GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A man has been told he cannot do two hours of breathing exercises in a square in the Belarus city of Baranovichi, the Moscow Times reports, citing human rights agency Vesna. “But the Baranovichi administration rejected the tongue-in-cheek request, saying it violated several clauses of the law on rallies, Vesna reported, without elaborating.”
The government of Alexander Lukashenko who has been president for 17 years, has been the target of critics from inside and outside the country for attempting to stop dissent, an argument that was given force earlier this month when a new law went into effect that tightens restrictions on public rallies.
The driver rolled his car, ran away, hid under a parked car, then when caught he climbed a fence and swam the Rhone before heading home
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Monday 17 August was a rough day for the police, starting with the media focus on safety in Geneva and ending with unusual escapes in Vaud and Valais, in one case of a detained man who threw away his crutches, in the other of a speeding driver who ran across the autoroute and swam the Rhone before heading home.
Vaud police still hunting for escaped robber
Police in Nyon were caught by surprise Monday noon when an Algerian man in custody, age 25, who was being taken to a court hearing on several charges related to breaking in, theft and drugs, threw away his crutches and ran off. He was one of three taken to court. The other two were handcuffed, but he was using crutches after a medical examination declared the man to have an injured heel, and after the hearing he made his escape.
The man is not considered dangerous but he had not been found by the end of the day Monday despite a large manhunt: he is 180cm tall, thin, has brown hair and was wearing jeans, white trainers and a navy blue shirt with a red, white and blue stripe down the sleeve. He has tatoos on his right shoulder and left hand. Anyone with information is asked to call police at +41 21 644 4444.
Wild early morning chase in Valais before youth found at his home
A 20-year-old Valais youth was driving at a high speed on the A9 autoroute near St Maurice Sunday 14 August, heading towards Martigny, when he overtook a police patrol car at 05:40. The police set off in pursuit. The young man initially appeared to obey their order and headed off the autoroute, but at the last moment got back on the autoroute and, going 200kph, he drove to a Martigny exit, where he exited, went through a stop sign on the cantonal highway and crashed his car which rolled over several times. He was uninjured and took off on foot but a second police patrol spotted him shortly after, hiding under a parked car.
The youth then escaped, despite police calls to stop, by climbing over a fence, running across the autoroute and swimming across the Rhone river.
The police, who had information about his identity, found him at home later in the day. The driver admitted to the facts.
Geneva’s historical tension, police versus political bosses, raises its head again
Geneva’s police appear to be one of the pawns in an ongoing public political debate over safety in the city, with the most recent discussions sparked by the mugging of an American youth who was visiting his parents, a US diplomatic family. The incident was initially given publicity because of the family’s status as high-profile foreigners, but the UN added fuel to the fire with a two-paragraph reminder to UN staff to take care when going out at night.
Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is from Geneva, then announced her concerns about safety in Geneva, emphasizing its role as an international centre with a high percentage of foreigners. Monday, the political boss of Geneva’s police, Isabel Rochat, turned the tables by saying she is glad the federal government is at last considering boosting financial aid for Geneva’s security, something she says Geneva has been demanding for several months. The two are scheduled to discuss the issue 12 September.
Geneva media have jumped into the fray, reminding citizens, who go to the polls to elect a new parliament this autumn, of long-standing tensions between Geneva police and their politically nominated leaders. Rochat has made it a priority to calm down the mud-slinging battle of previous politicians who worked with police and the security forces. The heavy media coverage, where the American youth’s mugging has served as a pretext to revive the old battlelines, has made the story one of the most widely read in the Tribune de Geneve and prompted a number of online readers to leave comments on its pages and those of Le Matin, also owned by Edipresse.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 17-year-old was mugged in Geneva in mid-July, reportedly sustaining fractures and bruises. In most major cities, the news would have barely made the inside pages of the local paper. But the victim was the child of a US diplomat to the United Nations, and Geneva is a small city, widely considered to be relatively safe, so the news has struck a nerve and caught the attention of media far beyond Switzerland, particularly in the US.
