A convicted repeat offender who was born and grew up in Switzerland faces deportation. The turkish citizen, born in 1973, started breaking the law in his twenties and received his first official warning at the age of 22 for crimes committed abroad, according to the Aargauer Zeitung. Eventually the man ended up facing charges in […]
Archives for 2018
Swiss Muslim academic accused of rape remains in prison
According to LeMonde.fr, Tariq Ramadan remains in a French prison, despite the efforts of his lawyers. Under investigation for accusations of rape, the judge decided to keep Ramadan in prison to protect witnesses from pressure, said those close to the case, according to the newspaper. Investigators hope keeping him in prison will encourage other women […]
Switzerland tests its sirens
Every year, Switzerland tests its apocalyptic-sounding sirens on the first Wednesday of February. This year it will be done on 7 February 2018, starting at 13:30. Sirens will be sounded for three minutes. The tests finish at 14:00 for general sirens, and 15:00 for flood sirens. If an alarm sounds outside of these times it […]
Losing faith – religion declines in Switzerland
Statistics for 2016 show that 25% of Switzerland’s residents have no religion. As recently as 1960 the same figure was less than 1%. The percentage with no faith shows significant regional variations. While only 19% of Italian speakers have no religion, 24% in German-speaking Switzerland and 30% in French-speaking Switzerland don’t. Non-believers in Switzerland Infogram […]
Switzerland ranked best country in 2018 – the good, bad and the ugly
Once again the USA News Best Country ranking placed Switzerland first out of 80 countries in 2018. The overall score is based on nine groups containing a total 65 measures, scored out of 10, which show Switzerland’s underlying strengths and weaknesses. Switzerland makes the top 10 on five of the nine high-level measures. These include: […]
January 2018 warmest ever recorded in Switzerland
The average monthly temperature in January 2018 in Switzerland was the highest recorded since recording began in 1864, according to Swiss Meteo. Across all Swiss weather stations the average was 0.6 degrees Celsius, a bit above the last record of 0.4 degrees in January 2007. Geneva was particularly warm. There the average for the month […]
Only 4.5% of world lives under full democracy – Switzerland suffers from low participation
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2017 Democracy Index classifies only 19 countries as having fully functioning democracies. 14 were in Europe. Globally, democracy declined in 2017, according to the report. Only 4.5% of the world’s population now lives in a fully functioning democracy. Overall, the ranking shows a decline in the number of fully functioning democracies […]
FILM: Wonder Wheel – Woody Allen-esque twists of fate and folly on Coney Island
2 February 2018. WONDER WHEEL ***1/2 We had to wait more than a year this time for Woody Allen’s annual gift to us cinephiles and Woody fans, but the wait was worth it. It has the usual Allen-esque features: world-weary wisdom, excellent direction of actors Kate Winslet, James Belushi and Justin Timberlake, plus his mixture […]
Swiss winter holiday traffic – map shows hot spots
The Swiss government has issued winter holiday season traffic predictions. European winter school holidays fall between 27 January and 11 March 2018. Over this period, particularly on Saturdays, which are the weekly change over day, heavy traffic is predicted in the usual hotspots. A number of passes are closed during winter, funneling more traffic into […]
Swiss government warns of cancerous palm oil
Today, the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) warned that the colouring substance Scarlet Red (Sudan IV) had been discovered in palm oil. The banned substance was discovered by FSVO staff in Vaud. The synthetic substance can metabolize into carcinogenic amines after it has been ingested. Amines are used to make some dyes. […]
