Bern to review electronic voting in 2013
Limits on numbers raised for Geneva, Neuchatel
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal government 4 April authorized 12 cantons to allow electronic voting during federal elections 17 June 2012. In all but two of the cantons the electronic vote is available only to their citizens abroad. Geneva and Neuchatel are the exception and in both cases the Federal Council Wednesday agreed to raise the limit on the percent of citizens who may vote electronically, from 20 to 30 percent.
Bern cited the long experience these two cantons now have, as pioneers in electronic voting. Neuchatel has used the system 16 times and Geneva 11 times.
Some 164,000 citizens will be able to vote electronically, about 3.2 percent of the population of 5.1 million qualified voters and one-third of the total number allowed by the constitution, although Bern notes that the limit is lower, 10 percent, for non-obligatory federal votes.
The federal government, which has been authorizing “trial” electronic voting, will assess the experiences of various cantons, at the cantonal and federal level, in 2013 as part of longer term plans. A priority, the government notes in a statement Wednesday, is to encourage the Swiss abroad to vote.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 50-year-old Swiss man from the Jura was arrested in March, canton Vaud police announced 4 April, during a break-in in Delemont, while the family was off at a funeral. Police had been tracking him since January after a number of thefts, mainly of money and jewelry, that followed announcements in newspapers of a death.
An investigation has been opened into what appears to be 20 break-ins during the time people have left their homes while at funerals. The robberies occurred mainly in canton Vaud, but some were committed in Neuchatel, Fribourg, Jura, and Bern.
Rich cultural, international mix of songs
Location: Patinoire du Littoral, Neuchatel
Link out: http://www.livemusic.ch/concerts/bernard-lavill…
Date: 4 Nov 2011
Start time: 20:30
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Two people died Friday morning when a small plane crashed in northern canton Vaud, the 29-year-old pilot, resident in England, and his 40-year-old passenger, from Neuchatel. The plane was found late in the afternoon, after four helicopters spent several hours searching. It crashed in the forest near Fontaine-sur-Grandson and both people died at the scene of the accident.
The plane had left Colombier in Neuchatel at 10:35 and was heading for Amiens, France when air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot, about 30 minutes into the flight.
Vaud Police are looking for anyone with information that will help investigators: telephone +41 21 644 4444.
Motorcyclist brakes too hard on seeing radar in Neuchatel
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – A motorcyclist going 107 kph in an 80 zone suddenly spotted a radar Sunday 2 October and hit the brakes – a little too hard, and over he went.
The radar caught him hitting the ground. Miraculously, he wasn’t injured, except for his pride and his pocketbook for he now faces a hefty fine and is likely to see his license lifted for three months.
Police in Neuchatel say they caught 18 motorcyclists speeding, in two radar checks in the canton’s mountains last Sunday. They are urging motorcyclists to use greater caution.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud Police say they destroyed more than 230 cannabis plants growing outdoors near Moudon, and four men, ages 20-41, who planted them have admitted to trying to grow the plants, not yet mature. Moudon police noticed the plants in Peyres-Possens in August.
Investigations led them to the four men, one of whom was also discovered to have 30 plants at home as well as other drugs and a system for growing and drying marijuana indoors. The men admitted to growing the crops for sale and a criminal investigation is underway.
Original piles in Lac de Chalain, rive occidentale, with the reconstruction of a Neolithic dwelling in the bqckground (photo ©2011, P Pétrequin, Centre de la Recherches Archeologique de la Vallée de l’Ain)
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND -Long before there were national boundaries in the Alps there were prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in what is today Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland, and next week the traces they left will be recognized internationally.
A group of 111 of these sites were named a Unesco World Heritage “site” 27 June and 9 September the official ceremony welcoming the new site takes place in Neuchatel, at the 10-year-old Latinium museum and research centre.
Switzerland, with 56 of the sites, is the lead country for the project to be recognized.
Unesco describes the sites:
“This serial property of 111 small individual sites encompasses the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 BC on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. Excavations, only conducted in some of the sites, have yielded evidence that provides insight into life in prehistoric times during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Alpine Europe and the way communities interacted with their environment. Fifty-six of the sites are located in Switzerland. The settlements are a unique group of exceptionally well-preserved and culturally rich archaeological sites, which constitute one of the most important sources for the study of early agrarian societies in the region.”
