ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – UK and Swiss banking regulators are reported by the Wall St Journal to be planning to fine Swiss bank UBS for shortcomings in supervising risky trades. The newspaper cites “people close to the situation”, noting that regulators from the two countries will complete their investigations by mid-February into the $23. billion loss by trade Kweku Adoboli.
The former UBS employee pleaded not guilty Monday morning 30 January in London to charges of fraud.
Lausanne-Geneva train traffic to grow 35% in next three years
View from the rails, Lausanne, 20 December 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The additional CHF90 fine that went into effect 11 December for CFF rail travelers taking the train without a ticket has resulted in half a million francs in additional revenue in 10 days, according to Zurich’s NZZ newspaper 21 December. The CFF’s spokesperson Lea Meyer told NZZ that most passengers are nevertheless traveling with tickets: on average one person is fined for every two trains, some 800 fines a day.
The company said when it announced the sharp increase in fines (in addition to the price of the ticket passengers must pay) that the goal was not to bring in income so much as to reduce the inefficiency and high cost of ticket-takers issuing tickets.
Major extensions to Lausanne station moving ahead
In other Swiss rail news, the CFF in the past week acquired three buildings next to the station in Lausanne, as planned, that will the station to add new lines and double the rail capacity between Geneva and Lausanne by 2025.
The CFF told GenevaLunch this week that traffic on the line is expected to see a 35 percent increase by 2015, in just three years, due to the population growth in the region.
The company had 25,000 travelers a day on the line in 2000 and it has already doubled to 50,000 daily this year. By 2025 it will reach 100,000 a day.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two men face fines of nearly $72,000 after they got drunk on a 28 November flight from Ontario Canada to Beijing, China. The plane had to land in Vancouver, where Royal Canadian Mounted Police escorted them off the plane. The two, George Campbell, 45, and Paul Alexander, 38, pleaded “guilty to mischief for consuming too much alcohol and disobeying the directions of the flight crew aboard an Air Canada flight”, according to the Globe & Mail. In a court appearance 29 November the pair received suspended sentences and probation for a year.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Tourists who are tempted to drive across Switzerland on the faster roads without the sticker might want to reconsider. It will cost you double, with the fine jumping from CHF100 to 200. Swiss motorists beware: you have until 31 January to make sure the sticker is on your vehicles.
The cost of the sticker remains CHF40 for the 2012. It can be used starting 1 December and is valid until 31 January 2013. The old 2011 sticker is valid until 31 January 2012.
The highway department warns drivers they must remove their old stickers to make it easier to see the new one. The sticker has to be placed on the windscreen, on the inside of the car, near the edge of the windscreen; stickers not correctly placed can prompt a fine this year.
The stickers serve as a sign you’ve paid the Swiss road tax, which replaces the tolls in some neighbouring countries.
They are available at customs agencies, petrol stations, post offices, highway department offices and garages.
Bags in the train luggage areas during rush hour - or risk paying for a second seat, says the CFF
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Watch where you set your bag on Swiss trains starting 11 December when the new timetable and new rules come into effect. More and more Swiss are taking the train, a mostly good thing, but for anyone traveling with a bag during peak hours, a new rule could be costly: if you set your bag on a seat during busy times you will be liable for a half-price ticket when the conductor comes by.
Ticket-takers have been trying, for some time, to improve awareness of the problem by making announcements asking people to take their bags off seats during busy times, with some trains no longer having enough seats for passengers during rush hour.
Passengers are free to use the seats near them for their gear, free of charge, during low travel times, the CFF rail company says.
Reminder: costly to take a Swiss train without a ticket as of 11 December
Another change that comes into effect 11 December is the hike in the fine for getting on a train without a ticket, which goes up to CHF90, plus the price of the ticket.
Ed. note: CNN today carries a feature article on the major construction work and changes at the Zurich train station, happily calling the Swiss “train addicted”.
LONDON, ENGLAND – The three dethroned heroes of Pakistan’s cricket team, Salman Butt, age 30, Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, were handed prison sentences and fines by a London court Thursday. Butt and Asif, who were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and accept corrupt money earlier this week have been handed sentences of 30 and 12 months respectively. Amir was given a six-month sentence.
