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Swiss taxi waiting for customer - Photo courtesy of TaxiSwiss

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Ever feel like it’s more expensive taking a cab in Switzerland than in other countries? It’s not your imagination. According to a comparative study of taxi rates in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, for most types of trips, the Swiss have the highest daytime cab fares.

The German portal ab-in-den-urlaub.de, compared taxicab fares in 128 cities in the three countries. The results show that taking a taxi in a Swiss city costs twice as much as in most major German cities. The highest rates are found in Basel and Bern, with Geneva and Zurich not far behind.

The survey compared the base price, standard rate-per-kilometer and cost for 20 minutes in traffic.

On average, a 5-km ride including five minutes of traffic stops costs more than CHF28 in Switzerland. In western Germany, the same trip goes for less than CHF9. In Berlin or Hamburg, it is less than CHF15. Vienna cab fares are even lower.

Hailing a cab in Bern costs CHF6.80 plus CHF3.90 for the first kilometer. The price decreases only slightly in Basel CHF6.70, Geneva CHF6.50 and Zurich CHF6.20. Lugano is the least expensive of the large Swiss cities at CHF5.20. Although Lausanne was not included in the German study, cab fares are similar to those in Zurich.

Hailing a cab in Berlin costs less than CHF4 while in Vienna it is considerably less at just over CHF3. However, don’t let the low base price fool you; sitting in Vienna traffic for 20 minutes costs CHF15.75 while in Zurich the rate is “only” CHF11.50.

Lights out Saturday night for Geneva's most important buildings

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The city of Geneva is one of 30 in Switzerland that will join the worldwide Earth Hour project and turn out lights on public buildings Saturday 31 March from 20:30 to 21:30.

This is the fourth year of Earth Hour, begun by WWF, designed to raise awareness of climate change and the impact on our environment. One billion people are expected to be affected by this year’s lights out action in 135 countries. Some 5,000 cities are taking part around the world.

Geneva is home to the World Meteorological Organization, the global climate measurement centre. The city’s most important buildings, where the lights will go out, include: Palais Eynard, Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, Monument Brunswick, Grand Théâtre, musée Rath and the Conservatoire de musique (place Neuve), ‘île Rousseau (bastion entourant l’île), Eglise russe, Temple de Saint-Gervais, pont Sous-Terre, Palais Wilson, Musée Voltaire, Temple de la Fusterie, Poste du Mont-Blanc.

Police in Vaud and Geneva join forces to combat cross-border theft

Number of assaults in Geneva fell in 2011

Violent crimes fell in Geneva in 2011: orange shows simple injuries and yellow serious plus homicides (Source: Geneva Police / OFS statistics)

GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Geneva tops the Swiss list for a 2011 rise in property crimes, including break-ins and theft, but Lausanne, Basel, Bern and Zurich also saw increases last year that outpaced population growth and were well above the national average of 71 per 1,000 inhabitants.

Geneva’s violent crimes, including all degrees and forms of assault, fell in 2011, however; one exception was the increase from 4 (2008) to 15 knife attacks, in four years.

Urban border regions in western Switzerland in particular have seen cross-border burglary increases and Tuesday the cantonal ministers in charge of police for Geneva and Vaud announced a joint task force to step up coordination with French police to tackle the problem.

They are also calling for tougher penalties against repeat offenders and note that the “Lake Geneva region appears to have become a privileged target for robbers.”

Two features of the cross-border crime that are worrying police in Geneva, reports swissinfo, are the number of under-age Balkans working in theft in a stretch from Milan to Paris and a shift from street crime to burglaries by a group of about 400 North Africans living illegally in Geneva.

Burglaries in Geneva rose 29 percent in 2011, break-ins 19 percent and vehicle theft 9 percent

The new European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics 2010 indicates that Switzerland has one of the highest rates of criminal problems linked to migration, but the most recent figures are five years old, covering 2003-2007, and European reporting standards differ. The UK, for example, records ethnic background rather than nationality for criminals arrested, while Switzerland, which has one of Europe’s highest rates of resident foreigners, lists nationality.

Geneva and Basel are the only two cantons with 2011 crime rates higher than 100 per 1,000: 159 for Geneva and 119 for Basel (source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office)

Crime statistics for Switzerland for 2011 were released Monday by the Federal Statistical Office in Neuchatel, and include cantonal details.

Cantonal police have been releasing highway and accident statistics in the past few days.

Overall, numbers show a mixed safety picture, with property crimes up, more foreigners entering and re-entering the country illegally and who are often linked to other crimes.

Nationwide, violent crimes are down by 7 percent and in the Lake Geneva region there were fewer road accidents.

Geneva was the subject of much media hype in 2011 about personal safety and crime but the statistics don’t bear out complaints that the city is unsafe, physically, although residents and visitors would do well to watch their cars, motorbikes and bags, with theft on the rise.