The Latinium is holding a special public day 11 September, a Sunday, to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The museum park, which recreates this prehistoric world, is open seven days a week, with no entry charge.
Swiss taxes varied considerably from one city to another in 2010
Swiss taxes take a bigger bite in Neuchatel than in Zug
Update 22 July (new files added at end) BERN, SWITZERLAND – That magic moment in the year is here, when Bern tells Swiss taxpayers where they were best off, living or dying, in 2010, so the rest of the holidays can be spent planning a move. There is Zug, for those who are rich and single, or if you are married and have two children and you’re living in Neuchatel, Zug but also Geneva will look very good.
Federal income tax is a small part of the three-tiered tax system, with cantonal taxes usually the largest and communal taxes varying the most widely. Zug retains its champion’s title of the cheapest place in Switzerland from a tax standpoint, while Neuchatel remains one of the most expensive, for individuals.
Sample comparisons culled from the 2010 figures, published 21 July by the Federal tax office:
Single, no children, cantonal, communal and parish (if Catholic) taxes, on income of CHF100,000
Add on CHF2,067 for federal income tax
Zurich: CHF11,637 / 9.64%
Zug: CHF6,148 / 5.08%
Bern: CHF14,982 / 14.98%
Basel: CHF16,472 / 16.47%
Lausanne: CHF16,162 /16.06%
Neuchatel: CHF18,639 / 18.64%
Geneva: CHF15’370 / 15.37%
If you make CHF200,000, tax rates range from Zug’s 9.72% to Neuchatel’s 23.71%.
Married, two children, cantonal, communal and parish (if Catholic) taxes, federal tax not included, on income of CHF100,00, one spouse working
Add on CHF907 for federal income tax
Zurich: CHF6,136 / 6.14%
Zug: CHF6,148 / 5.08%
Bern: CHF8,710 / 8.71%
Basel: CHF7,690 / 7.69%
Lausanne: CHF9,175 /9.18%
Neuchatel: CHF10,054 / 10.05%
Geneva: CHF3,202 / 3.20%
If you make CHF200,000, tax rates range from Zug’s 4.43% to Neuchatel’s 17.91%.
When both spouses work the tax rate tends to be 2-3 percentage points higher, except in Zug, where it is half the rate, and in Geneva, where it is double the rate.
Inheritance taxes: avoid Graubuenden
Swiss inheritance taxes are not collected by several cantons, but Graubuenden has the highest rate and Lausanne is the rare city to collect a communal tax in addition to the cantonal one. It’s better to be a son or daughter inheriting than to inherit from a brother or sister, and beware, nieces and nephews, you’ll have to pay more when your uncle’s lovely chalet passes into your hands.
Swiss tax burden, by canton (Ger/Fre), pdf
Swiss tax burden, comparison, communes, pdf
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The 64-year-old man described by police in Vaud and Neuchatel as a dangerous escaped criminal and psychopath has turned himself in: he told staff at a restaurant in Rasses, near a wooded area north and east of Sainte Croix, Friday morning that he was the man wanted by police and asked them to contact authorities.
He was promptly taken into custody and is in the hands of Vaud Police.
Police had earlier assembled 60 officers to the area around Chavannes-près-Renens after a reported sighting at 05:00 Friday of a man who appeared to be the wanted criminal. It was the second reported sighting this week, with the first leading to the brief detention in Geneva of a man riding a city bus who resembled the convict.
Escaped convict, sought in Vaud, Neuchatel and France since Sunday: note lower left arm tatoo
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud Police have issued two additional photos of the 64-year-old man who escaped Sunday 27 June while on an outing, after injuring one of the two police officers who accompanied him.
The man is considered dangerous. He has spent 40 years in prison for murder, rape and other charges.
He was not released when he became eligible after a judge ruled he was too dangerous to live in society.
He had been in prison in Neuchatel and escaped in canton Vaud near the borders with Neuchatel and France. A large manhunt with 10 police dogs has failed to turn him up.
Description of the fugitive
Police have added new elements: the man appears younger than his age, he has a large tatoo of a naked woman on his lower left arm and he was wearing Adidas shoes, gray with yellow stripes, when he disappeared.