All three were suspended from the sport for five years by the ICC, the International Cricket Council, in February 2011. All are appealing their bans.
Mazhar Majeed, the agent who was behind the betting scam pleaded guilty and was given two sentences of 32 and 8 months, to run concurrently.
The judge in London also ordered the men to pay fines: Butt £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120. It’s not clear what fines Majeed will have to pay. The judge pointed out that he appears to have kept most of the money for himself.
The judge, in his sentencing remarks, notes that the name of the sport used to mean “fair dealing on the sporting field”. He reprimanded them in the name of the Pakistan team’s fans, saying “In Pakistan, where cricket is the national sport, the ordinary follower of the national team feels betrayed by your activities, as do your fellow countrymen in this country. You Butt, Asif and Amir have let down all your supporters and all followers of the game.”
Links to other sites: BBC, CBC Canada (AP), India Today, Jakarta Globe
US pressure on Swiss for bank names accompanies Fatca, FBar pressure on overseas Americans
Paradeplatz in Zurich: Credit Suisse
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Two Swiss-German newspapers spilled the news Sunday 4 September that the US is pressuring Switzerland with a short deadline and legal threats over bank data related to Americans suspected of hiding taxable assets in Switzerland. SonntagsZeitung and NZZ write that the US is demanding that Swiss bank Credit Suisse and several other banks hand over the names of a significant number of bank clients by Tuesday 6 September.
The newspapers are basing their information on details that are reportedly part of a three-page letter written by US Deputy Attorney General James Cox to Swiss diplomat Michael Ambuhl, threatening legal action if US demands are not met to furnish the names of US clients who handed the banks $50,000 or more between 2002 and 2010.
The story is being widely covered by media outside Switzerland as part of a Swiss banks and “tax cheats” saga, an over-simplification of a situation that has many threads, only one of which is how wealthy Americans or green card holders hide their money abroad.
FATCA, FBar the new overseas American tax lingo
American Citizens Abroad is calling for US Fatca legislation to be repealed
The news comes as US citizens abroad grapple with the implications of two extended deadlines: a very short deadline extension to 9 September announced at the end of August by the IRS, the tax arm of the US government, to come forward if they have not filed FBar forms in the past, and the recent one-year extension to 2014 of implementation of the new Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) legislation.
Under Fatca, foreign banks will have to announce, to the US, assets of American citizens who are clients, whether they are based in the US and using offshore services or resident abroad and using the bank to handle daily banking needs, including regular payments such as rent or mortgages, salaries and pension funds or trusts that are their main source of income.
American Citizens Abroad, a non-profit group based in Geneva that works closely with both Republican and Democrat groups for American citizens living outside the US, says that Fatca is “using a bulldozer to go after an ant hill” and that the price to the US will ultimately be too high. The group wrote, in a 31 August letter to US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and top US tax officials demanding that Fatca be repealed, that
“Fatca will provoke a serious backlash from foreign governments who find it unacceptable, and rightly so, that the United States unilaterally extend US law worldwide.
This is financial imperialism. At a time when the United States needs the cooperation of the rest of the world to help resolve its major domestic debt problems and to reinvigorate its economy, it is counter-productive and dangerous to provoke foreign governments and force their financial institutions to become the policemen of the IRS, by requiring that they spend billions of dollars in compliance for the sole benefit of the IRS, and to force them to break their own domestic laws to do so.”
Spotlight on Credit Suisse, but it’s not the only targeted Swiss bank
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Speeders and drunk drivers could soon find it’s not easy to get their drivers licenses back, and not without conditions applied. The lower house of Parliament’s transport commission says it will back recommendations from the upper house to toughen rules for drivers.
The two houses are looking to clamp down on speeders who have lost their licenses for a year by obliging them to drive with a vehicle equipped with a black box that measures their speed, in future. Repeat offenders arrested for drunk driving would be required to have vehicles with ethylometres that go into effect when the car starts, for five years.
