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Last Page 2016

Roger Federer voted ‘Most Stylish Man 2016

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Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer is used to beating the competition, and now he's done it again by being voted the world's most stylish man of 2016 by readers of Britain's GQ magazine.

 

The competition, voted for by the public, took place in rounds with big names including Ryan Gosling, Lewis Hamilton, Tom Ford, David Beckham and defending champion Kanye West.

 

In the final round against British actor Tom Hiddleston, the 17-time Grand Slam champion title was secured by his many fans.

Doris Leuthard, the new Swiss president

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Doris, 54 is the fifth female President of Switzerland; she studied law at the University of Zurich and joined parliament as an MP for the canton of Aargau in 1999.

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Doris was elected to the seven-person Federal Council in 2006, becoming its fifth ever female member.

 

She was previously elected as president in 2010; she also served as Vice President twice, Head of the Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications and Head of the Department of Economics Affairs.

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Nicknamed "Queen Doris", she was voted the most popular politician and is the longest serving member of The Federal Council.

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Egyptian women squash team clinshed PSA's top three world ranking

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Egyptian women squash players continue their dominance of the sport, winning the 2016 Women’s World Team Squash Championship title after beating defending champions England 2-1 in Saturday’s final in France’s Issy-les-Moulineaux.

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The victory comes only days after El Sherbini, El Welily, and Gohar were named the top three in the PSA Women’s World Rankings, marking the first time in 20 years that three women from the same country earned the top three spots.

World's shortest international flight of only 8 minutes

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The Austrian People's Air Group started up its new flight connection from St. Gallen-Altenrhein, Switzerland to Friedrichshafen over Lake Constance; travelling just 20 kilometres, the journey takes about eight minutes; a one-way ticket between the two stops costs €40.

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Alternatively, travelers could drive the roughly 63 kilometres between the two airports by car around Lake Constance, which would take an hour or enjoy a two-hour lakeside train ride.

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Check-in, security and boarding time is a factor to be considered.

New Swiss device could help paralyzed people to walk

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A new device has allowed two monkeys to regain use of their paralyzed legs by transmitting brain signals wirelessly, bypassing their spinal cord lesions, a study released on Wednesday by the journal Nature said.

 

The implantable device, called a neuroprosthetic interface, was developed by an international team led by researchers at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) and may soon be tested as a remedy for paralysis in humans.

UK Toblerone fans outraged over Swiss choc's new shape

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In late October Toblerone – originally created in Switzerland but now owned by US company Mondelez – announced that it would be reducing the weight of its bars sold in the UK toface increasing costs.

 

Toblerone fans responded with angry comments on facebook; one said "This must be up there with the dumbest corporate decisions of all time," another said "the bar used to look like the Swiss Alps, now itd a bit more Holland".

Muslim woman wins headscarf court battle

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A Swiss regional court in Bern has ruled against a company that fired a longtime employee after she began wearing the Muslim headscarf, marking one of the first such rulings in Switzerland.

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The court ruled that the company had violated her constitutional right to freedom of expression, it added that a headscarf can only be grounds for termination in cases where it makes it impossible to carry out duties described in the employment contract or if it "substantially affects" the working environment.

Switzerland is one of the world's ten best countries to be a girl

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Switzerland placed ninth in the table, which was topped by Sweden, closely followed by Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium in the top five.

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The five indicators used are: child marriage, adolescent fertility, maternal mortality (as an indicator to access to good-quality healthcare), women MPs and lower-secondary school completion.

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The worst places to be a girl are amongst the poorest in the world.

Swiss Need "More Time" to close Nuclear Plants

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On November 27, the Swiss People will vote on the Green Party backed popular initiative ‘For an orderly withdrawal from the nuclear energy program’; Some 40-45 percent of Swiss electricity comes from nuclear power.

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if passed, three of Switzerland’s nuclear power reactors – Mühleberg and Beznau 1 and 2 – will be closed as soon as 2017, with the remaining two being decommissioned in 2024 and 2029; it is worth adding that Beznau 1 in service since 1969 is oldest reactor in the world.