64-yr-old convict appears younger than his age, say police
He is Swiss, mother tongue French with a Jura accent and he speaks Swiss German.
He is of normal build, 180cm tall, wears round medical glasses and has a shaved head.
He was wearing a short-sleeved light blue checked shirt when he disappeared, with washed out light bluejeans.
Click on images to view larger
Escaped convict, considered dangerous, is still on the loose in the Vaud, Neuchatel, French border area
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Some 70 police and six police dogs from two Swiss cantons, Vaud and Neuchatel, as well as France combed the area between Lake Neuchatel and the French border Tuesday 28 June but failed to find the convict who escaped Monday during an outing.
Another 30 police in Vaud conducted interviews with shop owners or others whose places might have provided food or lodging for the man, in his 60s, who has served more than 40 years in prison for murder, rape and other crimes. Their search efforts were concentrated around Grandson, Concise and Vaumarcus.
The escaped convict is considered dangerous and violent. Anyone with information is asked to call the police emergency number, 117.
A mobile patrol will operate during the night, say Vaud police.
Ed. note: Le Temps (Fr) carries a fascinating and disturbing story, recollections from an interview with “Jean-Louis B”, the escaped criminal, 10 years ago, at a time when the courts refused to ever release him considering him a dangerous psychopath.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud Police are warning the public to be on the lookout for a 64-year-old prisoner considered extremely dangerous who escaped Monday afternoon near Provence, Vaud while on an outing with two prison wardens. The man has been imprisoned for life, without parole, for murder, rape, attempted rape and crimes against property. He can be very violent, police say, and they ask anyone who sees him to call them on the 117 emergency number.
He was traveling by car with the two guards when he hit one of them in the hand with a blunt instrument. Police immediately set up a manhunt with border guards, Neuchatel and French police, local police, police dog teams and the Swiss army. The army has made a search helicopter available.
Provence is close to Lake Neuchatel and not far from the French border.
View Larger Map
The man is 180cm tall, of normal build, wears round wire-rimmed glasses and he has a shaved head. He was wearing a light blue shirt with short sleeves and washed-out jeans when he escaped. He is Swiss and French is his first language but he also speaks Swiss German.
He was last seen heading in the direction of Lake Neuchatel.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The 2011 measles epidemic that spiked in Basel, Geneva and Lausanne in the first four months of the year is moving on to eastern Switzerland, figures published Monday by the Federal Public Health Office show, with 515 cases throughout the country from 1 January to 24 May.
The 2011 epidemic appears to have reached its peak in western Switzerland, but numbers are now dropping. By mid-May, Geneva (110 cases) and Vaud (93) had felt the impact of a major epidemic in France, while Basel, with 57 cases, was affected mainly by a group that is reluctant to vaccinate its children.
Cantons Aargau, Saint Gall, Thurgau, Zurich, but also Neuchatel and Ticino are now seeing a rapid increase in cases.
Outbreaks in 2009 and 2010 prompted large vaccination programmes in the Swiss Army and at EPFL in Lausanne, after cases of the highly contagious disease developed. Geneva schools sent letters in April 2011 alerting parents to the need to vaccinate and follow up with a second vaccination, as the disease spread.
Public health authorities are again urging people to make sure they have had a followup vaccination if they had only one, and to be vaccinated if they were not. The disease, also called rubeola, is a respiratory tract infection that requires being quarantined. Complications can be more severe in adults: 41 percent of the Swiss cases since December 2010 have been adults over the age of 20. In 88 percent of the cases, the patients were not vaccinated at all and in 7 percent they were not sufficiently covered.
Young Swiss residents: not as likely to live to a ripe old age as their women friends
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss resident population in 2010 reached 7,866,500, an increase of 80,700, according to preliminary figures published by the Swiss Statistical Office in Neuchatel 28 April.
The 1 percent annual growth was comparable to the previous year’s. It includes the Swiss population as well as all resident foreigners except those with short-term permits, 56,600 and people seeking asylum, 5,600 persons.
“This statistic, greatly improved in quality, is part of the new, register-based population census system and provides more precise details than the previous Annual Population Statistics,” notes the SSO.