Switzerland’s death and serious injury rates have dropped significantly in recent years with tougher laws governing speeding and drinking/driving, which the Swiss safety council says is due to a mix of prevention, greater public awareness and stiffer penalties.
During the day six lanes remain open, with reduced speeds; at night only three lanes in total are open, one in the direction of Vevey and two in the direction of Geneva
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The re-blacktopping of the A9 autoroute between Lausanne and Vevey, a 20-odd kilometre stretch, is being done at night but police say the lack of marking and the number of heavy work vehicles parked on the side of the road during the day is behind the 60 kph speed limit for several areas. And starting Monday 15 August they will be enforcing that limit between the St Croix junction and Vennes, 7.7km in the direction of Vevey, with random speed checks.
Some 90,000 vehicles use the road daily.
The roadworks and slower limit will be in force until November. Police say they will continue their speed checks until then. The construction work began 19 May, with speed reduced initially to 80 kph. In the first 12 weeks police took away 102 drivers licenses for speeding (final decision from the cantonal highway department yet to be made) between Lausanne and Villeneuve. Of the 215,662 vehicles checked, 3,929 drivers, or 1.82 percent, were reported for speeding, during the 32 radar sessions run by the police.
Speed limits enforced for foreign cars as well as Swiss
Two drivers were caught going 140 kph, on 9 June and 21 July, in 80 kph zones.
Swiss speeding fines range from CHF20 to 260 for going 5 to 25 kph over the limit; after that they jump considerably and the driver risks losing his or her license plus prison time for very high speeds.
Swiss police and those from several other European countries, including France and Germany, have a data swap programme covering drivers licenses and fines, through a system called Eucaris.
Road is 41 years old, has 90,000 cars a day
The A9 between St Croix and Vennes was built in 1970, then enlarged to six lanes between 1995 and 1997. The current construction work is reinforcing the layer underneath the road surface as well as resurfacing.
Details, A9 St Croix-Vennes roadworks
Some German residents may now opt to walk openly through the front doors of Swiss banks
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A Swiss-German tax deal has been reached, and the details, which have provoked much speculation in recent weeks, were made public Wednesday morning by the two governments. The much-touted likely “fine” of CHF2 billion that Swiss banks would need to pay Germany turns out to be a refundable guarantee:
“In order to ensure a minimum income from the retrospective taxation of existing banking relationships as well as to state their resolve to implement the agreement, the Swiss banks have undertaken to pay a guarantee in the amount of CHF 2 billion. The funds advanced by the banks will then be offset by the incoming tax payments and refunded to the banks.”
Bern and Bonn initialed the agreement on “outstanding tax issues” Wednesday 10 August. Key features of the agreement include:
- Persons resident in Germany can retrospectively tax their existing banking relationships in Switzerland either by making a one-off tax payment or by disclosing their accounts
- Future investment income and capital gains of German bank clients in Switzerland will be subject to a final withholding tax
- Proceeds of the withholding tax will be transferred to the German authorities by Switzerland
- A safety mechanism is being set up to allow Germany to request some information in order to avoid new, undeclared accounts from being opened
- A solution to the problem of the possible prosecution of bank employees is included.
Specifically, on the withholding tax, Bern says in its statement, “Final withholding tax for the future: future investment income and capital gains should be directly covered by a final withholding tax. The single tax rate has been set at 26.375%. This is in line with the current flat-rate withholding tax in Germany. The final withholding tax is a tax at source. After it has been paid, the tax obligation towards the country of domicile will generally have been fulfilled.”
German authorities will be able to submit requests for information in order to prevent new, undeclared funds from being deposited in Switzerland “in the context of a safety mechanism that must state the name of the client, but not necessarily the name of the bank. The number of requests that can be submitted is limited and there must be plausible grounds. The number will be within the range of 750 to 999 requests for a two-year period; an adjustment will then be made based on the results. So-called fishing expeditions are not permissible.”