Vaud saw its overall crime rate jump 18.6 percent, with a 14 percent increase in break-ins and 7 percent increase in robberies. Country-wide the rate of break-ins rose 16 percent. Car theft was up by 4 percent.

A concern in Vaud is the “massive presence of Bulgarian and Romanian prostitutes, implying a potential problem with human trafficking,” the canton notes in a press release. Police closed down immediately 7 of the more than 700 massage parlours they checked during the year.

Morges train station

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 65-year-old man who lives in the Lake Geneva Riviera area made racial remarks to a group of youths Friday 23 March in the 22:30 Geneva to Brig train, shortly before Morges and was attacked by some of them.

He was punched and suffered knife wounds to the throat and chest, near the heart, but his life is not in danger, say Vaud Police.

Two young men were arrested, ages 20 and 17, one of them Swiss and the other Bolivian. Both live in Geneva and the second has a B permit.

Police are seeking witnesses who can provide any information related to the incident. The man came out of the toilets on the train at 22:50 and made what police describe as “xenophobic” remarks to the group. He was punched in the face and knifed during the fight that broke out.

He phoned police while chasing his attackers, and all of them got off the train in Morges, which remained in the station as police arrived. Other members of the group were questioned on the train by police but the two suspected of the attack were caught by police about 100 metres from the Morges train station.

Anyone with information is asked to go to the nearest police station or phone +41 21 644 4444.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Brief and to the point, the city of Geneva mailed out a press release Monday morning 26 March to say its unnamed sports director is resigning, effective the end of March, with an investigation underway. The city says it will not comment further or issue more statements, typical in cases where a police investigation is underway.

The director was suspended in February over possible irregularities in the organization of the Geneva Challenger ATP tennis tournament.

World water day is 22 March – whet your appetite for water news

Those of us next to Lake Geneva are among the world's lucky, with easy access to pentiful water supplies

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Today is World Water Day, declared by the United Nations, and we’re taking a moment out to think about what is historically one of humanity’s greatest problems and where we are with solving it.

In a nutshell, here’s what we “drink”, according to the UN: “There are 7 billion people to feed on the planet today and another 2 billion are expected to join by 2050.

“Statistics say that each of us drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day, however most of the water we ‘drink’ is embedded in the food we eat: producing 1 kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 litres of water while 1 kilo of wheat ’drinks up’ 1,500 litres.”

Geneva, International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance: Before reading about the many problems linked to water where solutions are not in place, look at the wonderful collection of photos from the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance, from its 2011 global photo contest. The Alliance, based in Geneva, brings together the many groups who are working to ease water shortages by harvesting rainwater, as part of sustainability programmes.

Switzerland: Palestinian refugees in seven camps in Lebanon are receving $2.62 million over two years for a remediation and upgrading of camp water supplies project, a cooperative effort between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The project began at the end of December 2011.

It is designed to “ensure healthier lives for Palestine refugees by preventing and controlling diseases by providing access to safe drinking water. In addition, SDC will provide UNRWA with three Swiss technical experts for the project,” according to UNRWA.

West Bank:The UN News Centre 19 March published the results of a survey that show significant problems with access to water for West Bank Palestinians, as Israeli settlers move in nearby. “Palestinians have increasingly lost access to water sources in the West Bank as a result of the takeover of springs by Israeli settlers, who have used threats, intimidation and fences to ensure control of water points close to the settlements, according to a new United Nations survey released today.

Switzerland and airlines – Zurich Airport shows strong growth, China Air has Beijing-Geneva project

Airline industry could dip into the red if oil prices continue to rise

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “it will not take much of a shock to push the industry into the red for 2012,” says Tony Tyler, chief executive of Iata (International Air Transport Association).

The Geneva-based airline industry group Tuesday 20 March announced a downgrade to its growth forecast for 2012, citing the rise in oil prices.

Iata said in a statement that it “expects airlines to turn a global profit of $3.0 billion in 2012 for a 0.5% margin. This $500 million downgrade from the December forecast is primarily driven by a rise in the expected average price of oil to $115 per barrel, up from the previously forecast $99.

Several factors prevented a more significant downgrade: (1) the avoidance of a significant worsening of the Eurozone crisis, (2) improvement in the US economy, (3) cargo market stabilization and (4) slower than expected capacity expansion.”

Estimated profits for 2011 are now expected to be $7.9 billion,  up from an earlier forecast of $6.9 billion, largely due toa  “much better than expected performance of Chinese carriers.”

Regional imbalances growing

China Air is reported by RTS public broadcasting to have a project in the pipeline for a direct Geneva-Beijing flight, although it is not yet clear when this will happen. There are currently direct flights from Zurich to Beijing but not from Genev. The new route is one more indication of a trend: growing differences between regions,with Europe and Africa while Asia-Pacific booms.