The federal government announced in December 2010 that it is moving to an annual census and will rely far more heavily than in the past on communal and cantonal population registers, which have been harmonizing the data they gather.
Switzerland now has 1,300 people over the age of 100 and figures show that this population has doubled every 10 years since 1950. The longer lifespan of women is clearly evident here, with women accounting for 1,100 of the people over age 100.
Number of foreigners continues to climb
The number of foreigners living permanently in Switzerland rose to 1,766,400 in 2010, an increase of 52,400, to comprise 22.5 percent of the population.
The percentage at the end of 2009 was 22 percent, but the increase is due in part to the way in which data is produced under the new statistics/census system, and to changing notions of population.
More people over 65 than under 20
The population under age 20 comprises 20.8 percent of the total and those age 65 or over, 1.3 million persons, are 16.9 percent. People of working age account for 62.2 percent of the Swiss population.
Boys outnumber girls slightly under age 20 but the male population declines gradually until the number of men and women is the same, in the 55-59 age group. Women then steadily outnumber men in a growing proportion: the ages 84-89 group has twice as many women as men.
The census included the following groups:
- Swiss whose permanent residence is Switzerland
- Foreigners with residence permits of at least 12 months (B, C and Foreign Affairs Department permits: international organization workers, diplomats and members of their families)
- Foreigners with a short-term residence permit (L) for a cumulative stay of at least 12 months
- asylum-seekers (F and N permits) whose total length of stay in Switzerland is at least 12 months.
One thousand years of existence should deserve a party and no better place than in the beautiful medieval city of Neuchatel. Music, food and arts by the water combined with lights shining over the old town once the sun sets. Don’t miss it.
Location: Neuchatel
Link out: http://live.event1000ne.ch/node/91
Start date: 22 Apr 2011
End date: 24 Apr 2011
International sports, football
Anfield, Liverpool (GenevaLunch) - Liverpool may not win any titles this season but they might well have played a role in denying one to Manchester United. They deservedly beat their archrivals 3-1, with a hat-trick by Dirk Kuyt, 6 March. Man United fielded a side weakened in defense because of the absence of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, but they were comprehensively outplayed in all departments.
Arsenal could only draw 0-0 against Sunderland but are just three points behind United in the Premier League and still have a game in hand. Man City stay third after a 1-0 win over Wigan.
Tottenham travelled to Wolverhampton for the best game of the weekend: a thrilling 3-3 draw.
In the Spanish La Liga Barcelona and Real Madrid both won. Inter Milan beat Genoa 5-2 and AC Milan beat Juventus in Series A. In the Swiss Super League Basel are still on top after a 3-1 win over Zurich. Neuchatel lost 1-2 to Bellinzona while Thun-Luzern ended 3-3.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Guardian
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 16-year-old girl has died in hospital two weeks after a ski accident on a closed piste in canton Valais. The girl died Tuesday 15 February at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne.
She was on a school ski trip with her class from Neuchatel 3 February in Isérables, part of the Nendaz ski system in Valais. She and a group of students were skiing in the Siviez area and decided to ignore signs saying the Fontaines piste was closed, in order to get to a lift. She took a bad fall on the run at 11:15 and was taken to hospital in Sion, then transferred at 16:15 that day to the Chuv due to the seriousness of her injuries.
A 12-year-old girl from Biel/Bienne died while on a school ski trip in Valais 10 February, after sliding down an icy towbar path. In another slippery slope accident, a 65-year-old Vaud woman lost her life after sliding down a closed path near Champery 6 February.
Police in Valais have opened an investigation into the accident.
International sports, skiing
Swiss ski star Didier Cuche
Kitzbuehel, Austria (GenevaLunch)- Didier Cuche dominated the field to win his fourth title on the famed Streif run at Kitzbuehel, 22 January. It was also the fourth successive victory for Swiss skiers. Bode Miller looked the likely winner until Cuche produced a stunning run to send the American back into second place by almost a second. The French skier Adrien Théaux took third place to push the Austrians off the podium.
Cuche, age 37, equalled the record of Austrian legend Franz Klammer, who won four times in the 1970s, and also broke the record for the oldest winner of a World Cup event. The skier from Neuchatel has not yet announced when, and if, he will retire.