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The Federal Council already has plans to pull the plug on nuclear power by 2050 in its ‘energy strategy 2050’ set in motion after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in Japan in 2011.

ETH Zurich Best University in Continental Europe

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Now in their 13th year, the annual rankings are compiled by global higher education analysts Quacquerelli Symonds (QS), and rank 916 institutions according to four key pillars: research, teaching employability and internationalization.

 

For the second year in a row, the Swiss Federal Technology Institute came as the only none USA or UK university amongst the world top 10 universities ranking 8th (the others being 5 from USA and 4 from UK).

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The EPFL of lausanne came in second place for Continental Europe and 14th worldwide.

Foreigners in Switzerland Surpass the Two Million Mark

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In 2015 there was 2,048,700 foreigners living in Switzerland with a permanent residence of 12 monthys and above; that is 24,6% of the total Swiss population which is the highest percentage of foreigners in Europ (and mnuch of the rest of the world).

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The biggest foreign populations are Italians, Germans, Portuguese, French and Kosovans, which make up more than half (54 %) of permanent foreign residents in Switzerland.  PTT delivers about 18 million letters and parcels every day.

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At 41%, Geneva is hosting the highest number, followed by Basel City 35% and Vaud 34%.

Robots to Deliver Parcels in Bern

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The Swiss National Post will launch trial parcels deliveries by Septmeber.

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The famous PTT already trialled drones and self-driving postbuses in its quest for new technology; it has now announced a new partnership with UK-based start-up Starship Technologies, set up by Skype co-founders.

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PTT delivers about 18 million letters and parcels every day.

Robots will not replace the postman, they will be used where delivery needs to be fast, flexible and cheap and within a close radius (enjoy the video).

Mountain Bike Swiss Gold Medal on the Final Day in Rio

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World Champion Nino Schurter was third in Beijing and Second in London and finally took the top spot in Rio.

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That brings the total medals for Switzerland to seven being three gold, two silver and two bronze placing Switzerland at the 24th rank the medal table (up from 33 in London 2012).

Swiss National Day: Five Traditions Expats Should Try

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Learn to Yodel, take up the Alphorn, cook Swiss classics, sing the national anthem and experience farm life.

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These are proud Swiss traditions that are celebrated on Swiss national day; for more details follow the link

Swiss Post paying Homage to Solar Impulse 2

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The Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg as well as the Solar Impulse project team succesfully demonstrated the possibilities of solar power use by completing a round the world flight that ended in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday at 4am after touring the globe in 17 stages, the first of which began back in March 2015.

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In total the plane had travelled 42,000 kilometres across four continents, two oceans and three seas, entirely without fuel, using only solar power.

Genevians Approve Lake Crossing

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63 percent of voters accepted the principle of lake crossing which will reduce traffic congestion at city center.

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A lake crossing would create a complete ringroad, they say, allowing drivers to avoid the city centre and therefore reduce traffic by 30 percent.

 

The plan is still a long way from becoming a reality, financing the crossing – estimated at over three billion francs – is yet to be decided, though supporters suggest a combination of public and private funding.

Nestlé Celebrate 150 Years with Two Museums Opening

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It started in 1867 when the German pharmacist Henri Nestlé invented Farine Lactée, a baby formula for infants that couldn’t take breast milk; over the years it presented some of the world's best known food brands.

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Based in Vevey, the company celebrated its 150th birthday by inaugurating two museums. The first is the new museum Nest which takes visitors on a journey through the company’s history, while second is the renovated Alimentarium, which is a hands-on exhibition and educational space dedicated to food.

The World Largest Poster

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A Guinness Record for the world's largest poster was set on Saturday May 14, by supportters for the controversial June 4th referendum for minimum income (Referendum failed).

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The poster is 8115 square meters and was placed in central Geneva La Plaine de Plainpalais.

CERN Shut Down By a Weasel

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The world's most powerful particle smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, went offline after a weasel caused a short circuit on a 66 kv transformer.

