Baltimore takes the Superbowl despite power failure ROME, ITALY – Italy blew open the Six Nations rugby tournament by beating favourites France 23-18, 3 February. The Italians dominated the game with their driving forward power against a dispirited French team. In the Saturday games England comfortably beat Scotland and Ireland beat the 2012 Grand Slam [...]
John Kerry named new US Secretary of State
January 30, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – John Kerry, senator from Massachussetts, has been named the new secretary of state for the United States, replacing Hillary Clinton to head the foreign policy programme. Clinton retires Friday 1 February. The Senate confirmed Kerry’s nomination quickly as expected, Tuesday, with a 94-3 vote. Clinton is ending her term with a series [...]
Tina Turner becomes a citizen of Kuesnacht, in line for Swiss passport (update)
January 25, 2013 by
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Music star Tina Turner, who has lived in Kuesnacht, canton Zurich, since 1995, has had her request for citizenship approved by the commune on the outskirts of Zurich. The news was announced by the communal authorities in Zürichsee-Zeitung newspaper. Canton Zurich and the confederation will now need to confirm the local authority’s decision, [...]
Switzerland becomes 9th country in US academic research network
January 25, 2013 by
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland has accepted a US invitation to become the 9th country in a key academic research programme, Grow (Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide) launched in December 2012 by the US National Science Foundation, the NSF. The programme, designed to promote international collaboration in the field of academic research, according to Bern, will enable [...]
Syrian peace talks to take place in Geneva Friday
January 9, 2013 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three-way Syrian peace talks will take place Friday 11 January in Geneva, Russia announced Wednesday. Russia will be represented by Vice-minister Mikhail Bogdanov, the United States by Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and international emissary Lakhdar Brahimi will make up the third diplomat; the three parties met in Geneva in December. [...]
“Failure” is the buzz word for Telecoms world meeting
December 14, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) world conference in Dubai lasted more than a week, had a hefty agenda and brought together hundreds of telecommunications experts. But when it ended Friday in Dubai, the word on everyone’s lips, despite the official spin about work accomplished, was “failure”. A key task for the conference [...]
Switzerland announces Fatca tax deal with US (update 2)
December 4, 2012 by
President Widmer-Schlumpf: deal initialed Monday BERN, SWITZERLAND – The US and Switzerland have initialed an agreement covering Fatca, the US foreign account tax compliance act that goes into effect in 2013, Bern announced late Tuesday afternoon 4 December. A key success for the Swiss has been ensuring that small, primarily local banks can be excluded [...]
Gaza Strip: ceasefire
November 21, 2012 by
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A Gaza Strip ceasefire was declared Wednesday 21 November in Cairo, Egypt, and took effect at 21:00. It was signed by Palestine and Israel in the presence of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr. The halt to the fighting comes after eight days of rocket and [...]