Maria Riesch won the women’s downhill at Cortina in Italy. Her friend and rival Lindsey Vonn came in third after almost crashing. It was the 14th successive downhill won by the pair, with nine for the American and five for the German.
Links to other site: TSR
Bouches-du-Rhône, France (GenevaLunch) - The value of their theft has risen from CHF8 million to CHF21m in the six years since a group of men stole 668 kg of gold, thanks to the soaring gld market, according to TSR. The haul has never been found. The five men, from Corsica, are accused of stealing the gold from the head offices of Metalor in Marin, canton Neuchatel, in January 2004. The prosecutor in the French court is asking for sentences ranging from seven to 22 years, with 18-20 years for the man behind the scheme and 22 years for another who is a repeat offender.
Monsignor Bernard Genoud in 2006 - Photo Charly Rappo
(video) Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsignor Bernard Genoud, 68, Roman Catholic bishop for Lausanne, Geneva, Fribourg and Neuchatel, has died from lung cancer.
Genoud died 21 September at a hospice in Fribourg. The bishop was born in Châtel-St-Denis in 1942 and was ordained as a priest in 1968.
He made headllines in 2008 when he publicly asked forgiveness for the actions of pedophile priests.
The diocese has announced that the body can be viewed starting Thursday 23 September at 11:00, to 24 September at 18:45.
His funeral will take place 25 September at the St Nicolas cathedral in Fribourg at 10:00.
A simultaneous memorial mass will be held Friday 24 September at 19:00 at:
- the Saint-Nichola’s Cathedral in Fribourg
- the Sacred Heart Church in Lausanne
- the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Geneva
- the Our Lady of Assumption Basilica in Neuchatel
Video, biography, TSR (Fre)
More electonic voting should make it easier for more Swiss abroad to have their say
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Five additional cantons will be able to offer electronic voting to their citizens in November 2010 federal elections, bringing the total number to 12 cantons, nearly half of the country. The Swiss federal electoral commission announced the decision 8 September. The November ballots take electronic voting, in which Switzerland is a world leader, a step further: this is the first time a popular initiative or citizens-created referendum item, will be voted on.
Some 190,000 voters abroad, or 4.1 percent of the voting population, will be able to vote electronically. Voting from abroad has long posed a problem for the nearly 700,00 (close to 10 percent of the total population) Swiss citizens abroad because ballots are mailed three weeks before votes, which in many cases does not allow enough time to forward the material and have the voter return it for the deadline.
The cantons with electronic voting options in November are:
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – A second young man has drowned this week, a 20-year-old, Thursday afternoon 9 July, at the Hauterive port in Neuchatel. He was with a friend, who immediately raised the alert but by the time emergency services arrived it was too late to save the youth, who was from Gampelen in canton Bern.
His is the second accidental death by drowning this week. Monday, Daniel Cho, a cellist with the Regina Spektor band, in town to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival, died after taking a swim with a friend near the Chateau de Chillon.
The Swiss Safety Council warned at the start of summer that young men are statistically more at risk of drowning than the rest of the population. Forty-six people die from drowning, on average, every year in Switzerland.
Unpaid bills sent to collectors rose 2%
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fallout from the global economic crisis is showing up in figures released 31 May by from the Swiss Federal Statistical office, which shows an 8 percent increase in bankruptcies filed in 2009 compared to a year earlier. The office also released bill collection figures, with a 2 percent increase, some 2.5 million orders to collect bills.
The number of bankruptcies filed was nearly 12,000, with 843 more than in 2008, a 10-year high. Ticino saw the sharpest increase, 26 percent, but Zurich was also high, up 18 percent.
Nationwide, losses in 2009 from bankruptcies were lower, down 12 percent for a difference of CHF305.8 million, but the overall figures hides steep increases in cantons Geneva and Vaud, up 66 percent and 55 percent respectively. Geneva showed losses of CHF551.5m and Vaud CHF390.5m out of total losses for Switzerland of CHF2.1 billion.
