Cluster: Swiss Identity

Swiss banking secrecy unaffected by OECD report

This content was published on Apr 12, 2000 The finance minister, Kaspar Villiger (pictured), has repeated that Switzerland’s banking secrecy is not a topic for negotiation. Villiger reacted on Wednesday to a new report from a committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on improving access to bank information for tax purposes. At a news conference in Berne, the finance ministry…

Culture

Benin radio wins SRI-sponsored award

This content was published on Apr 12, 2000 A private radio station from the West African country of Benin has won the first ever Swiss Prize for “Radios of the South,” which is sponsored by Swiss Radio International. It was awarded as part of Geneva’s North-South Media Festival. SRI set up the prize to award radio broadcasts from the developing world which lead…

Culture

Kabakov exhibits installation art in Berne

This content was published on Apr 12, 2000 One of Russia’s leading and most prolific contemporary artists is once again exhibiting in Berne – the city where his international career was launched in 1985. Born in Ukraine in 1933, Ilya Kabakov is a painter and sculptor specialising in installation art, an art form which has no definite boundaries but is an environment created…

Demographics

Cult leader to pay back former follower

This content was published on Apr 12, 2000 A court in canton Appenzell-Ausserrhoden has ordered Uriella, the Swiss leader of the doomsday cult “Fiat Lux” and self-appointed healer, to return more than SFr600,000 to a former member. The 59 year-old woman from Zurich, who had been a member of “Fiat Lux” for 10 years, claimed she had been duped into handing over the…

Demographics

Businessman arrested with Scud missile parts

This content was published on Apr 12, 2000 The federal authorities have arrested a Taiwanese businessman with Scud missile components in his luggage. He is suspected of trying to deliver mechanical parts for the Russian-made rocket to Libya. The Federal Prosecutors Office said the man was detained at Zurich airport last Thursday in transit to Libya. He was apparently travelling from Taiwan, via…

Culture

Opera company unveils programme on wronged women

This content was published on Apr 12, 2000 The general director of Geneva’s Grand Theatre opera company, Renée Auphan, has announced a forthcoming season on the theme of women as victims. Auphan, who steps down in 2001 after six years in which she turned round the fortunes of the once-troubled company, said all but one opera on the programme starting in September dealt…

Demographics

Finance minister invites Holocaust survivors for talks

This content was published on Apr 11, 2000 The finance minister, Kaspar Villiger, has invited two Holocaust survivors for private talks to discuss their compensation claims. Charles Sonabend (pictured) and his sister Sabine made separate claims against the government for expelling them and their parents in 1942. Their claims are based on their parents’ death in the concentration camp, Auschwitz, after they were…

Demographics

Switzerland joins international community to demand Chechnya inquiry

This content was published on Apr 11, 2000 Switzerland has urged Moscow to open an independent inquiry into alleged atrocities in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. The Swiss ambassador, François Nordmann, told the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, “It is the responsibilty first and foremost of the Russian authorities to clear the accusations made against it and to bring those responsible…

Culture

“Mummenschanz” casts spell on Geneva audiences

This content was published on Apr 11, 2000 The laughter of the audience is just about the only sound to be heard during performances by the Swiss mime group “Mummenschanz”, as they present their latest show in Geneva. Formed in 1972 as a fringe event at the Avignon Festival, the group originally combined spoken dialogue with mask sketches to create a world of…

Demographics

More deaths in Swiss Alps

This content was published on Apr 11, 2000 The number of people who died in Swiss mountain accidents last year rose sharply. Two disasters – an avalanche in canton Valais and a canyoning tragedy -were primarily responsible for the increased number of deaths. A total of 115 people died in alpine accidents in 1999 – an increase of eight per cent. The Swiss…

Cluster: Swiss Identity

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