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Heroin scheme
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It’s 10 years since severe heroin addicts in Switzerland have been getting their fixes from the state. More than 1,200 addicts across the country are currently taking part in the programme, which is aimed at those who have tried and failed to beat their addiction using other drug-withdrawal therapies. Swiss Radio International’s Faryal (FA-REE-AL) Mirza…
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Slavery is not a term normally associated with Switzerland. But that is how many historians have described a widespread practice during the nineteenth century, and which continued until the 1940s: selling off children to work on farms and in factories. Apart from working hard for no pay, these children were often beaten and sexually abused,…
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Switzerland had one of the highest proportions of Aids cases in Europe in the eighties and nineties – and a faster than average spread of HIV. It also had a large number of heroin addicts – many of whom shared needles in the notorious open drugs scene. Over the years, the Swiss health authorities have…
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Foreign workers based in Switzerland send home around three billion francs each year according to the Swiss National Bank. As Swiss Radio International’s Faryal (FA-REE-AL) Mirza (MER-ZA) reports, for poorer countries, remittances from workers based abroad can form the backbone of their economies, providing poverty relief with no strings attached.
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Each year, the Swiss government spends around 50 million francs per year on development aid in Central Asia. Switzerland also represents many of the area’s republics at international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. To mark more than a decade of Swiss involvement in the region, Swiss Radio International’s correspondent,…
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Home to more than a dozen republics, Central Asia is a vibrant mix of cultures, languages and religions. The Swiss government is actively involved in the region – particularly in poorer countries such as Kyrgyzstan – where it spends some 50 million francs on aid per year. Swiss Radio International’s correspondent, Jacob Greber, reports from…
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Over the last ten years, Switzerland has been helping three of Central Asia’s republics – Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – cope with their newfound independence. All three countries adopted a free-market economy after the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. However corruption, bureaucratic interference and massive government debt are undermining the transition. Several Swiss…
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For centuries, Europeans wanting to get from north to south have been faced with the enormous obstacle of the Alps. The most direct route from Germany to Italy is via Switzerland – through the Gotthard. But the existing road and rail tunnels are simply no longer able to cope with the volume of traffic –…
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Swiss campaigners have demanded the authorities tackle the problem of light pollution in the night sky. Scientists estimate that a fifth of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way galaxy, and several of the twelve constellations featured in horoscopes have become completely invisible in light polluted areas. Swiss Radio International’s science editor,…
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It’s been just over 12 months since a probe into Switzerland’s wartime past wrapped up five years of work and presented its final report. The Independent Commission of Experts was mandated to investigate the volume and the fate of assets moved to Switzerland before and during the war. The Commission was headed by Swiss historian…
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Twenty-five years ago, international humanitarian law took a big step forwards with the adoption of two protocols to the Geneva Conventions. To mark this anniversary the Swiss foreign ministry and the International Committee of the Red Cross are staging a number of events. For example, for the first time ever, the original Geneva Convention of…
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The Swiss are famed for their humanitarian work and their engineering prowess – Toni Rüttimann (Rooti-man) combines both qualities. For the past 15 years he has built around 160 bridges for impoverished and isolated communities, mainly in Latin America. But as Swiss Radio International’s Roy Probert found out, he was neither an aid worker, nor…
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In the nine months leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War, the British government coordinated a heroic rescue mission, which became known as the Kindertransport. During that time, nearly 10,000 Jewish and other children were separated from their homes and families in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. They were then taken to…
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Many call it artwork, but many more call it an eyesore – graffiti is an all too common sight in many cities around the world. But many first-time visitors to Switzerland are shocked by the number of public buildings covered in graffiti – not just in the large Swiss cities, but also in the smaller…
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With more than 150 animals and 200 people, you can’t help but notice when Circus Knie (ker-nee) is in town. Unlike many other modern-day circuses though, Knie still features animals, such as performing elephants, something which animal rights groups have criticised in the past. When the big top arrived in Bern, Swiss Radio International’s Sally…
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A Swiss dairy farmer has come up with a novel way of selling cheese. It’s called “cow leasing”, and the farmer has gone public on the Internet with the idea. Interest in the scheme has been so great that within two days of going on line, all his cows were sold – or leased –…
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The home of the famed Swiss watch and clock-making industry in Western Switzerland recently received a prestigious Milestone tourism award for an innovative campaign to attract visitors. The campaign, called “Watch Valley”, was conceived by André Rothenbueler (Roat-en-bewler). Spanning four cantons, “Watch Valley” includes a tourist trail highlighting the Swiss tradition of precision watch-making. As…
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The Swiss have a proud record of linguistic ability and integration. Switzerland has four national languages – French, German, Italian and Romansch (Row-man-sch) and a large proportion of the population can speak at least two of these. Traditionally, Swiss children begin learning their second national language at the age of 11. But things are changing….English…
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Switzerland has three official federal languages, French, German and Italian as well as one semi-official language, Romansch. But many Swiss also speak English. In fact they are developing their very own brand of the language, as Swiss Radio International’s Roy Probert discovered.
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Switzerland has three official federal languages: French, German and Italian, as well as one semi-official language, Romansch (Rum-ansh). But it also has dozens of regional variations, ranging from dialects to foreign tongues. As Swiss Radio International’s Anna Nelson discovered, dialect is one of the ways the Swiss, living in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino (Tih-cheeno),…
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Some people collect stamps, others dolls or coins. But that’s just a little too normal for some people. One of the fastest growing hobbies in Switzerland is to collect the lids from the little plastic pots of cream or milk, that are served with your coffee and tea in restaurants and cafés. It’s become so…
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One of Europe’s worst recorded earthquakes occurred some 645 years ago around the Swiss city of Basel, which was largely destroyed as a result. Seismic specialists often refer to Basel as Switzerland’s San Francisco, in the sense that a major geological fault runs through the area, and because another major earthquake is almost certain to…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.