Open days at wineries give consumers a chance to discover some of Switzerland's unusual wines, such as this rare Roussanne, a cousin of the Marsanne grape made famous by France's Hermitage wines (Christian Crittin, La Pleine Lune, St-Pierre-de-Clages, Valais)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s new wines season kicked off seriously last weekend with the fourth annual Valais wine Open Days 12-15 May, which pulled in 22,000 people to 179 cellars, say the organizers, Vins du Valais.
The crowds came despite cold, wet weather that put a damper on villages’ plans for outdoor entertainment and wines served under sunny skies.
This weekend it is the turn of canton Vaud, which has more than 300 wineries participating in its Open Days 21-22 May.
Maps of the region with details and lists of cellars are a good starting point for anyone planning to visit. Vaud’s cellars, more spread out than those in Geneva, have offered limited transport options in the past, but several groups of wine villages are organizing shuttle buses (check out regional sub-menus on the “transport” tab) this year.
Swiss Germans are expected en masse, since the bulk of wines from Vaud end up in German-speaking areas. Geneva, the third largest wine producing canton, holds its Open Days the following Saturday 29 May.
Home sweet home: Bernese Swiss can now vote from abroad, electronically
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss citizens from Bern will be able to vote from abroad electronically in future, from several countries, using canton Geneva’s electronic voting platform, Bern announced Friday 23 April. They join Swiss abroad from Basel, Geneva, Neuchatel and Zurich in having the right to vote from abroad.
Links to other sites: Swiss federal chancellery, swissinfo
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A major power outage caused by a malfunction at an electric station in Romanel affected much of the Lausanne area Monday evening: the M1, M2 and TL city public transport lines were down and 70 percent of the city is reported to have been without electricity, but details are sketchy at this point (22:00). Police are overwhelmed by phone calls from people trapped in elevators, according to TSR. The power cut appears to have affected Montreux and Neuchatel as well as Lausanne.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), 24 Heures (Fre), Lausanne’s electricity, provided by the Services Industriels (Fre)
Grandson, canton Vaud and Glattfelden, canton Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Three pedestrians have died in separate incidents on Swiss roads, two of them on autoroutes. A young man walking on the Basel-bound A50 autoroute near Glattfelden, canton Zurich died instantly when he was hit by a car at around 04:00 Sunday 21 February.
A similar case cost the life of a 20-year-old man from Romania who was struck by a car on the A5 between Grandson, canton Vaud and Vaumarcus, canton Neuchatel early Sunday. The car’s passenger was slightly hurt in the accident.
In Rivera, canton Ticino, a third person was killed crossing a cantonal route.
Details from police about the circumstances surrounding the accidents are not yet available.
Links to other sites: Blick (Ger), Romandie News, TSR
View from Neuchatel-Chaux de Fonds train Tuesday late afternoon: icy roads, plenty of snow
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 67-year-old man and the conductor plus 97 passengers of a TGV traveling between Bern and Paris were happily unhurt when the man’s car, stranded on a TGV line near Bayards, canton Neuchatel, was hit by the train. The accident occurred Tuesday evening 9 February at 20:35, say police. Train service on the line was re-established only at 17:30 Wednesday evening. Travelers scheduled to take the TGV via Neuchatel were shunted to Basel and Lausanne for other trains.
The man had lost control of his car, which skidded onto the rails and was stuck there.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The populations of three regions, Jura, Bernese Jura and Neuchatel, have voted strongly in favour of being combined into a single Jura Region canton, in a poll taken for regional newspapers and RSR, French Swiss radio. Nearly 60 percent of the population said they would like to see the idea, which has been aired several times in recent years, be put forward as a concrete initiative. The vote was far closer in the city of Neuchatel, which has been proposed as the capital, with Biel/Bienne included in the region.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Neuchatel’s cantonal police are to deploy a new type of camera connected to a computer containing the number plates of all cars, mostly French, whose owners have unpaid fines, the police announced 21 November. The license plate number is scanned and compared to the database in less than a second. If there is a match, a second team of police officers can stop the car and ask the driver for his details.
In a test phase along the canton’s border crossings with France, one in 12 of the 8,700 cars checked came up positive, according to Pascal Luthi, spokesman for the Neuchatel police. In less than 14 hours of testing the machine, Neuchatel police discovered 1,100 outstanding fines for a total of CHF81,000. The machine costs about CHF40,000, Luthi told GenevaLunch.