Read more…

Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, ECCC (Khmer Rouge Tribunal)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A former Geneva magistrate who has been the international reserve co-investigating judge for the Khmer Rouge investigation and trials handed in his resignation Monday 19 March. His move follows a lengthy dispute with the tribunal’s national judge over the international judge’s right to conduct investigations.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, as the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) is popularly known, is a national court that was set up by agreement between the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia to try senior former members of the Khmer Rouge government for crimes against humanity from 1975-79.

Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet gave his notice to the Secretary-General of the UN noting, according to an ECCC statement issued Monday, that “in view of the victims’ right to have investigations conducted in a proper manner and despite his determination to do so, Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet considers that the present circumstances no longer allow him to properly and freely perform his duties.”

History of taut Cambodian judges-UN appointees relations

Kasper-Ansermet was named by the UN to the case in October 2011 to replace German investigating judge Siegfried Blunk.

Blunk had resigned after accusing the Cambodian government of interfering in the investigations and Kasper-Ansermat was assigned to replace him, as the reserve judge. Blunk’s resignation came just the weeks after international publicity over charges by prosecutor Andrew Caylay that the national judges were trying to bury two of the five cases by closing it prematurely.

Human Rights groups have called for the resignation of national judges on the tribunal, although Human Rights Watch also called for Blunk’s resignation.

Phnom Penh refused to accept the Geneva judge‘s appointment, but Kasper-Ansermet stepped into the job and provoked futher the ire of the Cambodian government by continuing work on Cases 003 and 004 and by calling for five more former Pol Pot regime rulers to be investigated.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge officer who changed sides, is opposed to any new cases, citing lack of funds, which has been a problem for the court, according to Le Monde.

One former leader, known as “Duch” was sentenced late in 2011, but the other cases are still in the pre-trial investigative stage.

Judge’s right to Twitter sparked debate

Kasper-Ansermet, who is active on the Internet, was charged by the Cambodian government with acting illegally by Twittering about the Tribunal cases. The UN said it had investigated these concerns and determined they were unfounded. In February 2012 the International Bar Association in London found that “he exercised appropriate restraint and one can conclude that Judge Kasper-Ansermet’s actions should not be used as a reason to justify his rejection.”

Geneva legal and human rights roots

He began his career working for Swiss public broadcasting, TSR television, as an assistant producer. He studied law and trained in Geneva and was eventually named a judge at the Palais de Justice in the city, from 2001 to 2004, but overall he has 18 years’ experienc as a prosecutor, investigating judge and a judge in Geneva, focusing particularly on complex financial crimes and corruption.

Before his ECCC appointment he was a member of the Swiss Expert Pool for Civilian Peace (PEP) where he advised the prosecutor’s office in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). Prior to this he served as the head of the Paris office for the Inquiry Commission into the United Nations Oil-For-Food Programme.

Ed. note: he is the grandson of Ernest Ansermet, who led the Orchestre Suisse-Romande to international fame.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s financial sector remains a significant part of the canton’s economy, responsible for 20 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), but in 2007 that figure was 25 percent, and 2011 shows new slippage. Ocstat, the canton’s statistical office, Monday 19 March said that while financial business rose by 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011, it then fell each quarter, down by 1.6 percent, 0.4 percent and 0.7 percent.

Overall, the Geneva economy showed growth in 2011, albeit slow and mainly thanks to be good first quarter, with the fourth quarter up 0.3 percent compared to previous quarters’ increases of 0.4 and 0.2 percent.

Ocstat published provisional figures 16 March. The final figures will be released in September 2012.

New information on neutrinos backs suspicions earlier measurements were somehow flawed

Gran Sasso Lab in Italy

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Physicists can relax a bit this weekend, with Cern’s latest statement on the hubbub surrounding 2011 measurements taken in Italy that appeared to show the first serious deviation from Einstein’s law of relativity.

Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, startled the world 23 September 2011 by stating that neutrinos flying in beams sent through the Earth’s crust the 730km between Cern in Geneva and the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy had been measured traveling at 20 parts per million above “the world’s cosmic speed limit”, the speed of light.

Friday 16 March Cern issued a statement:

“The Icarus experiment at the Italian Gran Sasso laboratory has today reported a new measurement of the time of flight of neutrinos from CEern to Gran Sasso. The Icarus measurement, using last year’s short pulsed beam from Cern, indicates that the neutrinos do not exceed the speed of light on their journey between the two laboratories. This is at odds with the initial measurement reported by Opera last September.

“The evidence is beginning to point towards the Opera result being an artefact of the measurement,” said Cern Research Director Sergio Bertolucci, “but it’s important to be rigorous, and the Gran Sasso experiments, Borexino, Icarus, LVD and Opera will be making new measurements with pulsed beams from Cern in May to give us the final verdict. In addition, cross-checks are underway at Gran Sasso to compare the timings of cosmic ray particles between the two experiments, Opera and LVD. Whatever the result, the Opera experiment has behaved with perfect scientific integrity in opening their measurement to broad scrutiny, and inviting independent measurements. This is how science works.”

