SION, VALAIS – Police in canton Valais say the capital, Sion, has been hit by a spate of car break-ins, with thieves going after cell phones and computers, or any other items of value. Unlocked trunks or car doors are being opened, but windows have also been smashed and windows left open a crack are used to get into the car.
In separate Sion police news, an officer who was standing in front of a bar Monday 2 April was intentionally hit by a car and injured. The driver swerved into the officer, then left the scene of the accident. The police officer was taken to the hospital for treatment of light injuries and police are seeking information about the driver of a white Seat Leon Cupra car.
Swiss soldiers travel on Swiss trains for free when on duty (photo: Morges station, November 2011)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The 2012 train schedule that goes into effect 11 December will offer travellers better connections for trips abroad. Some parts of the Lake Geneva region will also see improvements. But the best news for many working travellers is that mobile connections are being improved, as is the online sales service.
The CFF rail company presented highlights of the new schedule to the press Thursday 17 November.
You’ll be able to plug in and connect better in 2012
All the new trains will have electric plugs and existing intercity trains will also get them. “All the new Duplex trains on the intercity trains will be equipped with WLAN,” says Jeannine Pilloud.
A major improvement could be the installation of equipment that amplifies signals received inside and outside the train cars, giving better access to the cell phone and Internet network.
1.8 million cell phone tickets ordered and number growing
The CFF app for ordering online tickets via cell phone is proving popular, with 1.8 million users since it was introduced in 2010, and the number is growing steadily, says the rail company.
Users of the small pocket timetables will find that some of the international ones are disappearing, in favour of online information, and that smaller stations’ stops are no longer listed, but are incorporated into regional listings. All details will be available online, however.
French-speaking Switzerland, especially commuters, to see significant improvements
A host of changes for trains in the Lake Geneva region will have a significant impact:
More double-decker trains will be used on the Geneva airport/Lucerne line, offering more seats
An additional InterRegio train will run between Neuchatel and Lausanne at 07:53 and the Neuchatel/La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle line will have additional service during rush hour and a pair of trains is being added to the Neuchatel to Bienne line
Canton Vaud: the S4 line is being extended from Morges to Allaman, stopping in Saint Prex and Etoy, which will now have trains every 30 minutes instead of once an hour, Monday to Friday.
Geneva: La Plaine/Geneva, more trains will run during rush hour. Coppet–Geneva–Lancy-Pont-Rouge trains, the 30-minute schedule is being extended for weekend night and trains will run every half hour on Fridays and Saturdays until the end of the day.
New international connections, travel time cut on major links
(GenevaLunch) - Amnesty International’s 2011 annual report says bluntly that two of the most effective instruments of protesters in the Middle East in recent months have been mobile phones and FM radio. The report’s publication 12 May signalled its 50th birthday by surveying the state of human rights around the world. Reuters notes that “its beginnings in 1961 – ignited by one man’s vision to protect human rights for all — marked the start of the human rights movement worldwide. Key achievements include the formation of the International Criminal Court, treaties banning torture and the death penalty remaining in only a handful of countries.”
AllAfrica interviewed Amnesty leaders on YouTube: series of three videos.
Watch the accelerator when in Switzerland: police caught more speeders in 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The only group of lawbreakers on Swiss roads whose numbers remained stable in 2010 were foreigners, figures released Tuesday 8 February indicate.
The federal highway department issued its annual statistics for driver’s licenses that were taken away, showing a 5.4 percent increase to nearly 79,000 drivers. Most, 63 percent, were lifted for three months, and the age group most affected was 20 to 29 year olds.
There was a sharp rise in the number of people who have lost their licenses for an indefinite period, 17.8 percent of all licenses revoked.
Swiss police cannot revoke a foreign driver’s license, but foreigners can have their right to drive in Switzerland taken away. The number of foreign drivers banned from Swiss roads in 2010 remained virtually the same, just over 18,000.
The three main reasons for taking away a license remain excessive speeding, drunkenness and distracted driving. The number of speeders who lost their licenses rose 1.2 percent to 35,427, while 18,371 people were caught with alcohol levels above 0.8 per 1,000 (legal limit is 0.5) and another 6,700 were given warnings for being over 0.5.
Nearly 10,000 people lost their licenses for distracted driving, a growing problem, with the increase abovve 12 percent last year. Most of these are people distracted by GPS navigation systems or cell phones, according to the highway department.
Your garage door won’t close, the wifi isn’t working and the zapper is moody: check your USA-bought cell phone
That twinkle in the gnome's eye might be blocking your reception
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Holiday gifts bought abroad might be cheaper or more interesting in the short run, but they can deliver a hex. The Swiss communications office, Ofcom, warns that if you are buying a cordless or wireless device outside Switzerland but plan to use it in this country or to offer it as a gift to a Swiss resident, be sure to check that it is compatible and can be used here.
