Cluster: Swiss Abroad

Obama holds the edge for Swiss Americans

This content was published on Apr 21, 2008 But with primaries still to come on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, followed by Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, Hillary Clinton has vowed to fight all the way to her party’s convention in August. Clinton had the early lead in the contest, especially in states like Pennsylvania. But ahead of the latest primary, she has…

Swiss Politics

Swiss respond to measles epidemic plea

This content was published on Apr 21, 2008 More vaccines have been sold since the government launched an appeal in March to raise the immunisation rate in Switzerland, the Federal Health Office said on Monday. “I think people have got the message that they should be vaccinated,” Jean-Louis Zurcher from the health office told swissinfo. He echoed concerns expressed by European experts that…

Swiss Politics

Opponents warn of expensive health system

This content was published on Apr 21, 2008 A committee of parliamentarians, mainly from the Social Democratic Party, the Greens as well as the Protestant Party, said the constitutional amendment would give private health insurance companies too much power. It would also make treatments, including those in hospitals and homes, more expensive for most patients and stop unlimited access to doctors, according to…

Swiss Politics

Economics minister prepares visit to China

This content was published on Apr 20, 2008 Officials said Leuthard would meet China’s minister of commerce Chen Deming on May 12 in Beijing. Topics to be discussed are a free trade agreement, environmental issues and protection of intellectual property rights. Leuthard is also planning to raise the issue of human rights with her Chinese counterpart. Switzerland and Beijing agreed last year during…

Swiss Politics

Extremist incidents remain stable

This content was published on Apr 18, 2008 The number stood at 327, with 106 registered for the extreme right, and 221 for the extreme left, very slightly down in both instances. About half the incidents included acts of violence. Most of the cases involving extreme rightwingers were threats and violence directed at foreigners or left-wing extremists, and incidents at skinhead concerts and…

Swiss Politics

Napoleon III

This content was published on Apr 18, 2008 Emperor Napoleon III of France was born 200 years ago, on April 20 1808. He spent his formative years in the area of Lake Constance, border hopping between Switzerland and Germany. A double Swiss-German exhibition commemorates his life and times.

Sharing confiscated Yakuza funds

This content was published on Apr 18, 2008 About SFr58.4 million ($57 million) was seized in Zurich five years ago during an international investigation into Japan’s biggest yakuza crime syndicate. Susumu Kajiyama, a leading member of the Goryôkai organisation, was convicted of money laundering and extortion by a court in Japan in 2005. Switzerland provided legal assistance in the case against Kajiyama, who…

Swiss Politics

Official blames food crisis on export subsidies

This content was published on Apr 17, 2008 Walter Fust said as well as providing emergency food aid, people had to tackle urgently the underlying causes of the crisis, such as agricultural subsidies, the growth in crops used for ethanol production, global warming and poor infrastructure. Addressing foreign journalists in Geneva on Thursday, Fust said he feared that in many of the worst-affected…

Swiss Politics

Making biofuels could lower food production

This content was published on Apr 17, 2008 A report by researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich says that such a situation could happen if the price of diesel were more than SFr2.30 ($2.30) per litre and petrol more than SFr2.70. In their study, published on Thursday by the Federal Agriculture Office, they explain that in such a situation the…

Swiss Politics

Organ-harvesting claims spark controversy

This content was published on Apr 17, 2008 In her new book, Del Ponte claims – based on what she describes as credible and eyewitness reports – that Kosovar Albanian guerrillas transported 300 Serbian prisoners to Albania where they were killed and their organs removed and trafficked. Serbia and Russia are demanding a war crimes investigation into the accusations. The Kosovar government, now…

Cluster: Swiss Abroad

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