by Armando Mombelli, swissinfo.ch Swiss senator Dick Marty’s reports into secret CIA prisons and more recently into alleged organ trafficking in Kosovo have caused a stir internationally. In an interview with swissinfo.ch as he prepares to step down from his parliamentary and Council of Europe roles, Marty says that he […]
GENEVA/DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (AFP) – More than 2,900 people have been killed in Syria since the start of a crackdown on anti-regime protests, the UN said on Thursday a day before its human rights body was to discuss the situation. “According to the detailed list of names of individuals we’ve been keeping, […]
by Susanne Schanda in Lucerne, swissinfo.ch A new book indicates that religion plays an important role in identity-building among adolescents with immigrant backgrounds in Switzerland. The authors of “Youth, Migration and Religion”, which was presented at a roundtable at Lucerne University, say public discourse on immigrants has changed in Switzerland […]
Swissinfo. Immigrants are less healthy than the average Swiss but many do not seek proper treatment using Switzerland’s health care system, a study has found. Around 3,000 immigrants from Turkey, Portugal, Serbia, Kosovo, Somalia and Sri Lanka were interviewed about the state of their health, their need for medical care […]
The Swiss government is hosting Indian President Pratibha Patil in the capital Bern for talks on boosting bilateral relations, including financial and research cooperation. During the two-day visit Patil will be received by the entire cabinet, including President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, and will travel to the Lake Geneva […]
Switzerland has donated 12,000 ballot boxes to Tunisia to help the North African country conduct constituent assembly elections later this month. The Tunisian elections will coincide with Switzerland’s parliamentary elections on October 23. These will be Tunisia’s first free elections since the fall of ousted president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali […]
The international press reported that in August the Netherlands paid to the World Health Organization one hundred million Euros taken from confiscated ‘Ghadaffi Funds’ Approximately two month later a visit to the Ministry of Health warehouse in Benghazi showed no sign of WHO medicines. Donations of medicines had reached from […]
by Matthew Allen, swissinfo.ch The global economy is set for a dose of normality in the second half of 2012, forming the springboard for a sustained recovery, a leading economist has predicted. But Switzerland will still have to endure a winter of hardship before the financial markets finally realise that […]
The Swiss Foreign Ministry has organised two meetings in Switzerland between the Libyan National Transitional Council and Tuareg representatives from Niger and Mali. The talks, which took place on August 6 and 7 and September 21 and 22, dealt with the issue of Moammar Gaddafi’s Tuareg brigades. The Tuareg are […]
In memory of the nearly 3000 victims of the terror attacks on 11th September 2001 in the USA representative of an Islamic Reform Movement in Switzerland called for blood donations. They want to follow with this gesture the teachings of Islam and contribute to a life-saving effort. The campain of […]
The future of the Miss Switzerland contest is under threat following low viewer ratings for the televised beauty pageant on Saturday. Just 25.7 per cent of Swiss television viewers tuned in to watch Alina Buchschacher win the Miss Switzerland crown on Saturday night, a ten per cent drop compared with […]
Source/Credit: Thurgauer Zeitung, Switzerland By Esther Simon | September 24, 2011 Adopted from a crude translation generated by Google-Translateion: It was peaceful here on Friday morning in a small ‘tent city’ which the organizers have set up near their mosque they had established five years ago in Häusern. The Ahmadiyya […]
Rand Dalgamouni, JORDAN TIMES ZURICH – One young Jordanian is working to share her experience in interfaith tolerance and dialogue in the Kingdom with the rest of the world. Fresh graduate Ayah Alfawaris has represented Jordan at international summits, speaking as an ambassador for interfaith dialogue. In 2010, she was […]
Why is Romansh – spoken by 0.5 per cent of the Swiss population – considered a language, whereas Swiss German, spoken by almost 64 per cent, is classed as a dialect? The answer lies not only in linguistics, but also in issues of culture, identity and politics. Swiss German is […]
The Catholic Church in Switzerland should have done more to combat apartheid in South Africa. That is the finding of the Swiss national commission for justice and peace, which has published a report on the topic. The report, presented at a news conference in Bern on Thursday, said Catholic Church […]
Source: Swissinfo Twice as many people attend services each week in free – mostly evangelical – churches as in the state-recognised Protestant Church. That is according to findings published on Thursday as part of a National Science Foundation project investigating religions, the state and society. Twenty-nine per cent of all […]
Source: Swissinfo Over the past 20 years, the consumption of alcohol by the Swiss has decreased on average by one per cent per year, reaching 8.5 litres of pure alcohol per person in 2010. Based on this trend, the government has decided against raising alcohol prices as part of the […]
by Julia Slater, swissinfo.ch Ten years ago Islamic extremists flew three planes into three iconic US buildings and the fall-out is still being felt. Muslims suddenly found themselves being regarded with suspicion as potential terrorists in many countries and their religion denigrated. Like most people who saw the attacks on […]
by Armando Mombelli, swissinfo.ch Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey has officially announced her resignation, it emerged on Wednesday. During her years in government, Calmy-Rey’s style and actions have often spurred criticism, but Swiss diplomacy has gained in international visibility. The 66-year-old, who is also foreign minister, will not put herself up […]
Switzerland remains the most competitive country, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2011-2012. The report, published on Wednesday, cited Switzerland’s technological capabilities and the effectiveness of its labour market as reasons for its good results in the overall rankings. It also said that Swiss scientific research […]