“The Icarus experiment has independent timing from Opera and measured seven neutrinos in the beam from Cern last year. These all arrived in a time consistent with the speed of light.”

Cern had earlier announced that tests will be run in May that should provide a clearer understanding of the measurements taken in September.

Background, Cern + neutrinos, GenevaLunch

The Geneva Irish Association invite you to kick start this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations with a traditional Irish brunch. Price: CHF25 payable on the day. Brunch options: full Irish breakfast, beef casserole bacon and cabbage. RSVP on organizer’s site.

Location: Charly O\’Neills, Rue Hoffmann, 18, 1202 Genève
Link out: http://www.genevairishassociation.com/
Date: 17 Mar 2012
Start time: 11:00

EU, Japan and US China officially open trade dispute with China over rare minerals

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The seven-year old battle between the USA and the European Union over possible subsidies for Boeing appears no closer to resolution following Monday’s decision by the WTO (World Trade Organization) to uphold its previous decision that Boeing did indeed receive illegal government subsidies. Both sides are calling the decision a victory and the tussle is widely expected to continue.

The WTO “court” or appellate body, ruled that from 1989 to 2006 the federal government and several states had indeed subsidized aircraft manufacturer Boeing, but it calculated the amount as $5.3 billion rather than the $19.1b that the EU has argued was spent, to the detriment of its own Airbus company. The appellate body reviewed a number of contentious issues that include tax rate reductions and benefits from research for the US Department of Defense and Nasa, the space programme. (WTO: summary of key findings)

Obama argues that China is hoarding essential technology materials

Tuesday 13 March a new trade dispute that has been brewing was officially opened at the WTO in Geneva by the EU, Japan and the US. The three countries separately filed “requests for consultation”, WTO parlance for opening a dispute, covering restrictions on exports from China of various forms of rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum.

US President Barack Obama fired the opening salvo by making a widely publicized speech Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden, addressing the issue of fair trade.

“We’re bringing a new trade case against China – and we’re being joined by Japan and some of our European allies. This case involves something called rare earth materials, which are used by American manufacturers to make high-tech products like advanced batteries that power everything from hybrid cars to cell phones.

“We want our companies building those products right here in America.  But to do that, American manufacturers need to have access to rare earth materials – which China supplies. Now, if China would simply let the market work on its own, we’d have no objections.  But their policies currently are preventing that from happening.  And they go against the very rules that China agreed to follow.”

China holds a large to very large share of the Earth’s supplies of a number of rare earth materials, several of which are considered essential for technology. AP reported, and it was widely carried by newspapers, that Obama’s speech signals that the new WTO is part of what he sees as a larger field of unfair trade practices by China.

China’s official news agency Xinhua reports that

“the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement posted on its website that it will properly deal with the issue. China, the statement said, has no intention of protecting domestic industries by distorting its foreign trade.

“Earlier in the day, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei told Xinhua that the Chinese side would prepare to defend itself if a complaint was filed with the WTO. Miao said China’s rare earth export policy is drawn up out of concern for the development of resources and environmental damage. Some rare earth metals would last only 20 years if China does not stop excessive mining, Miao added.

“China’s rare earth export restriction was not targeted at any specific country, nor was it a kind of trade protectionism, the minister said.”

Background, OECD paper for the WTO on limiting exports of strategic raw materials

The annual American Citizens Abroad (ACA) fundraiser auction is coming up and all are welcome to attend.

7 pm – Cocktails – Cash bar. 8 pm – Auction with celebrity guest auctioneer, Mark Butcher of Radio Frontier.

Lots of great auction items.

American Citizens Abroad (ACA), the voice of Americans overseas, is a non-profit, non-partisan, all-volunteer organization that represents the interests of Americans living and working outside the U.S.

Location: Mandarin Oriental Hotel du Rhone, Geneva
Link out: http://www.aca.ch
Date: 21 Mar 2012
Start time: 19:00
End time: 22:00

Fixed price for books, six weeks of vacation turned down

Geneva says yes to Wednesday morning school and tightens rules on demonstrations, protests

Just a little piece of heaven, or is that creating a hell: a question of political perspective, with Swiss voting against building more second homes

BERN, SWITZERLAND – The final call was tight, but the Swiss voted for a ban on new second homes, Sunday 11 March, with 50.6 percent in favour a popular initiative from environmentalists to strictly limit them. Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel and Jura all voted in favour of the ban, as did virtually all of northern Switzerland and urban areas.

Voters decided five federal issues Dunday, the most hotly debated of which was the second home ban. Canton Valais, the region most directly affected, voting overwhelmingly against it, 73.8 percent of the vote, and in Grisons, another region with many second homes, the vote was also negative, but 57.3 percent (RTS map by canton).

