friendly lap dog in its haste to change its image in the US, at the time, as a money laundering centre.
The Swiss, according to Willeford, who shared her opinions but no real information, were not cooperating enough with the US government in the fight against terrorism, and Swiss media had it in for the US. “Since the Washington Post claimed in early November 2005 that the United States was operating hidden prisons in Europe, the Swiss media has gone full bore in identifying USG sins, real and imagined. Any news on Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib is guaranteed front-page treatment, whereas Al-Qaeda attacks are relegated to the back pages.”
Links: Guardian, US cable from Switzerland, GenevaLunch editorial
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Fifty years ago, as tensions between the United States and Cuba grew, Switzerland was asked by the US to represent its interests in Havana, an anniversary marked by Switzerland 6 January, but quietly ignored by the two neighbouring nations whose chilly relations have thawed only slightly over the years.
It was early 1961, some 20 months before the Cuban missile crisis, when the US turned to Switzerland to represent its interests as part of neutral Switzerland’s “good offices”, which are a key aspect of Swiss foreign policy. The US had just broken off diplomatic relations with Cuba following the 1959 Cuban Revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, replacing Fulgencio Batista, whose government had been backed by the US.
Switzerland serves as a Protecting Power, says Bern:
Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen and Savoie in France: sites of four deaths
Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland (Photograph by Keith Halstead)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sports accidents in canton Bern have taken two lives while in neighbouring France a father and his baby died in a freak accident following a medical problem. Dauphine Libéré reports that in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, in Savoie, France, a 47-year-old man died of a heart attack while changing his baby, falling on the seven-month-old girl and apparently smothering her to death. The mother of the child, in the process of divorcing the father, according to the regional newspaper, asked neighbours to check on them when no one answered the phone.
Grindelwald tobaggan outing turns tragic
A 21-year-old woman, whose nationality has not been divulged by police, died Wednesday evening in hospital in Bern, where she was flown after a tobagganing accident in Grindelwald Tuesday 28 December at 13:15. She and a group of seven others were following a trail when half the group opted to take a pedestrian path. Shortly after, the young woman took an abrupt turn to the right, leaving the footpath, for reasons that aren’t clear, and she tumbled 20 metres, sustaining severe head injuries that led to her death the next evening.
Lauterbrunnen base jumper death comes one year after similar accident
Public referendum in 2013 likely
The French and Swiss power grids: multiple electricity sources include nuclear power
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three requests to build new nuclear power stations, on the site of existing ones, have passed their first hurdle, with the Federal Nuclear Safety Commission saying the sites meet legal and other requirements. The commission will now study the applications, the first in a series of approval stages that is expected to take three years. The three sites are in Muehleberg, canton Bern, Goesgen, canton Solothurn and Beznau, Aargau. The requests to build were filed by Forces motrices bernoises (FMB) for Muehleberg, Axpo for Beznau and Alpiq for Goesgen.
The commission has asked the three project owners to supply more information, in particular details concerning earthquake, landslide and flooding risks, as well as the financial profitability of the operations.
AFrican Mirror TV coverage, Nigerian-Swiss meetings
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss and Nigerian governments Friday 5 November signed a bilateral migration agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that covers a series of migration issues. The MoU concludes 18 months of negotiations and the Swiss government Friday described it as having a “pioneering character”.
The two countries have been trying to resolve a number of migration-related tensions that reached a low point when a 29-year-old Nigerian man died at Zurich Airport 17 March 2010, just as he was about to be repatriated. The Nigerian diaspora in Switzerland has demanded more help from the Swiss with integration issues and Switzerland has asked Nigeria for cooperation with the repatriation programme for Nigerians who are sent back home when their request for refugee status is rejected.
Nigerians are by far the largest group of asylum seekers in Switzerland, with 1,786 requests for asylum made in 2009 but only one granted, with six given provisional protection.
Roger de Weck, new SSR CEO in January 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation, SSR, will be tightening its belt in January by streamlining its administrative structure. The company will be acting on the advice of Roger de Weck, who takes over in January as chief executive officer, to reduce the senior management team from nine members with four “paticipants” to seven members, with the four participants used as consultants on an occasional basis.
SSR owns TSR television, RSR radio, WRS radio and the swissinfo web site in the Lake Geneva region as well as several other media, in several languages, throughout Switzerland.
Long-time station personality in Geneva, Pete Forster remains a key on-air voice for WRS
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World Radio Switzerland (WRS), public radio in English in Switzerland, is adding 27 hours of programming thanks to new partnerships with US-based public radio: National Public Radio, American Public Media and Public Radio International. The station’s partnership with Britain’s public radio, the BBC, will continue, for international news and special programmes.
The new programming was quietly incorporated into the autumn schedule that began at the end of August, but the station is officially launching the new partnerships Friday to send a signal that the station, three years old, is moving firmly ahead with its mission to become a Swiss-wide station with good quality programming aimed at English speakers in Switzerland.
