20 Minutes. Muslim parents living in Basel, who were opposed to mixed swimming classes at school, took their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The case concerned the refusal of the parents to send their daughters, who had not reached the age of puberty, to compulsory mixed swimming lessons as part of […]
Archives for 2017
How Roger Federer dealt with defeat
Is Roger Federer considering a career change? The Tweet below suggests he might be. He tweeted this after losing to Alexander Zverev at the Hopman Cup. At least I have a backup career as a bongo player ?? pic.twitter.com/C8xl0pW9Pu — Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) January 4, 2017 As they say, laughter is the best medicine. And […]
Three deaths a week in Switzerland from a lack of organ donors
Le Matin. According to statistics published by Swiss Transplant, three people died per week waiting for organs over the first quarter of 2016, up from two a week previously. The problem largely stems from a lack of organ donors. At the end of September 2016, more than 1,500 patients were on a growing organ-waiting list. At […]
One refugee’s Swiss story
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? […]
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 […]
