Switzerland

What's Worked, And What Hasn't, In Gun-Loving Switzerland

Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Switzerland has an entrenched gun culture that is embraced by most of its 8 million citizens, some of them as young as 10 years old.

Every Swiss community has a shooting range, and depending on who is counting, the alpine country ranks third or fourth in the number of guns per capita.

"You can walk into a cafe in a town where there is a shooting festival and you'll see rifles hanging on the hat rack. It's just incredible.

VW Introduces 'World's Most Efficient' Car At Geneva Motor Show

Eyder Peralta — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:16:00 +0000

At the Geneva Motor Show on Tuesday, Volkswagen introduced a futuristic-looking car that the company says is the "world's most efficient."

VW's XL1 is a two seater, plug-in, diesel hybrid that the company says gets 261 miles per gallon "with an all-electric driving range of a little over 30 miles," CNN reports.

CNN adds:

"The XL1 should be more efficient than other plug-in hybrids, though, because it is has a tiny 0.9-liter two-cylinder diesel engine.

What Nations Were The Most Forward-Looking In 2012?

Bill Chappell — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:44:00 +0000

Germany was the world's most future-oriented country in 2012, followed by Switzerland and Japan, according to the "Future Orientation Index." Researchers found that in Germany and 10 nations last year, more people used Google to search for "2013" than for "2011."

The 11 countries represent a gain over 2011, when only seven countries had as many searches for the upcoming year as for the prior one.

According to researchers who conducted the study, "the online 'future orientation' of a country is strongly correlated with the country's per capita gross domestic product (GDP)," as they wrote in

Predictions, Warnings Round Out World Economic Forum

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:02:00 +0000

The World Economic Forum ended Saturday in Davos, Switzerland, and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times gives weekends on All Things Considered host Robert Smith a debrief on the week's events and why predictions made there are so often wrong.

UBS To Pay $1.5 Billion For 'Routine And Widespread' Rate Rigging

Mark Memmott — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:18:00 +0000

Swiss banking giant UBS AG has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in fines to regulators in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland for its part in a scheme to manipulate the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR), which is used to set rates on contracts around the world.

The bank confirmed the news in a statement.