Ellen's Swiss News World
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 2013 World Health Assembly has sparked lively debate on a number of topics. This is where WHO budgets and policies for the coming year are approved, and where member nations’ conflicting points of view on health matters come into the open. Issues debated during the week include: China’s bird flu outbreak [...]
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Jakob Kellenberger, who headed the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) until June 2012, has been named president of swisspeace (Swiss Peace Foundation), effective 10 September. The independent research organization, based in Bern, is funded mainly by the Swiss Confederation’s foreign office, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the UN. It [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – International Geneva is having an ultra-busy week, with several thousand more visitors in town than usual, so if English sounds like the city’s language, don’t be surprised. The World Health Organization Monday 20 May opened its 66th World Health Assembly, a week-long meeting of members to review the budget and debate pressing [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Actress Angelina Jolie, well-known in Geneva for her frequent visits to the city and appearances as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee organization UNHCR, went public Tuesday about her recent breast cancer preventive surgery. The actress says in an article in the New York Times published 14 May that her chances [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two international staff and one local employee of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) were kidnapped Monday morning 13 May in southern Yemen as they were traveling in a car, the Geneva organization has confirmed to Swiss public broadcaster RTS. Further details are not available, given the delicate situation, with [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cern will inaugurate, 2 June, a “scientific tourist trail through the Pays de Gex and the Canton of Geneva known as the Passport to the Big Bang” the Geneva-based European Centre for Nuclear Research said Monday 13 May. Cern is scheduling activities for the public at its various sites that day. In [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Elephants and rhinos are back in the news this week, as poachers continue to decimate their numbers in Africa. Swiss-based WWF International issued a statement 10 May saying that at least 26 elephants were massacred at the Dzanga Bai World Heritage site in Central African Republic (CAR) Wednesday after 17 people with [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Médecins Sans Frontières is criticizing the Geneva-based Gavi Alliance, which 9 May announced a new, lower cost for a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in developing countries. MSF charges the group, of which it is a member, and two Swiss pharmaceutical companies with not doing enough to make the vaccine cheaper. [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government is increasing its contribution to the Global Fund by 43 percent, from a 2013 pledge of CHF7 to 10 million. Bern is also looking to further increase its support for the fund during the 2014-16 budget period, says Swiss Foreign Affairs Minister Didier Burkhalter, but details have not yet [...]
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Pascal Lamy’s successor as head of the World Trade Organization is expected to be announced today or Wednesday 8 May, after a final week of consultations with members. The WTO has until 31 May to announced a new secretary general. The group announced 26 April that an earlier round of consultations had [...]
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