Dersim Avdar came to Switzerland as a refugee 22 years ago. After completing a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at the University of St. Gallen, including studies in Madrid and Beijing, he now works in the investment industry in Zurich. Evangeline de Macedo interviewed him to get his story. When did you come to Switzerland? […]
Archives for January 2017
Temperatures plummet in Switzerland, but some of the coldest places are not where you’d expect
If you woke up in Switzerland on Friday morning to find temperatures of -10 C, then you are living somewhere relatively warm. Only one of the places in Meteo Centrale’s top 20 coldest sits at more than 2,000 metres above sea level. The Julierpass at 2,284 m, with a low of -20.5 C, was the highest but only the 12th […]
Film: Nocturnal Animals – Gripping, troubling, thought-provoking
6 January 2017. NOCTURNAL ANIMALS *** There is a great sadness and feeling of loss in this second film by Tom Ford. It is a different tale, but with the same sombre mood as his last (award-winning) film, “A Single Man”. As usual with this famed couturier, there’s also that air of elegant ennui and […]
2016 saw fewer passengers on Switzerland’s highest railway
The train, which takes sightseers to the Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Alpes, carried 916,500 passengers in 2016, significantly fewer than the year before. In 2015, a record 1,007,000 made the journey. Despite the decline, 2016 was still the second best performance recorded. And, at the price of CHF 218.80 for a first class round trip, brought in […]
Speeder gets 6 months in a Swiss prison
20 Minutes. A German motorcyclist was sentenced to 19 months in prison by a court in Luzern, a canton in Switzerland. Six of the 19 month sentence must be served behind bars. The motorcyclist was flashed going 150 km/h in an 80 km/h zone between Gisikon and Inwil in the canton of Luzern. The defendant had already […]
Tax declarations found in a skip in Schaffhaussen
20 Minutes. Hundreds of tax declarations containing private information were found discarded in a skip in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen. The tax returns, with clearly visible data, were thrown out by the city according to 20 Minutes. The tax returns date from 2006. The person in charge of data protection for the canton, spoke […]
Big financial blow for separated fathers in Switzerland
24 Heures. These days, one child in five is born to unmarried parents in Switzerland. For this reason, new laws came into effect on 1 January 2017, which require separated unmarried parents to pay substantially more to the parent looking after their children, most often the mother. Broadly speaking, the new laws bring the rules […]
Illegal resident requests right to stay in Switzerland after taking aggressor to court
Tribune de Genève. On Wednesday, the government of Geneva received a request for a pardon. Last summer, a 46 year old Bolivian woman, living illegally in Switzerland, went to court after she was assaulted in a bar in Geneva. The woman, who was badly hurt on the face with broken glass, won her case and her […]
Forest fires in Ticino and Graubunden now under control
20 Minutes. Only one army helicopter is now covering Val Mesolcina in the canton of Graubunden, now that forest fires there have been brought under control, according to 20 Minutes. A no fly zone imposed on the region has also been lifted. At the same time the Swiss air force says it is ready to spring […]
Swiss fact: around 1.8 million kilograms of fish are caught in Switzerland every year
In 2014, 1.78 million kilograms of fish were caught in the landlocked nation. Of this total, around 280,000 kilograms were caught by recreational anglers. The remaining 1.5 million kilograms were caught by the fishing industry. 84% of the total came from the six lakes of Lake Geneva (27%), Lake Neuchâtel (20%), Lake Zurich (15%), Lake Constance […]