The four other federal voting issues:

• six weeks of vacation, voted down, 66.5 percent against, with not a single canton voting yes
• fixed prices for books (retail price maintenance), voted down, 56.1 percent no
• aid for lower income families to get mortgages, voted down, 55.8 percent no
• redistribution of gambling proceeds, approved, 87 percent yes with not a single canton voting no.

There are also a number of cantonal issues on the ballots. Geneva, with results mostly in, has voted in favour of school on Wednesday mornings for children over age 8. It has also voted for a right-wing proposal to crack down on protests, in particular levying hefty fines on groups that do not keep demonstrators in check. They will now risk up to CHF100,000 in fines, compared to CHF10,000 in the past.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Hugh Quennec is a familiar name to Geneva Servette Hockey Club fans, as one of its two owners, with Chris McSorley. The Swiss Canadian, who runs Continental Capital Markets, which has offices in Nyon and Zurich, has now stepped in to save another Geneva Servette, the city’s football club.

GSFC said early this week that it was bankrupt, and as the door appeared to be swinging shut, Quennec quietly stepped in, and the relief throughout the world of Geneva football and sport in general was audible.

The club has 30 days to find some CHF3 million to settle short-term debts, after Quennec paid a symbolic CHF1 to take over the shares of Majid Pishyar, former owner. Quennec is putting up CHF650,000 and will  now hustle to find investors to make up the difference. The critical task right now, he says, is to get a clear picture of the overall financial situation.

Links to other sites: RTS public TV, Tribune de Geneve

Geneva Motor Show 2011 by Mr Kio, www.facebook.com/IdefixPhotography

BASEL / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three of western Switzerland’s biggest commercial fairs open Thursday 8 March to Saturday, the watch show in Basel, the car show in Geneva, with each expected to pull in tens of thousands of visitors, and Habitat & Jardin, a favourite with apartment dwellers but especially homeowners and wannabes.

The Lausanne show, which attracts 100,000 people, starts in Lausanne Saturday 10 March and the best deal in town is a CFF rail ticket with travel and entry reductions.

This is definitely not a weekend to complain there is nothing to do!

Geneva Motor Show 2012, smaller cars but enough glamour for a quick fix

Lamborghini and Ferrari are putting their fancy wares on display, as usual, for this show that opens the car year in Europe.

Lamborghini’s not-so-subtle press release notes that the company “is presenting the most uncompromising open super sports car of its entire history. The Lamborghini Aventador J is a force of nature on wheels — supremely powerful and supremely open. The Aventador J offers its pilot and co-pilot an utterly indescribable experience of power and dynamics. At the same time, the 515 kW / 700 hp two-seater is a first class technology showcase.”

Ferrari is unveiling its 599 GTB Fiorano replacement, the F12berlinetta.

Geneva Motor Show 2011 by Mr Kio, www.facebook.com/IdefixPhotography

For the more conservative, electric cars are looking increasingly mainstream, with General Motors’s two extended range electrics, Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, jointly named car of the year.

Here’s what world auto industry media are saying about this year’s show as it opens:

“European crisis sheds light on automakers’ excess capacity”, Detroit Free Press“More bad news for midprice carmakers in Europe”, NY Times
“Sexy cars at the Geneva Motor Show”, CBS News Money Watch
“Volkswagen creates more oddball Up! concepts for Geneva show”, Motor Show.

Of course, some people go to see the hostesses (sneak preview in a series of photos by Philippe Tabouriech).

Details on visiting the show are available in English at the Geneva Motor Show site. Hours are 10:00-20:00 Monday to Friday and 09:00-19:00 Saturday and Sunday. Tickets: CHF9 for children to CHF16 for adults. Public transport options are excellent, so while you might have cars on the brain, take the train.

BaselWorld celebrates 40 years with a record watch year for Swiss industry

BaselWorld attracts 100,000 people; it runs from 8 to 15 March and features not just watches but luxury jewelry. This is the 40th year of the fair, with 1,800 exhibitors. The fair kicked off with a statement that 2011 was a record year for the Swiss watch industry “with 30 million
watches exported. Turnover increased by 19.2 percent to CHF 19.3 billion,” announced Jacques Duchêne, president of the exhibitors’ committee, with Asia as “a driving force in the growth of the luxury goods industry. More than half of the exports of the Swiss watch industry are to the Far East.”

Details for visiting BaselWorld

Two French immersion summer camps for kids and teens are both close to Geneva, but in France. In Megève, International Summer Camps offers three hours of  French classes in the morning, including a one-hour drama class, fun activities in the afternoon and field trips on week-ends. When not in class, children are mixed with French kids attending the camp to learn English! For campers age 7 to 17, day camp or boarding camp, from one to six weeks. Transfer can be arranged from Geneva airport.

