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Are Millennium Goals out of reach?

This content was published on Sep 4, 2005 Walter Fust, head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), says progress is being made but insists there is much work to be done. In 2000 Switzerland joined 188 other nations in signing the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which includes eight goals (see Key Facts). The main aim of the MDGs is to…

Battle against illiteracy goes on

This content was published on Sep 4, 2005 The president of the advocacy group Read and Write called for more funds to tackle the problem of illiteracy. She was speaking ahead of International Literacy Day on September 8. Some 860 million people – one fifth of the world’s population – are unable to read or write, or have problems doing so. In Switzerland,…

Switzerland to make oil available to US

This content was published on Sep 3, 2005 The Swiss offer comes in the framework of an emergency plan agreed by the International Energy Agency on Friday night. The IEA said its 26 member countries, including Switzerland, would make a total of 60 million barrels of oil available to the market for a period of 30 days. Members are free to decide for…

Concerns raised over cost of invalidity

This content was published on Sep 3, 2005 With one in 20 people of working age receiving invalidity insurance, critics say the scheme has become overloaded. Its deficit for the first half of 2005 was SFr1.2 billion ($974 million). The mounting cost of the scheme was highlighted in a parliamentary-committee report this week, which accused the government of not doing enough to monitor…

New Orleans relief effort “unacceptable”

This content was published on Sep 2, 2005 Musician Andi Hoffmann and his family left their home in the Carrollton area of the city in the early hours of Sunday morning, only having time to pack some clothes – and his guitar – into their car. The Hoffmanns, originally from Bern, have lived in New Orleans since 1993. They fled their home for…

Experts hedge their bets on oil-price effect

This content was published on Sep 2, 2005 His comments came as petrol prices in Switzerland rose to new highs in the wake of hurricane damage to refineries in the United States. “Of course the oil price poses a risk to the downside, but it is difficult to measure the impact,” Roth told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference. “We expect an…

Schumacher drives into labour dispute

This content was published on Sep 2, 2005 A trade union has found that six French stonemasons at his Lake Geneva property were being paid less than half the Swiss minimum. The revelation comes just weeks before voters in Switzerland are due to decide whether to open the labour market to workers from the ten new European Union member states. Opponents of the…

Government draws flak over arms sales

This content was published on Sep 2, 2005 The government has now set up a working group to re-examine existing procedures and to find out whether tighter controls on weapons sales are needed. The decision to set up the working group, comprising representatives from the economics, defence, foreign, and police and justice ministries, has been welcomed by all political parties. But both the…

Swiss Re puts Katrina’s damage at $20 billion

This content was published on Sep 1, 2005 The number two player in the reinsurance business said it expected to receive claims for about $500 million, making Katrina the most costly hurricane after Andrew in 1992. In a statement on Thursday, Swiss Re said that complexity of damage caused by the storm and subsequent flooding meant that estimates had a “more than usual…

Airline blacklist aids travellers

This content was published on Sep 1, 2005 The Swiss Federal Civil Aviation Office on Thursday published a blacklist of banned airlines in Switzerland, after similar decisions in France, Belgium and Britain. The two companies banned in Switzerland are Egypt’s Flash Airlines and Armenian carrier Air Van Airlines. Publication of the names comes 18 months after a Flash Airlines charter jet crashed shortly…

Internal: Archive

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Internal: Archive

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Are Millennium Goals out of reach?

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Battle against illiteracy goes on

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Switzerland to make oil available to US

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Concerns raised over cost of invalidity

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New Orleans relief effort “unacceptable”

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Experts hedge their bets on oil-price effect

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Schumacher drives into labour dispute

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Government draws flak over arms sales

More

Swiss Re puts Katrina’s damage at $20 billion

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Airline blacklist aids travellers

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