Germans can pay lump sum back taxes anonymously or own up to accounts
The agreement notes that “To retrospectively tax existing banking relationships in Switzerland, persons resident in Germany should be given one chance to make an anonymous lump-sum tax payment. The size of this tax burden will vary from between 19% to 34% of the assets in question, and will be determined based on the duration of the client relationship as well as the initial and final amount of the capital.” Alternatively, “those affected should also have the possibility of disclosing their banking relationship in Switzerland to the German authorities.”
Germany to streamline Swiss banks’ access to German market
Switzerland has been keen to gain better access to German financial services markets and the agreement notes that “mutual market access for financial services will be improved.” In particular, “the exemption procedure for Swiss banks in Germany will be simplified, and the obligation to initiate client relationships via a local institution will be eliminated. Likewise, the problem of purchasing data relevant for tax collection purposes has been resolved.
Bern says it expect the agreement to be signed by both governments in coming weeks and notes that it “could enter into force at the start of 2013″.
Michael Ambühl, State Secretary, Swiss Federal Department of Finance, and Hans Bernhard Beus, State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Finance, were the lead negotiators, who initialled today’s agreement.
New Swiss road safety review shows men 18-24 at risk for serious accidents caused by speed, alcohol
France says 1 in 10 accidents due to cell phone use
Watching a dashboard movie while driving, as this driver was doing, will soon be illegal in France
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – French road safety officials meeting in Paris 11 May agreed to a series of radical changes to crack down on speeders and drunk drivers, shortly after April figures were released that show a sharp increase in road fatalities. Poland had the highest number of road deaths of any European country in 2009, Eurostat figures show, with more than 4,500 people killed, but France was second, with 4,273, followed by Italy with just over 4,000.
France has a population eight times greater than Switzerland, but the number of road deaths in 2009 was about 12 times greater, with 349 people dying in Swiss road accidents that year.
Stiffer penalties, more prevention has worked in Switzerland, experts say
Compared to France, Switzerland has tougher road safety laws, with stiffer penalties in a number of areas and an alcohol tolerance level that is lower, 0.5.
Seat belts help, but lower speeds are the best prevention, accident statistics imply
Bfu, the Swiss accident prevention council, argues that the gradually improvement in prevention combined with harsher penalties is largely responsible for a five-fold reduction in the number of road deaths since 1971, when 1,773 people died. The number of serious injuries since 1980 in car accidents (other types of vehicles not included) has fallen by 75 percent even though drivers increased the number of kilometres driven during the period from 32 million a year to 52m.
Highly visible police checks needed
A study carried out jointly by Bfu and the Swiss Road Safety Fund and published 10 May shows that young men 18-24 run by far the highest risk of serious accidents, and that inattention, alcohol and speed are, in that order, the cause of serious road accidents. The combination of alcohol and speed is the cause of most night-time and weekend accidents, involving young men; loss of control of cars is due to these factors rather than driving ability, the study points out.
The study notes that highly visible and regular police checks for drunk driving and speeding are essential to convince drivers they might be caught: in Switzerland, with 5 million driver’s licenses, police see some 2 million cases of speeding a year, a sign that this is not the behaviour of a small minority.
Number of accidents up nearly 20% in April in France
The number of deaths on French roads rose nearly 20 percent in April, compared to a year earlier: 355 people killed. The first four months of the year show a 13 percent increase. Motorcyclists have suffered a high incidence of fatal accidents, says the French Interior Ministry.
The new measures, some of which will require parliament’s approval, include:
- fixed radars will no longer be announced and signs for them will be removed
- radar alert systems for drivers will be outlawed
- 1,000 new radars will be installed on French roads by the end of 2012
- fines will rise sharply for screens other than GPS systems within the driver’s visual field
- penalty for driving with more than 0.8 alcohol in the blood will be increased
- driving at a speed more than 50 kph over the limit will become a criminal offense, with a prison term as punishment.
French law currently fines a driver caught going more than 50 kph €1,500, with six points removed from his or her driver’s license. Repeat offenders have their vehicle impounded and the driver risks three months in prison in addition to a €3,750 fine and six points taken off the driver’s license, according to AFP news agency in Le Monde.