Ofcom has been called on 180 times in the past 18 months to investigate disruptions to mobile phone networks, wifi systems, microphones, telecommand units and even garage doors. The main culprit is wireless and cordless devices bought in Canada and the US, responsible for the problem in 90 percent of the cases, which function on frequencies that are different from Swiss ones. Some of the devices are more surprising, such as a garden gnome whose blinking eyes caused radio reception interference and a toilet aeration electronic device that blocked television reception.
Drivers howled when babyphone blocked 150-car parking lot
Geneva drivers were voted some of the worst in the country by other Swiss, along with those from Ticino and Aargau
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The worst drivers in Switzerland are talking on their cell phones or messaging via SMS, according to a survey of 1,000 people in Switzerland, carried out for Comparis.ch, the consumer price comparison group.
Second worst: tailgaters, who hang onto the car in front of them. Men are considered worse drivers than women, and man over the age of 70 are considered particularly dangerous.
Won't be getting a new, shared logo in Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal competition commission, Comco, will not allow a merger between France Telecom (Orange) and Sunrise to go ahead, it announced Thursday 22 April. The commission’s investigation into the cell phone market concluded that even though customers would benefit in some ways from a merger, the fact that Orange will soon become part of France Telecom means that Switzerland would be left with only two large cell phone companies that would dominate the market. Another large competitor would increase competition for Swisscom, the commission noted, but a third company would be highly unlikely to gain a foothold, so the positive impact on competition would be offset by having just two operators.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Solutions are within reach, but they are becoming increasingly urgent for the problem of what to do with the growing number of cell phones, televisions, computers and other electronic devices and their waste. A report issued this week by Unep, the United Nations environmental body, draws a gloomy picture, but it says there is hope if action is taken quickly.
“Many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health,” according to “”Recycling – from E-Waste to Resources,” published 21 February 2010.
“One person’s waste can be another’s raw material,” says Konrad Osterwalder, of UNU (United Nations University). “The challenge of dealing with e-waste represents an important step in the transition to a green economy. This report outlines smart new technologies and mechanisms which, combined with national and international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new businesses with decent green jobs.”
The report used data from what Unep calls 11 representative developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation: old and dilapidated desk and laptop computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, digital photo and music devices, refrigerators, toys and televisions.
The Indian government’s crackdown on pre-paid cell phones in troubled Jammu and Kashmir has drawn ire as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reaches out to the region’s residents by withdrawing army troops from the region. Nearly 3 million subscribers, including army troops disconnected from their families, have been left without phone service, days after Singh visited the region 30 October.
The measure was introduced on security grounds, because vendors and service providers required only the simplest of identity checks, thus opening up the service to abuse by Islamist insurgents. Nearly 20,000 people in the region make their living selling airtime, and are now faced with destitution.
Militants hiding out in a cave in Kashmir were surprised when the cave’s owner, a bear, returned to his den. Two men were killed, and two injured, one seriously, when the bear attacked them in its den. Police later recovered the bodies and the men’s automatic weapons.
Bears have made a come-back in the region, as people turned in their weapons to security forces when the insurgency began, thus cutting down on poaching. BBC, KashmirLive, Reuters
University of Tokyo, Japan researchers have developed a paint that obstructs wifi signals by adding aluminum-iron oxide particles that resonate at the same frequency as wifi signals, around 2.4 Gigaherz. The paint can block signals at up to 100 GHz. Painting the outside of your house will seal it against neighbours who use your wifi. Theatres and concert halls are interested in the technology to block cellphone signals during performances. BBC,Yahoo News
Map detail, photo Sean Ecker
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swisstopo, the Swiss Federal Office of Topography announced that maps of Switzerland at 1:25,000 and 1:100,000 detail are available for cell phones with the Windows mobile and Symbian S60 operating systems. Mobile telephones equipped with a GPS receiver and the Swiss Map mobile software will never get lost again. The software works much as Google maps does, but with the cartographic details of the Swiss maps. The addition of the two mobile platforms means that Swiss Map mobile now exists for the the iPhone, Sony-Ericsson and Nokia smartphones, as well as Windows mobile phones.
US research on the dangers of driving while using a cell phone are finally coming to light, six years after a federal agency in the US decided not to publish them, in 2003, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opted not to do further research, reports the New York Times, which is making the full report available on its web site after two consumer groups, led by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, publish it 21 July. The data was withheld, it appears, largely out of concern over angering Congress, in an American-style state versus federal power lawmaking clash.
US President Barack Obama, while maintaining the trade embargo with Cuba, has eased some restrictions that particularly affect Cuban-American families: cell phone companies and television broadcasts to the island will be allowed and US citizens will be allowed to make unlimited family visits to the island and provide unlimited financial aid to their families. NPR
Some will love it and some will hate it but no matter what your opinion, cell phones are now being used on airplanes. CNN video
One charger, using a USB plug: some 750 of the world’s leading cell phone makers have pledged that their new cell phones will accept the universal charger by 2012. The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona, Spain. CNN
Waiting in line for iPhones the day they went on sale in Switzerland (2008)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Comparis, the online Swiss consumer price comparison group, argues in its latest press release that the Swiss are spending CHF2 million more than they need to on mobile phones, without any interest in switching to cheaper deals.