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The spokesman for CERN indicated that it would take a few days torepair the damage, and added that the weasel did not survive the accident,

21 year old Estelle Balet Snowboard World Chmapion Killed by Avalanche.

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The accident happened tuesday 19 April at 8:00 where the 21 year old champion was making a film on the Portalet mountain 

 

Balet came from the Valais region of Switzerland and had been snowboarding since the age of 10. She had been on the Freeride World Tour since the junior level.

Established 1853, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne is Named Top Young University.

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Times higher Education THE ranked EPFL as the top young university for the second year in a row.

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Providing the French speaking Switzerland with an institution similar to the German speaking ETH of Zurich was a necessity, hence it was decided in 1968 to develop the canton funded university Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Lausanne (EPUL), as it was then known to be the EPFL.

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EPFL is certainly well focused on its mission, which is providing good education, good science and efficient technology transfer.

 

EPFL was named the 11th best institution in Europe by THE; it is currently ranked 31st in the world overall.

University of Basel Project May Lead to the Discovery of Queen Nefertiti Tomb

 

The project began 2008 aiming at producing a full scale perfect replica of the King Tutankhamun tomb with all its details, cracks and changes that developed over the years.

 

It is during the assessment of the tomb scans that marks were found indicating the location of two previous doors; a radar scan later confirmed the presence of two adjacent chambers which egyptologists believe might well be the resting place of Queen Nefertiti.

 

The King Tut replica was inaugurated 2014 at a special underground installation at the carter House in Luxor making the tomb visible to visitors and scholars while protecting the origianl site from destruction by mass tourism.

 

The project was run by the University of Basel, the Swiss foundation “Society of Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt” as well as Spain’s Factum Arte.

 

More information in "The Embassy of Switzerland in Egypt" FB page entry dated March 24, 2016 and the Guardian article link below.

El Sherbiny at 20, Becomes the Youngest Ever PSA World Champion

 

FWorld No.2 Nour El Sherbini produced one of the greatest comebacks in World Championship history as she overturned a 2-0 deficit to defeat World No.1 Laura Massaro in the final of the Naza PSA Women’s World Championship in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia – overtaking the great Susan Devoy, who won in 1985, to become the youngest winner of the biggest title in Women’s squash.

All Egyptian British Open Squash Finals

 

For the first time four Egyptian players will compete against each other for the women and men world's top squash Title.

 

Nouran Gohar (top left) will face Nour El Sherbiny both from Alexandria.

 

Mohamed El Shourbagy world number one from Alexandria will face Ramy Ashour (top right) three time former World Champion from Cairo.

Lara Gut wins Women's Alpine Skiing World Cup title for 2016 season

 

Lara secured the title last weekend finishing third in the super-combined at Lenzerheide Graubünden.

 

The 25 years old Lara from Sorengo Ticino secured the title with still four races to go before season end.

 

This is the first Swiss season title since Carlo Janka in 2010 and Vreni Schneider in 1995.

Charlie Chaplin museum opens April 17th in the village of Corsier-sur-Vevey

 

Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life in Switzerland after he was barred from the United States in the 1950s over suspicions that he had communist sympathies, at the height of McCarthy-era paranoia about Soviet infiltration.

 

Overlooking Lake Geneva, the large manor where Chaplin lived with his wife Oona and their eight children will form half of the museum, while a separate building will house a mocked-up Hollywood studio where visitors can delve into his on-screen work.

 

Chaplin, who died in 1977, is buried in the nearby Corsier-sur-Vevey cemetery, along with his wife.

Handball: Egypt win African Nations Cup, qualify for Olympic Games.

 

Egypt's national handball team won its sixth title wining the 22nd edition of the African Handball Nations Championship after defeating Tunisia 21-19 and earned their qualifying ticked for the 2016 Olympics.

 

Both teams qualified for the IHF World Championship scheduled in 2017 in France along with Angola who finished third after beating holders Algeria's 25-19 at the placement match.

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