The United Nations in Geneva sent out a warning to staff about going out alone at night, later tamed down. The Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a Genevan who has put time and energy into promoting the city’s international centre reputation, had firm words for Geneva authorities about her concerns over “the deterioration of the security situation” in the city, and with 2011 a federal election year in Switzerland, the story has made headlines.
The Associated Press has run a feature that is being picked up by several US news media. The US news agency says “reports of the attack have spooked Geneva’s large foreign and diplomatic community, prompting water cooler tales of muggings, break-ins and assaults.” It cites a 2009 survey: “Last year, Geneva authorities published a survey showing more than two-thirds of foreigners felt security in the city had worsened. The survey, which questioned 1,082 people working for international organizations, diplomatic missions and multinational companies, found one in ten had been victims of burglary or street crime in the past three years.”
The survey (French, pdf) also notes, however, that “the expatriates were almost unanimous in saying they felt the level of safety in Geneva was well above that in their home country or their last country of residence.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Mission in Geneva is host Thursday, from 13:00-15:00, to an interactive webcast from the UN Palais on “The Human Voice of Freedom: The Internet and Human Rights”. The session is part of the current session of the Human Rights Council.
The US Mission description for the session: “The webcast will feature human rights activists from across the world, along with highly regarded experts in the field of social media, to discuss the importance of a free Internet to the promotion of human rights and freedom of expression. This discussion will focus on the grass roots issues important to this issue. With activists from Uganda, Egypt, China, Burma, Korea, Indonesia and Tunisia, and with UN diplomats and civil society representatives from across the world in attendance, this discussion will shed a direct and unusually focused light on this timely issue.”
Guests can sign in to the free online event here.
New rules issued for tighter security at Russia’s airports
The Russian government a week ago issued new security requirements for airports which will include checking that all cars have their papers in order and verifying individuals’ IDs before they enter an airport. Media in Moscow published the information Monday 7 February, noting that it was published a few days earlier by the government, but with no date set for implementing the new rules. The roles of various security groups and responsibilities for guarding different parts of the airport have been spelled out, an effort to remedy confusion that was harshly condemned by President Dmitry Medvedev in the wake of the Moscow Domodedovo Airport suicide bombing in January that killed 36 people.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 30-year-old Swiss man has been arrested in Vevey for beaming a “relatively powerful” astronomy laser at two military helicopters that were part of the security coverage for the francophonie summit in Montreux over the weekend. Two soldiers suffered eye injuries as a result of the laster attacks, at 10-minute intervals. One was taken to hospital and treated, but the injury is not believed to have done lasting damage.
The two helicopters had just taken off from La Veyre in St-Légier when the beam hit them. The pilots were able to precisely locate the source of the beams and direct police to the man’s apartment.
He has admitted using the lasers on the helicopters.
Security was high for the summit, which attracted a number of high-level government officials from around the world and several heads of state.
Rega, which carries out hundreds of helicopter rescues and emergency transports, recently told Swiss media that the number of laser attacks against its pilots has increased, to 10 in 2010, by the end of August.
Traffic then security are also issues, with security a growing concern
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Housing is the main worry for expatriates and diplomats in Geneva, a poll run jointly by Geneva police and the Swiss Mission to the United Nations.
More than half of the 1,098 persons questioned said housing was their biggest concern, while traffic problems were listed by 16.3 percent and lack of security by 13.6 percent.
The poll included 318 members of the diplomatic corps, 581 international organization employees and 235 members of staff at multinational companies, with 66 percent of them having lived in Geneva for at least two years. Three-quarters were from Europe
A negative point in the survey was the perception on the part of the foreigners that security is getting worse in the city, with 80 percent of those questioned saying it is.
The report on the poll was presented at an annual meeting on human rights hosted by Geneva for NGOs (non-governmental organizations). This year’s theme was security: how to provide it while respecting human rights.
The report also showed that Geneva nevertheless is viewed well by foreigners living there, with 92 percent saying they would recommend it to their friends and 77.3 percent saying the quality of life is good.
The police are generally viewed positively (60 percent), but around the Cornavin train station in Geneva and the Paquis district 61 percent believe the police are too passive.
