Swiss Identity

Hamilton gets two-year cycling ban for doping

This content was published on Apr 19, 2005 The United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), which announced the suspension on Monday, said the American had received the maximum ban for a first-time doping offence. Hamilton has said he will appeal against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. “This is far from over,” he told the Rocky Mountain News…

Culture

Zurich’s winter spirits take their time

This content was published on Apr 18, 2005 The cotton ball snowman, the “Böögg”, exploded after almost 18 minutes, an apparent sign of rather mixed summer weather ahead. It took 17 minutes and 51 seconds for the explosive-laden head of the three-metre high effigy of a snowman atop a pyre to blow off on Monday. Last year the Böögg exploded in just 11…

Demographics

More asylum seekers claim emergency aid

This content was published on Apr 18, 2005 Such aid replaced regular welfare benefits for failed asylum seekers a year ago in an effort to force them to leave the country. The Federal Migration Office said on Monday that 17 per cent of the 3,804 foreigners whose requests for asylum had been rejected received emergency aid. This type of minimal social aid includes…

Education

Pupil numbers set to shrink

This content was published on Apr 18, 2005 The 12 per cent drop, which is being blamed on demographic changes, means that pupil numbers will return to where they were almost 20 years ago. The Statistics Office said on Monday that the number of children going to primary school would fall by almost 70,000 to 430,000 by 2014. The number of pupils in…

SRI’s treasure chest

This content was published on Apr 18, 2005 This section contains a selection of some of the best reports and interviews from the archives of Swiss Radio International.

Assignment Switzerland: SRI’s final broadcasts

This content was published on Apr 18, 2005 The final Swiss Radio International broadcasts were produced and presented by Mike McMahon. He worked for SRI for most of his (and its) existence. A broadcast journalist since the mid-1950s, he joined SRI in 1964 to make radio programmes; later, he was an administrator. When SRI expanded into television, he returned to programme production for…

Demographics

Blocher gives up on changes to constitution

This content was published on Apr 17, 2005 The country’s highest judicial authority – the Federal Court in Lausanne – has ruled that refusing aid would go against the Swiss constitution. Blocher said that Switzerland would let “nobody die of hunger” but he had other measures in mind to bring pressure to bear. “Within the government, we feel that a solution can be…

History

Küng tells cardinals to move with the times

This content was published on Apr 16, 2005 Küng, who was barred from teaching by the Vatican in 1979 for questioning papal infallibility, said the successor of Pope John Paul II should draw his inspiration from the Gospels. In an open letter to the cardinals featured in the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung newspaper, Küng said that the next pope should not consider the church as…

History

Foreign missionaries spread the gospel

This content was published on Apr 15, 2005 There has been a drastic decline in the number of men going into the priesthood, forcing dioceses to look abroad in search of clergy. “We are missionaries in the sense that we have a special mission,” says the new priest in the alpine village of Disentis, Benny Varghese, who comes from the southern Indian state…

Demographics

Abacha son extradited to Switzerland

This content was published on Apr 15, 2005 Abba Abacha was charged on Friday morning with money laundering, fraud, breach of trust and membership of a criminal organisation, according to Geneva prosecutor Daniel Zappelli. Abacha was handed over on Thursday night and transferred to Champ-Dollon prison in Geneva. He had been held in a German prison since December, when he was arrested on…

Swiss Identity

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

Sign in and personalize Swissinfo