In Châtel, VSF welcomes a small number of foreign children in each group of campers to guarantee total immersion. No classes but a choice of several programs, from astronomy to gastronomy and sports. Three-week boarding camps for kids 6 to 17.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization in Delhi announced 29 February that India is no longer on the list of “endemic” polio nations, with that list now reduced to an all-time low of three countries. Polio-endemic nations are those that have never stopped indigenous wild poliovirus transmission.

The three remaining polio-endemic countries are Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

India’s last new case was registered in January 2011 and at the start of 2012 the WHO noted that while India was once recognized as the world’s epicentre of polio vaccinations and careful surveillance had turned the situation around. The Geneva office said in January that “if all pending laboratory investigations return negative, in the coming weeks India will officially be deemed to have stopped indigenous transmission of wild poliovirus.”

The Delhi office’s announcement was covered at length by the BBC‘s medical correspondent, who points out that eradicating the disease by 2012 is nevertheless not on track.

The WHO in Geneva, for its part, says that Read more…

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in canton Valais have arrested a group of 16- and 17-year-olds who have been operating a theft ring in canton Valais, stealing some CHF100,000 worth of goods during 23 robberies. They broke into gas stations, public offices, businesses and shopping centres.

The eight all have police records and the group committed similar crimes in cantons Vaud and Valais. Few of the goods have been recovered.

They stole cigarettes, which they shared among themselves, tools for more break-ins, cash and alcohol. Several safes were stolen.

In addition they stole five cars in the Lake Geneva region, driven the cars on several occasions without licenses and committed a number of infractions. One of the cars was involved in an accident in Geneva and the car damaged to the tune of several thousand francs.

The eight youths in the theft ring are: three Swiss, with one from Geneva and two from canton Vaud, 2 from Kosovo, 1 Algerian, 1 Tunisian and 1 Bosnian. All were taken into custody and several remain there.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two of the main Geneva-based aid organizations are reporting very different situations in the field this week. The IOM (International Organization for Migration) Tuesday 28 February announced the relatively good news that the number of people still living in camps in Haiti has fallen to under half a million people for the first time since the massive earthquake in 2010.

ICRC enters Hama for first time with blankets, hygiene kits

The ICRC (International Red Cross), which is publishing daily updates on its work in Syria, says it is entering the city of Hama for the first time, with emergency supplies for 12,000 people. But it reported Sunday  that efforts to remove scores of injured people from Syria were cut short when it failed to get the agreement of both government forces and rebels to a ceasefire that would allow it to provide emergency services.

Times journalist escapes; Bouvier may also be in Lebanon

Aljazeera reports Tuesday morning that one of the injured Western journalists hurt in the shelling that killed two others last week in Homs, Syria, has escaped to Lebanon. Paul Conroy, a photographer for the Sunday Times in the UK made it safely out of Syria and French reporter Edith Bouvier, who has made headlines with her video appeal from Homs, where she suffered a broken leg, may also be in Lebanon. Bouvier’s whereabouts has not been confirmed, according to Aljazeera.

Haiti situation: refugees being moved into new homes

The IOM reports that the reduction in camp numbers

“comes as the Government of Haiti’s newly created housing authority L’Unité de Construction de Logements et de Bâtiments Publics (UCLBP) starts to deliver results and the pace of relocation picks up. An initiative known as “16/6″ is helping earthquake displaced people living in six public spaces to return to sixteen communities which are undergoing redevelopment. It was launched by President Michel Martelly last year and a government-led steering committee is now setting the pace for reconstruction and relocation.

“In the last two weeks, under this programme, some 200 families have permanently left Champ de Mars, the historic plaza in front of the ruined National Palace. Over the coming months the square will be returned to public use under the project, which is funded by Canada.”

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Mark Muller, Geneva cantonal councilor, handed in his resignation Monda 27 February, saying that he is tired of being continually harassed in the past year. His announcement Monday made reference to wanting to keep his health and his family.

He was the subject of much local media attention in 2011 over the relatively low rent he pays for a spacious apartment in the city centre, with questions raised because of his job as head of the construction and IT department. Then in early 2012 a court case after a fight with a barman at the MàD on New Year’s put him in the headlines again. His resignation is effective Wednesday and local parties are racing to put forward names to replace him.

Albert Einstein in 1921, the year he won the Nobel Prize for physics

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The uproar in the physics world was almost as loud Wednesday 22 February as in September 2011: the American Association for the Advancement of Science said Wednesday that a loose wire was suspected as being responsible for what may have been incorrect readings of neutrinos announced in September in 2011 by Cern’s Opera project.