Drivers caught using cell phones (except hands-free) will face steeper fines and the loss of three rather than the current two driver’s license points.
The French inter-ministerial group agreed to increase from six to eight the points lost by a driver who is caught with more than the legal alcohol limit, citing studies that show a driver who is over the limit is eight times more likely to be involved in a fatal road accident.
Chateau de Bethusy, Lausanne, where the CAS sports arbitration court, holds its hearings
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The CAS, the international arbitration court for sports in Lausanne, says it has accepted for review the appeals by two former officials of the international football federation, Fifa.
Former Fifa executive committee member Amos Adamu of Nigeria has asked that he be found not guilty and his three-year suspension overturned.
Ahongalu Fusimalohi of Tonga is asking that his ban be lifted.
The two were part of a group of six officials found guilty on various corruption charges linked to the 2018 and 2022 football World Cup bidding contests. Fifa in November 2010 handed out fines ranging from CHF5,000 to CHF10,000 and the officials were banned from participating in any football-related activities for a period of one to four years.
The CAS has not yet set a date for the hearings.
Foreign tobacco companies may have undermined new laws
China will soon take the dramatic step of banning cigarettes in hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and most other indoor public spaces, 1 May, but the huge shift away from public smoking comes with so little in the way of punishment that the sting is missing from the new laws. China has one of the world’s highest smoking rates, over 30 percent of the adult population.
If observers in China are complacently shrugging, the government, which signed a 2005 convention with the World Health Organization, is slowly but surely putting in place several measures to curb smoking, such as raising taxes on cigarettes. Producers of TV shows and films were told at the start of 2011 to curb smoking scenes after a survey showed that 33 percent of teenagers wanted to smoke after seeing people do it on-screen.
Smoking is estimated by the government to have killed 1.2 million Chinese in 2005, but that annual rate could triple by 2030, they fear.
Tobacco accounts for 7 percent of government revenues in China, according to Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, a possible factor in slowing down the adoption of new no-smoking measures, the newspaper implies, but The New Yorker magazine published an article 25 March that points to efforts made by foreign tobacco manufacturers to seriously undermine the Chinese government’s efforts.
Pubic transport in Switzerland is not free, but companies will have trouble, for now, fining cheats
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A Swiss high court has ruled in favour of a Fribourg woman who refused to pay a CHF80-100 fine for taking the bus without having a ticket.
The Swiss parliament will now have to scramble to plug a hole in the federal transport law, which, since a recent change was made, allows transport companies to fine people who have not vaidated their tickets but it overlooks travellers who simply don’t have a valid ticket.
The ATS news agency says the second group is a far larger problem for transport companies, and quotes the public prosecutor in Fribourg, Fabien Gasser, as saying that 150-200 similar cases are sitting in files, waiting for the Federal Tribunal in Lausanne to judge the Fribourg woman’s case.
Some tickets issued by Swiss transport systems have to be punched to validate them, for example 10-trip passes, but most are valid once the ticket is issued. The law specifically mentions those who have not stamped or punched tickets that need validating, but it fails to specifically list those who fraudulently ride trains, buses and trams without paying.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There are clean-cut, clearcut strikes and then there are bearded strikes, the kind that the gendarmes, or highway and roads police, have declared in Geneva.
They are going to work, but they won’t be handing out fines to drivers, they are not wearing uniforms, nor are they shaving (ed. note: we cannot legally photograph Geneva police without prior permission from their superiors).
The cops say that their administrative workload has quadrupled in recent months due to a change in the penal code and they argue that they are not paid enough for night work. The police union agreed at a 16 February general assembly to continue working but to stop handing out fines and “en civile”, ignoring the uniform code and clean-cut regulations.
Isabel Rochat, the councilor who oversees them, held a press conference Friday where she called their demands “unrealistic” and their behaviour an affront to citizens.
