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 […]
by Bernard Léchot, swissinfo.ch Ten years on from the attacks in the United States which killed nearly 3,000 people, questions about the fateful day still remain unanswered. swissinfo.ch spoke to three Swiss specialists who have sifted through the official and unofficial versions. “When I saw the second plane – indicating […]
by Samuel Jaberg in Madagascar, swissinfo.ch Each year, 200,000 hectares of forest vanish in Madagascar as trees are cut down to provide wood for heating and charcoal for cooking. One Swiss organisation is trying to turn the tide, backing the production of solar cookers as a more eco-friendly alternative to […]
SWISSINFO, AP BERN, Switzerland: Switzerland has ordered an independent investigation to uncover why Swiss officials ignored up to 10,000 asylum requests submitted by Iraqi refugees. Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga says the asylum applications were lodged with Switzerland’s embassies in Syria and Egypt between 2006 and 2008. Sommaruga told reporters […]
by Jessica Dacey, swissinfo.ch and agencies Once seen as the safest country in Europe, Switzerland has succumbed to the continent’s average levels of street violence, burglaries and assault. A report presented by the cantonal justice and police directors on Tuesday showed a rise in criminal activity since 2004, when the […]
by Susan Vogel-Misicka, swissinfo.ch War, natural disasters, migration, personal conflicts: the reasons why families and friends are torn apart are myriad. The tracing services department of the Swiss Red Cross helps people living in Switzerland to find missing loved ones all over the world. Each year, the Bern-based office handles […]
The term “Swiss Guard” is used to refer to a historical organization of elite Swiss mercenaries which were hired out to various European powers. The original Swiss Guard had a number of units, some of which went on to become quite famous, playing critical roles in European history. Today, only […]
Source: Swissinfo.ch Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga is determined to speed up the asylum procedure “massively”, despite criticism from the political left. In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger and Bund newspapers on Saturday, Sommaruga, herself a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, spoke of reforms lasting many years. “Our asylum […]
A surgical team from the Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has arrived in the Libyan capital Tripoli, a spokesman has confirmed. The four-strong delegation was able to evacuate 17 people left without care in a hospital in the south of the city. ICRC spokesman Steven Anderson told […]