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Swiss up aid ahead of Pakistan donor meeting

This content was published on Oct 25, 2005 The commitment came on the eve of a United Nations donor conference in Geneva designed to generate funding for the massive relief operation. Walter Fust, director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), told swissinfo he hoped the conference would result in a strong show of international solidarity towards the victims of the…

Use of English remains a matter of opinion

This content was published on Oct 25, 2005 The finding that English took second place to German and French in Swiss firms came as a surprise to many, and contradicted the widely held notion that English is the lingua franca of business. The study, by the Technical College Northwestern Switzerland, comes amid continuing debate about the introduction of English as a first foreign…

Engineer wins Latsis research prize

This content was published on Oct 25, 2005 The award, which is worth SFr100,000 ($76,000), is one of the most renowned research accolades in Switzerland. The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), which presents the prize, said in a statement that it was only the second time it had gone to an engineer. The 39-year-old professor at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics was honoured…

Swiss to be repatriated from Caribbean coast

This content was published on Oct 24, 2005 More than 300 Swiss have taken shelter on the Yucatán peninsula and were safe, said tour operators. The Swiss tourists would have been staying in the hotel shelters. An aeroplane for tour operators Tui, Kuoni and Hotelplan is due to arrive by Wednesday. However, it was reported on Sunday that the airport at Cancún was…

Pricking the social conscience of Swiss firms

This content was published on Oct 21, 2005 The Geneva-based Philias foundation encourages companies to develop and raise awareness of their social role. Ferdman Guerrier has been concerned with social responsibility for a long time. At the age of 18 she co-founded an Aids prevention association. She later went on to work for the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unesco, before founding Philias…

Swiss among Hurricane Wilma evacuees

This content was published on Oct 20, 2005 The storm, which has been downgraded to Category 4, hit Caribbean coastal resorts on Friday. Evacuations have been taking place from the hotels in Mexico’s holiday resort of Cancun. Among them are around 60 Swiss, said Swiss tour operators on Thursday. The evacuees are taking shelter in school buildings. Hurricane Wilma has strong winds and…

Switzerland doubles aid to Pakistan

This content was published on Oct 17, 2005 However, distributing the materials as quickly as possible before winter sets in remains the largest obstacle to relief efforts, says the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Toni Frisch, head of the SDC’s humanitarian-aid section, said getting help to victims was proving to be a logistical nightmare. Some villages could only be reached by…

Swiss aid in Pakistan faces problems

This content was published on Oct 13, 2005 Toni Frisch said last Saturday’s quake had been devastating for the remote Himalayan region. Frisch, who leads the humanitarian-aid section at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), said many villages in remote mountain valleys were still cut off, because roads and bridges had been destroyed by the quake. Speaking in Mansehra after a…

How a small country copes with huge disasters

This content was published on Oct 12, 2005 With the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction on Wednesday, swissinfo looks at how well prepared Switzerland is for the worst. According to observers, Switzerland is by and large ready for major natural disasters. “Switzerland reacted quite quickly to the floods in August. There is real progress compared to the flooding of 1999,” a spokesman…

Swiss aid experts arrive in Pakistan

This content was published on Oct 10, 2005 The seven-man rapid response unit from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) includes water and construction specialists and doctors. “We made an initial assessment this morning with our development partners already in Pakistan and discussed what could be relevant as aid,” Andreas Stauffer, spokesman for the SDC, told swissinfo. “What is mostly sought…

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