Geneva, the authors note, is given a relatively good score when compared to the countries where they previously resided, with seven of them doing better than Geneva on a scale of 10:
- Singapore, 9.1 /10, given the top rating
- Geneva, 7.6
- USA, 6.5
- Great Britain, 5.9
- Brazil, 5.7
- South Africa, 2.6.
2009 Zurich's Street Parade
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Zurich is upping security and preparing for an overflow of tourists in the City. Over one million people are expected to flock to Switzerland’s largest city on 14 August during its popular techno-inspired Street Parade.
Authorities want to encourage people to take public transportation instead of driving to the city , and have added 105 trains to serve the additional tourist traffic.
Several of the additional trains will operate from 22:00 to 04:00 to make it easier for those attending evening events to return home.
Parade goers using the train are advised to buy the “Street Parade City-Ticket,” good for the train ride as well as the RER, municipal buses and trams for both Saturday and Sunday.
Those buying tickets after 01:00 for the municipal transport system, ZVV, and without a Street Parade City-Ticket will be charged an additional CHF5.
In the aftermath of the deadly Love Parade in Germany, Zurich police have revised the Parade’s route and removed potential hazards. In addition, crowds will be monitored by helicopter.
Important links for those attending:
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government Thursday 20 May approved a package of CHF10 million to increase security around international organizations such as the UN Palais building in Geneva. The host government is responsible, under international law, for securing the outside and approach areas for these buildings, including walls and fences. Bern provided no details about what organizations will have reinforced security.
Security measures have been increasingly stepped up since 2003, following attacks on buildings in Baghdad.
Security and air safety targeted
Seeking safer skies: greater international cooperation
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The United States announced Friday 2 April that it is ending its close scrutiny of airline travelers from 14 countries, a programme that has been in place since 25 December 2009. New security measures instead “will screen all passengers based on real-time intelligence, thereby eliminating emergency measures that had focused on citizens from certain countries,” the US Department of Homeland Security says.
The change in policy is the result of Janet Napolitano, Homeland secretary, participating in recent months in several regional aviation security meetings. The US was criticized by some in the aviation industry for taking unilateral security measures that were often ineffective, at a Geneva Iata (International Air Transport Association) meeting in January 2009.
Falciani’s theft covered several months but it is not yet clear how he did it
[correction 13 March] Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The extraordinary under-assessment by HSBC of the number of bank accounts implicated in the theft of data from Geneva begins to make more sense when the timeline the bank provided to the press Thursday 11 March is studied. French authorities and then Swiss have been privy to the data for months, but the bank says its first credible clue about the scope of the theft came only one week ago, 3 March.
Hervé Falciani stole data linked to accounts of some 24,000 clients in Geneva, some 15,000 of whom are still clients, but the bank initially said only 10 accounts were involved. How he did it is still unclear and is under investigation by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s office. Falciani is in hiding in France: France, like many countries including Switzerland, does not extradite its own citizens, which puts him out of the reach of Swiss investigators.
Timeline provided by HSBC
New Swiss bank notes delayed to 2012
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – New bank notes for Switzerland will not come out until 2012, instead of autumn 2010, as originally planned. Security features to be added will require additional development and testing time, says the Swiss National Bank (SNB). The high level of security for the current bank notes means there is no urgency, it argues. Switzerland will keep the colours and denominations of the notes currently in circulation, but the new ones will be slightly smaller.
Links: SNB security features on Swiss bank notes, design details of Swiss bank notes, contest new bank note designs by Manuela Pfrunder, who was awarded the job (note: the new notes will not look like these)
US President Barack Obama says he takes the blame personally for recent lapses in the US security system, in the fight against terrorism. The White House issued a report on the 25 December bomb attempt of a Northwest Airlines plane near Detroit. It calls for quicker and better exchanges of information about possible threats. People who have known the man who attempted to blow up the plane, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, are recalling the very religious and quiet man they knew.
Links to other sites: The Globe & Mail, Canada, National Public Radio, US, Times, UK and White House summary of report
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The US began tightening security checks on international flights into the country Monday 4 January, including using more body scans, but the number of voices objecting to the scannerss is growing. Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, Sunday promised to gradually introduce more of the scanners, but privacy and civil liberties groups say using the machines may break child pornography laws, reports the Guardian. A US congressman, Jason Chaffetz, argues that a bill is needed to protect privacy in the US. The bill has passed the House in Congress and is now under consideration by the US Senate.