Links to other sites: Hebdo (Fr), Tribune de Geneve (Fr), 20 Minutes (Fr)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Possibly the least-observed traffic rule in Geneva has the police out in the city centre, stopping drivers who cut through the rue du Rhone to place Bel-air, despite signs saying it is a no-go zone. 20 Minutes reports that police will be stopping drivers for the first 10 days of February to point out that the useful shortcut is open only to buses, taxis and delivery drivers. They will then start to hand out fines, an officer told the newspaper.
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Federal Council will consult on plan for how big banks can fail, negotiate withholding tax on foreigners’ accounts
Measles, tougher penal sentences, electricity suppliers, corporate tax rates all on the 2011 schedule
Swiss Federal Council (cabinet): government publishes its 2011 agenda
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Government, fresh from the defeat of its counter-initiative in the vote on foreign convicts 28 November, has set out an ambitious agenda for work it expects to complete in 2011. This will be the final session before a new parliament is elected 23 October 2011.
Two pieces of legislation, one calling for a tougher penal code and the other for greater efforts to integrate foreigners into Swiss society, were planned before the weekend vote, but they must now be coordinated with a constitutional change, the results of the 28 November popular initiative, where Swiss voters chose automatic expulsion of foreign convicts.
Negotiations over undeclared assets in Swiss banks confirmed
The council confirmed Tuesday that negotiations are already underway with some countries, and it intends to open negotiations with other key countries, to “regularize” undeclared assets coming to Swiss banks from outside Switzerland. The main tool Switzerland intends to use is a withholding tax but the government says the negotiations will also include a commitment by the Swiss to “ensure, as far as possible, that undeclared assets from [countries with negotiations] will not in future come to Switzerland”.
Bankruptcy proceedings for key banks would limit pay, free trade agreements get priority
The cabinet will consult with interested parties on the details of how banks that are critical to the national financial system would be allowed to move into bankruptcy if they fail. A particular aspect of this is the decision by the government to limit payment to bankers for any financial institution that comes under the government’s care. Wide consultation on drafts for new laws with major impact is standard procedure in Switzerland and proposed legislation is then revised based on feedback before it goes to parliament.
Trade talks to be accelerated
Pay up or expect steep fines on Swiss public transport, starting mid-2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Travelling on Swiss public transport systems starting in June 2011 without a ticket will cost you CHF100 in fines and tickets, an increase of CHF20, the Public Transport Union announced Wednesday 10 November. And travellers who have tickets but “inappropriate” ones, such as second class tickets when travelling in first class, will be fined CHF75, up from CHF60.
The increases are the result of a September Swiss high court decision that backed a woman’s objection to being charged more for having a wrong-class ticket than someone without a ticket. The public transport group accordingly reduced the fines for inappropriate tickets from CHF80 to 60.
With the new fines, wrong-class travellers who are caught will still be charged less than those who are trying to get a free ride or who for other reasons get on trams, trains and buses without a ticket.
4,500 fines, 137 licenses lifted during May on Lausanne-Yverdon stretch
Flat roads,open fields: drivers like to speed on the Yverdon-Lausanne A1 (photo, Liam Bates on flickr)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The repairs on the Lausanne-Yverdon stretch of the A1 autoroute have prompted police to lower the speed limit to 80 kph to protect road workers, but motorists have not received the message, it appears. P0lice took away driver’s licenses from 137 people during May, for being well over the speed limit, and they fined another 4,500, out of the 73,000 clocked on the road. The worst offender was driving 148 kph.
Large panels reminding drivers to slow down are being posted, with the number of fines and license removals listed to drive home the message.
Ed. note: Vaud police are taking part in a 2010 national campaign to get drivers to slow down, called Slow Down, Take it Easy. Try their online interactive test to see how long it takes to come to a stop, starting from different speeds, with varying road conditions.
Porsche at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show: nice, but you might want to watch your speed when driving it in France
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Speeders beware: France and Switzerland have just swapped data on 30,000 drivers who’ve been caught going over the limit, in order to send them speeding tickets.
The two countries began exchanging data in January, with Switzerland receiving data on more than 20,000 drivers since 5 January, while France has received 10,000 since 19 January. Geneva and Basel area drivers are most affected, but the Swiss federal highway department notes that there’s a sharp increase in many areas during vacation travel periods.