Scientists at Gran Sasso labs in Italy said in November that their colleagues working with Cern had been mistaken, adding to the confusion. The September announcement had called into question a basic tenet of physics, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Thursday morning Cern issued an unusually short statement to clarify the situation:

“The Opera collaboration has informed its funding agencies and host laboratories that it has identified two possible effects that could have an influence on its neutrino timing measurement. These both require further tests with a short pulsed beam. If confirmed, one would increase the size of the measured effect, the other would diminish it. The first possible effect concerns an oscillator used to provide the time stamps for GPS synchronizations. It could have led to an overestimate of the neutrino’s time of flight. The second concerns the optical fibre connector that brings the external GPS signal to the Opera master clock, which may not have been functioning correctly when the measurements were taken. If this is the case, it could have led to an underestimate of the time of flight of the neutrinos. The potential extent of these two effects is being studied by the Opera collaboration. New measurements with short pulsed beams are scheduled for May.”

The neutrinos in question travelled from Cern to Italy’s Gran Sasso research centre and Bob Evans reports for Reuters that “physicists at the Cern research institute near Geneva appeared to contradict Albert Einstein’s 1905 Special Theory of Relativity last year when they reported that sub-atomic particles called neutrinos could travel fractions of a second faster than light.”

Getting a real Lift, 22-24 February

by Ellen Wallace

JP Rangaswami presenting at Lift 2012 (photo, Ivo Naepflin for Lift)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of conversations in Geneva centred around our digital lives, past, present and future, is up this week thanks to the annual Lift Conference, which opened Wednesday 22 February and ends Friday.

The conference itself pulls in several hundred people from the worlds of business, academia and international organizations, with presentations that address geek concerns and broader philosophical questions

Devices and domesticity, potentially uncomfortable bedfellows

One of my favourites on the opening day schedule was Victoria Broadbent of UCL in London asking if our individual personalized digital devices are destroying our Victorian myths of domesticity, a great example of how good speakers ask the question we’ve had all along without being aware of it.

She pointed to the changing use and design of space in the home, with more integrated and less specialized rooms. Downton Abbey staff and family would  have been very puzzled by today’s lofts, not to mention the devices they would find there. “Homes have become relational spaces in which the main activities support the social cohesion of the household. The arrival of personal digital devices in this context is disturbing.”

So that’s what’s going on at home.

The mental twinning of urban space and books that behave like cities

Those of us trying to grasp or imagine the book of tomorrow that is part of the electronic world are offered a Thursday afternoon workshop that talks about “technology driven visions in the effervescent book industry”. This is an elegant description for an industry that is wildly turbulent, not always for the better, and which has authors and publishers scrambling to understand the impact of technology on content and its creation.

Frederic Kaplan and Laurent Bolli, from bookapp.com, the workshop leaders, leave chapter headings in their wake as they take us through a world where books have signage, dedicated neighbourhoods and urban services such as guides and tours.

Outside the conference: more conversations

Hugh Quennec, Geneva Servette Hockey Club

The scores of talks at the conference give speakers and people attending a chance to meet with other groups. I attended a workshop nearby on how to better use videos at work, offered by So Money, a local video production agency, and 23 Video, who have worked with Lift and who are in town from Denmark in part to kick off their new partnership with So Money.

On display was 23 Video‘s answer to what they call the “last orphan child of the web”, video – you can easily create and manage other online content through your own web sites and photos sites but affordable video sites that you can make your own are a new idea. The company offers a video management solution for a fixed monthly fee of $675 that gives unlimited uploads, downloads, user numbers, works with all platforms, distribution options through all channels and a rich set of analytics tools.

Hugh Quennec, part-owner of the Geneva Servette Hockey Club and Olivier Riethauser, communications and community relations manager at the club, talked about their success in using video to create a sense of community that goes well beyond the hockey rink.

My own notes from the workshop included these tips to move beyond boring corporate videos: Know your target audience, offer a helping hand, get them to leave a trace. Content is not about selling: it’s about entertaining. That said, great content provides solutions to real-world problems and it must be worthy of attention and immediately useful to the audience. Don’t preach, though: content is about the conversation.

In fact, just about everything digital is about conversation, and Lift is about joining the talk.

Learn how to effectively use video to grow your business: a free workshop hosted by So Money and Danish company 23 Video, who will share their extensive experience of how online video is transforming organizational communication. Learn how to create engaging video content and the importance of reciprocity in your online strategy. Free but limited registration.

Location: Fédération des Entreprises Romandes Genève, 98 rue de Saint-Jean, Geneva
Link out: http://www.23video.com/geneva
Date: 22 Feb 2012
Start time: 10:00
End time: 12:00

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Global Fund will be looking for a new communications director, with Jon Lidén announcing his departure 13 February, reports IP Watch. Lidén had held the post for nearly 10 years, almost since the organization was created. The Global Fund is expected to have $10 billion to disburse worldwide for the three-year 2011-2013 period to fight Aids, malaria and tuberculosis,

The group has been under pressure for the past year, with some funding withdrawn and other funding commitments delayed after US media accusations of fraud that have been hotly debated. Lidén is quoted by IP Watch as saying in a memo to staff that he and the new general manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, have agreed “that for the new direction the communications work should be taking, the organization is best served by finding a new person to lead this work.

