Swiss Politics Archives - Page 1096 of 1338

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Swiss Politics

Lebanon aid meeting to help shattered country

This content was published on Aug 30, 2006 The donors’ conference in Stockholm hopes to raise $500 million (SFr615 million). A separate meeting is scheduled for Friday on the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories. After one month of hostilities, the lives of many Lebanese and their economy lie in tatters. Israeli air strikes destroyed more than 80 per cent of infrastructure in…

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Cabinet urges integration of foreigners

This content was published on Aug 30, 2006 The federal authorities will launch a pilot project in the next few weeks aimed at offering jobs to people who have refugee status. Justice Minister Christoph Blocher said the government had given an interdepartmental working group the task of coming up with concrete measures by June next year. At a media conference on Wednesday Blocher…

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High gun suicide rate linked to easy access

This content was published on Aug 29, 2006 Every day, one person kills himself or herself with a gun, more often than not a military weapon – a fact the authors say is directly connected to lax Swiss firearms legislation. According to the study, published in the current edition of the American Journal of Public Health, Switzerland and the United States have the…

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Switzerland suspends officer’s trip to Israel

This content was published on Aug 27, 2006 Schmid came out against the visit three weeks ago when fighting was raging between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. “I asked the head of the Land Forces to suspend a visit he had planned to Israel,” Schmid told the Sunday newspaper Le Matin dimanche. Army spokesman Jean-Luc Piller said the trip, planned from…

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Swiss Politics

Sparks fly again over Calmy-Rey’s neutrality

This content was published on Aug 27, 2006 But the sole candidate to take over as president of the centre-right Christian Democratic Party, Christophe Darbellay, has defended Calmy Rey’s stance in the Lebanon crisis. Calmy-Rey, a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, has been increasingly under fire for her comments on Lebanon, particularly after a speech she gave last Monday at the…

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Swiss Politics

Army sends demining equipment to Lebanon

This content was published on Aug 25, 2006 The move comes as aid agencies warn that large amounts of unexploded ordnance from the month-long conflict pose a major threat to civilians trying to return home. Markus Schefer, head of the army’s mine action unit, told swissinfo that a first batch of 1,300 explosive charges used for the disposal of dud munitions would be…

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Swiss Politics

Poll shows voters prefer tougher asylum law

This content was published on Aug 25, 2006 Plans by trade unions and centre-left parties to use Swiss National Bank profits to shore up the old age pension scheme could also be heading for victory. The latest survey, which was unveiled on Friday, was conducted by the gfs polling institute on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and comes before a nationwide vote…

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Swiss Politics

Politicians take sides in neutrality debate

This content was published on Aug 23, 2006 Following Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey’s criticism of Israel’s recent shelling of Lebanon, parties to the political right have panned her position of “active” Swiss neutrality. “Don’t interfere in foreign feuds,” was the advice the hermit and mystic Nicolas of Flüe gave to his fellow Swiss in 1481. Micheline Calmy-Rey is boldly ignoring it. In the…

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Swiss Politics

ICRC hails ratification of Geneva Conventions

This content was published on Aug 22, 2006 Philip Spoerri, the organisation’s director for international law, told swissinfo that global acceptance was an important milestone but he warned that universal application remained a distant dream. On Monday, the ICRC announced that the last two nations – Nauru and Montenegro – had signed the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The Pacific island-state did so on June…

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Asylum law opponents come out to fight

This content was published on Aug 21, 2006 Voters will decide whether to accept measures including cutting social welfare payments to asylum seekers and a detention period of up to 18 months for foreigners awaiting deportation. The committee, representing more than 30 political, church, aid and human rights organisations, said on Monday in Bern that the revised legislation was arbitrary and would exclude…

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