Islamabad, Pakistan (GenevaLunch) - Two former captains of the Pakistan cricket team, Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, have been banned indefinitely from playing on the team after they put in a series of poor performances that officials blame on a feud. An investigating committee recommended to the Pakistan Cricket Board that the two be banned and the Board, citing the “dismal tour of Australia 2009-10″, has accepted their recommendation.
During a December to Frebruary 2010 tour the team lost a Test series 3-0, the one-day matches 5-0 and the only Twenty20 match they played.
Swiss voters, November 2008, rejected decriminalization of marijuana, with regional differences ("yes" votes, by percentage)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An upper house of Parliament commission 19 January voted 8-0 in favour of fining anyone caught smoking cannabis. The lower house appears has already moved in this direction, so an ad hoc committee will now write a revision to the statutes, which will include setting the amount of the fine. The move was made after it the Swiss rejected outright decriminalization in a November 2008 vote which would have called for government control of cannabis cultivation and sales.
Parliament made it clear that it wants to change the current legal status, which calls for criminal proceedings to be open against cannabis smokers.
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Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government has issued a correction to Swiss media reports this week that said the fine for not having a 2010 autoroute sticker on your car have gone up. The fine remains CHF100, the government says. Parliament has been debating an increase, but if one goes into effect it will not be before 2011.
Anyone who drives on Swiss autoroutes must have a valid sticker, correctly displayed, which costs CHF40. The sticker is an annual road tax; Swiss motorways do not charge tolls.
Drivers have until 31 January to place the sticker on the car. Ed. note: stickers cannot be shared between cars.
Background story, autoroute stickers for 2010, GenevaLunch
Be sure to buy a ticket before getting on a Swiss train
Bern and Bellinzona, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Train passengers without tickets or sitting in first class when they have only second class tickets will be treated alike by Switzerland’s CFF rail company, following a decision by a Swiss court: subject to CHF80 fines plus the missing fare or the difference between classes. Travelers should be aware that the fines are collected on the spot and that tickets must be purchased before getting on a train.
The Swiss administrative high court ruled Wednesday 23 December in favour of the CFF rail company, which had appealed against a decision of the Swiss Transport Office.
Best way to avoid this problem: don't speed, say police
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in Vaud will continue to run speeding checks in their effort to reduce speeds on cantonal roads, they say, after checks during the long weekend 18-20 September caught three drivers going well over the 80kph limits: two were caught driving at 130 kph in separate incidents and another was going 158 in an 80 zone. All three had their driver’s licenses seized immediately and they face steep fines.
The police bulletin notes that 75 percent of serious and deadly accidents in the first half of 2009 occurred on cantonal roads, with high speeds as the primary cause.
No place to run if you don't pay your ticket
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Transports Publics Genevois (TPG) say that it is getting serious about people who don’t pay for public transportation. The company has added eight new inspectors to the 54 it already has, is increasing the frequency of its ticket controls on board Geneva’s buses and trams, and the fines are going up.
Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Vaud parliament’s upper house (cantonal council) has submitted to the ruling Grand Conseil its new law that will prohibit indoor smoking in public places starting 1 September 2009, reports the Tribune de Geneve. The ban, approved by voters 30 November 2008, covers administrative offices, prisons, schools, museums, theatres, cinemas, public transport, shopping malls, tents, and public buildings.
Update 20 March 07:30 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A technical error in a fixed radar in Lausanne caused nearly 3,000 innocent motorists to be fined for speeding over a period of three months, say city police.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – André Hediger, Geneva’s former mayor and Communist Party politician, goes to court 18 March to face charges of laxity and abuse of power during a 10-year period, 1996-2006, over CHF2,800 in uncollected fines, mainly for parking.
Lausanne, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – People who did not pay their taxes, which have in the end been written off as a loss by the communes concerned, cost Lausanne CHF8 million and communes in Vaud CHF14m in 2007, reports 24 Heures.