Jaramillo replaces the departing executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, who leaves in mid-March (IPW, Public Health, 25 January 2012) amid rumours that the United States was behind the change, according to IP Watch.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A fire that broke out in an apartment building in the Jonction quarter of Geneva at 03:55 Monday sent 100 people into the streets and ultimately destroyed the building. Firefighters spent seven hours battling the blaze at the intersection of Avenue de la Jonction Rue du Quartier-Neuf, with 110 firefighters and 26 vehicles.

The cause is not known but firefighters found heating oil in the caves of the building, which did not have central heating.

Some of those evacuated were from neighbouring buildings. The facade of the burned building was not heavily damaged, but the fire quickly spread thanks to the heating oil, wooden beams and older ventilating system.

Firefighters arrived within five minutes of the call but at 05:30 the fire suddenly spread rapidly and a first neighbouring building was evacuated, using ladders. Two hours later it spread again and another neighbouring building was evacuated.

Police say six people were taken to hospital to be checked for smoke inhalation.

Aerial view Cern - Photo Cern

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) will start running Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beams again in March, until November, but at a higher beam energy, 4 TeV, which is 0.5 TeV higher than last year, the group announced Monday 13 February.

The higher speed will allow more experiments to be run before the LHC is shut down for 20 months to  prepare it to operate at yet higher speeds.

“By the time the LHC goes into its first long stop at the end of this year, we will either know that a Higgs particle exists or have ruled out the existence of a Standard Model Higgs,” Research Director Sergio Bertolucci says. “Either would be a major advance in our exploration of nature, bringing us closer to understanding how the fundamental particles acquire their mass, and marking the beginning of a new chapter in particle physics.”

Cern, in a statement issued Monday 13 February, says “The LHC’s excellent performance in 2010 and 2011 has brought tantalising hints of new physics, notably narrowing the range of masses available to the Higgs particle to a window of just 16 GeV. Within this window, both the Atlas and CMS experiments have seen hints that a Higgs might exist in the mass range 124-126 GeV. However, to turn those hints into a discovery, or to rule out the Standard Model Higgs particle altogether, requires one more year’s worth of data. When the LHC’s technical stop takes place at the end of this year it will prepare for running at full design energy, around 7 TeV per beam.

“When we started operating the LHC for physics in 2010, we chose the lowest safe beam energy consistent with the physics we wanted to do,” says Steve Myers, Cern’s director for accelerators and technology. “Two good years of operational experience with beam and many additional measurements made during 2011 give us the confidence to safely move up a notch, and thereby extend the physics reach of the experiments before we go into the LHC’s first long shutdown.”

The decision is part of a broader strategy to “optimize LHC running to deliver the maximum possible amount of data in 2012 before the LHC goes into a long shutdown to prepare for higher energy running. The data target for 2012 is 15 inverse femtobarns for Atlas and CMS, three times higher than in 2011. Bunch spacing in the LHC will remain at 50 nanoseconds,” the group says in its statement.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 22-year-old was killed at 06:10 Sunday morning while crossing the autoroute on foot near the airport, Geneva police say. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Highway Security Brigade at 41 22 427 6450.

The young man was hit by a car coming from the Route de Meyrin. The driver, age 58, was in the lane joining the autoroute, heading towards Lausanne and level with the ICC building, when he hit the pedestrian, who was killed by the impact.

ATS news agency says the youth was taking a shortcut, but the police have not confirmed this.

The driver, in a state of shock, was helping police with their inquiry and the autoroute around the airport was closed for two hours for the investigation.

This is the second fatal accident on the autoroute around Geneva since the start of the year.

Three top Geneva hotels offer modestly priced meals, noon and evening, to invite foodlovers to discover haute cuisine: CHAT-BOTTÉ – Hôtel Beau-Rivage, RASOI BY VINEET – Mandarin Oriental Hotel, WINDOWS – Hôtel d’Angleterre

Location: Hotel Beau-Rivage, Geneva
Link out: http://www.beau-rivage.ch
Start date: 13 Feb 2012
End date: 18 Feb 2012

 Incident occurs 1 week after similar accident in Geneva

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Police in Zurich are seeking witnesses after a  car crashed into a Zurich disco, the Lambada, early Friday 10 February, killing one person and injuring five others including the driver. Witnesses told journalists that the driver appeared to steer his car into the building intentionally after driving the wrong way up a one-way street at 05:30.

The 25-year-old driver had had a fight with the owner shortly before the incident. The crash killed a 39-year-old man and injured four other men and one woman, all between the ages of 21 and 36.

A week earlier, a man who had had a fight with a disco employee in Vernier, canton Geneva, drove his car into a group standing in front of the club, injuring three young people.