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Federer visits tsunami victims in India

This content was published on Dec 23, 2006 On his two-day trip, Federer visited Unicef’s tsunami recovery programmes in Cuddalore, in the country’s hardest-hit state of Tamil Nadu, including a protection centre for children and orphans. More than 18,000 people in India, a third of them children, were killed or reported missing by the tsunami on December 26, 2004. In Tamil Nadu alone,…

Rising fortunes revive taste for the high life

This content was published on Dec 23, 2006 But it is a different story for the cigar trade, as the growing backlash against smoking continues to bite into its bottom line. For those selling luxury goods in the Swiss financial capitals of Zurich and Geneva, the run-up to Christmas certainly promises to be one to remember. Booming profits and resurgent stock markets mean…

Far-right dogma runs deep, says study

This content was published on Dec 22, 2006 In an interview with swissinfo, one of the authors, Wassilis Kassis, says society needs to do more to help these people leave the past – and their convictions – behind them. “They take off their bovver boots and their bomber jackets but they rarely throw them away,” said the Basel University researcher. The study, which…

Cabinet rejects single health insurance

This content was published on Dec 22, 2006 Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin presented the government’s position in Bern on Friday, attacking a plan put forward by centre-left political parties, and which will come to a nationwide vote in March. The people’s initiative wants to do away with the free choice of health insurers, and link premiums to income and personal wealth, bringing together…

Foreigners banned from buying homes in Verbier

This content was published on Dec 22, 2006 The decision, imposed by the government of the southern canton of Valais, has infuriated local officials who claim the move will send buyers elsewhere. Seven communes – all home to mountain resorts – in canton Valais have been hit by a temporary freeze on the sale of holiday homes to foreigners. Announcing the decision, canton…

Cabinet rejects idea of flexible pension age

This content was published on Dec 21, 2006 It argues that the initiative would entail an unbearable economic burden and would mainly benefit those who have financial means. The initiative, launched by the Swiss Trade Union Federation, demands that all people whose annual salary does not exceed SFr119,340 ($98,000) should be paid a full state pension from the age of 62 if they…

Action demanded to stop urban sprawl

This content was published on Dec 21, 2006 A survey found that 52 per cent of people surveyed felt too much land was being developed, while only 34 per cent thought the current rate of land loss was acceptable. Carried out by the gfs-zürich research institute, the survey also found that 80 per cent of people questioned opposed the development of “particularly beautiful…

Strikes could threaten good Swiss image

This content was published on Dec 21, 2006 Swiss workers are still much more reluctant to down tools than their counterparts in neighbouring countries. But a long-running strike in 2006 highlights a recent change in industrial relations. Figures from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) show a marked increase in strike action in the first five years of this decade compared with…

Swiss foreign investment surges ahead

This content was published on Dec 20, 2006 Swiss firms are well represented outside the country, said the bank, adding that for the first time ever, Swiss subsidiaries had employed more than two million people abroad. “Robust global economic growth, the positive corporate earnings situation and a low interest rate level created favourable conditions for direct investment,” noted the bank in its December…

Property boom tests Swiss-French relations

This content was published on Dec 19, 2006 Claude Birraux, deputy for the department of Haute-Savoie, says the Swiss city’s chronic housing shortage is to blame and he has called on the cantonal authorities to act. Since 2004 Swiss citizens have not required a residency permit to live in France, under a series of bilateral accords signed two years earlier between Switzerland and…

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