This week, a professor at the University of Bern was dismissed after publishing messages on X praising the attacks on Israelis by Hamas, reported RTS. On Tuesday, the university announced its decision to terminate the professor’s employment, describing the incident as unacceptable while underlining that it condemns all forms of violence. In addition, the university […]
Switzerland continues nuclear power cutback
World-wide, the use of nuclear energy, including new investment, is falling back. The Italians already made the decision in 1987 following the Chernobyl crisis to close nuclear power stations. In Germany, eight stations have been shut since 2011 leaving nine others to continue producing 16 percent of the country’s needs. Over the next decade, Berlin […]
Swiss to crack down on FIFA and sports corruption
ZURICH Amid repeated allegations of corruption and lack of transparency, the Swiss-based International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) may finally be held accountable by the Bern government. In recent years, the organization’s top executives, including Swiss national, Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, the governing body of world football, have managed to ignore accusations of inappropriate […]
Fight against impunity
On 17 September this year, Martina Johnson a former Liberian rebel commander, was arrested in Belgium. She is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges have been brought thanks to the determination of a Geneva Lawyer, Alain Werner, who specializes in documenting crimes committed during the civil wars in western Africa. For […]
New Ebola vaccine trials begin in Geneva
Geneva University Hospital (HUG) is beginning clinical trials today (10 November 2014) of a new Ebola vaccine (VSV-ZEBOV) after receiving the green light from the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) last Thursday. Ethics committees from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Canton of Geneva have also approved the trials. Two different doses of […]
Back to the future
100 years have passed and the history of the 20th century’s first genocide is beginning to weigh heavily. Every year on 24 April, Armenians the world over commemorate the 1915 Armenian genocide at the hand of the Turks. This year is the 100th anniversary of this tragedy. In order to mark the occasion, the Armenian […]
Switzerland calls for global death penalty ban
Earlier this month, Swiss President Didier Burkhalter joined 11 foreign ministers around the world in a joint declaration in favour of abolishing the death penalty. “The death penalty is incompatible with human rights,” the Swiss government said in a statement last week. While Switzerland abolished the death penalty from its federal criminal law in 1942, […]
French out to tax Basel Airport
Unlike Geneva airport, which is located entirely on Swiss soil but still operates a French side, Switzerland’s third major airport – Basel-Mulhouse EuroAirport – is on French territory, but run by the Swiss. Paris now wants to run the show by taxing all revenue, plus imposing its own rights on both French employees and companies. […]
No question, it’s a great place to die.
If you live in Switzerland and plan to retire and die here be thankful. The country has just been ranked the third best place in the world to be old in by the Global Age Watch Index 2014 which measures how well 96 countries are supporting their older populations. Norway leads the ranking followed by […]
Switzerland as a global sustainability hub
Five hundred people from more than 40 countries met in Lausanne at the annual Business-for-Society Forum to discuss positioning Switzerland as a global sustainability hub. This is not the first time such an idea has been promoted. Variations on this theme have been mooted previously by the government, think tanks and universities alike. What makes […]