The new measures are being taken in the wake of the 25 December suicide bomber attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan in the US.
The world had 2.2 billion air passengers in the 12 months to September 2009, 820 million of which were international travelers, and 140 million of these were international travelers on US routes.
The US Monday 4 January is starting “enhanced” scans, including more full body scans, on many flights into the US and for passengers from a list of countries which has not been officially released. CNN reports, however, that it was given the list by an unidentified government official and the countries are: Cuba, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. Passengers traveling from or through those countries to the US can expect tougher security measures.
Random scans on all international flights into the US are also being stepped up. Pilots are being given more discretionary power to insist passengers cannot travel with pillows or blankets on their laps during some flights and to limit movement in the cabin for those flights.
Hamid Karzai’s inauguration for a second term as president of Afghanistan has come with unusually high security in the capital Kabul, and renewed pleas to step up the fight against corruption, from former US President Bill Clinton and other world leaders. Regular flights in and out of the city have been cancelled, citizens urged to take a holiday and stay home, and heavier than usual patrols are out on the streets to ward off a possible Taliban attack.
Pakistan attack kills 15
Over the border in Peshawar, Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed 15 people and injured scores at a court building not far from the Pearl Continental Hotel where nine people died in June. Al Jazeera links the latest blast to a new military push: “The military launched its offensive nearly three weeks ago, pitting about 30,000 Pakistani troops against an estimated 10 to 12,000 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera,
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Jacqueline de Quattro, canton Vaud’s government minister in charge of security, is proposing a unified training centre based in Vaud for all future cantonal and municipal police officers. She came a step closer to her dream Wednesday, 4 November when the grouping of French-and Italian-speaking heads of justice and police (CLDJP), approved the idea in principle, reports Le Temps 5 November.
Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Coordinated international response to a bioterrorist attack was simulated in Montreux 7 and 8 September in an exercise code-named Black Ice II, according to the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs. The exercise simulated an attack resulting in a pneumonic plague epidemic, and tested the institutional response to such an attack in order to better prepare for the real thing.
Two massive bombs went off in the central part of Baghdad, killing more than 75 people and leaving more than 300 wounded. A truck with a bomb hidden in it went off outside of the Iraqi foreign ministry, just outside of the protected Green Zone. It left a crater 3 metres deep and 10 metres wide. Another bomb went off near the finance ministry. Several smaller explosions, believed to be mortars, were also reported. It was the deadliest day since the US military forces handed back security to the Iraqi forces. Bomb attacks are still common in Baghdad but have tended to target poor Shia neighbourhoods. BBC, CNN
Car and truck bombs going off in several parts of Iraq since Friday have killed at least 75 people and injured scores more, as the country struggles to maintain security in the wake of US troops leaving urban areas to local police and Awakening Councils. Reports are still unclear about the magnitude of the lastest attacks, two car bombs in Baghdad and two truck bombs near Mosul Monday morning. Al Jazeera, BBC,
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Mathematicians at EPFL, the Swiss federal polytechnic institute, used a cluster of more than 200 PlayStation 3 game consoles to spend six months solving an encryption problem, breaking a previous record set in 2002. The laboratory for cryptologic algorithms cracked a 112-bit encryption based on elliptical curves. The significance of the work is that it “may serve to boost our confidence in the strength of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC),” say the authors, led Joppe Bos and Marcelo Kaihara. Encryption is widely used in banking and other industries for security. The encryption industry struggles to stay ahead of code-cracking hackers, who are using increasingly sophisticated methods and calculators.
A 160-bit elliptical curve standard is scheduled to be phased out by the industry in 2010, but the EPFL calculation shows that “for the next decade no regular user needs to be overly concerned about the security of 160-bit ECC.”
Landquart, Graubuenden (24 Heures, Fre) – Switzerland’s new 50 franc bank notes, expected to be printed in 2010 according to Lausanne newspaper 24 Heures, could well hold a surprise: a transparent area.
