Switzerland

GENEVA (AP) — A third cruise ship was hired by World Cup organizers in Qatar on Monday to operate as a soccer fan hotel docked in Doha Port to add much-needed rooms for the tournament.

Geneva-based MSC Cruises announced the agreement only six weeks before the World Cup is scheduled to start on Nov. 20. The 1,075-cabin MSC Opera will be available from Nov. 19 to Dec. 19.

Prices for the Opera were listed Monday on MSC’s website starting from 470 Swiss francs ($470) per person per night during the group stage, with a minimum two-night stay.

GENEVA, Oct 9 (NNN-TELESUR) — Twenty-seven countries reported cholera outbreaks throughout 2022, the World Health Organisation reported “not only seeing more outbreaks but more deadly outbreaks.”

At a press conference in Geneva, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed to poverty, conflict, and climate change as the factors fueling the current cholera outbreak in the world.

According to the Director General, “the average number of fatalities so far this year is almost three times that of the last five years.” 

GENEVA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The U.N. rights council on Thursday voted down a Western-led motion to hold a debate about alleged human rights abuses by China against Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang in a victory for Beijing as it seeks to avoid further scrutiny.

The defeat (19 against, 17 for, 11 abstentions) is only the second time in the council's 16-year history that a motion has been rejected and is seen by observers as a setback to both accountability efforts, the West's moral authority on human rights and the credibility of the United Nations itself.

ZURICH, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is following the situation at Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) closely, SNB Governing Board member Andrea Maechler told Reuters on Wednesday.

Switzerland's second-biggest bank saw its shares slide by as much as 11.5% and its bonds hit record lows on Monday, before clawing back some of the losses, amid concerns about its ability to restructure its business without asking investors for more money. 

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday it’s giving its highest award to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her efforts to welcome more than 1 million refugees — mostly from Syria — into Germany, despite some criticism both at home and abroad.

Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Merkel had been selected as the latest recipient for the Nansen award, which is handed out annually by the Geneva-based U.N. agency.

GENEVA (AP) — Western countries are leading a rare two-pronged push at the U.N.’s main human rights body to better scrutinize the human rights records of two big world powers: China, over allegations of abuses during an anti-extremism campaign in western Xinjiang, and Russia, over its government’s crackdown on dissent and protest against the war in Ukraine.

GENEVA (AP) — Russian athletes who do not endorse their country’s war in Ukraine could be accepted back into international sports, IOC president Thomas Bach said in an interview published Friday.

“It’s about having athletes with a Russian passport who do not support the war back in competition,” Bach told Italian daily Corriere della Sera, adding, “We have to think about the future.”

Most sports followed International Olympic Committee advice in February and banned Russian team and athletes from their events within days of the country’s military invasion of Ukraine.

GENEVA (AP) — A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body to look into rights violations in Ukraine said Friday its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes in the country following Russia’s invasion nearly seven months ago.

The experts from the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, mandated by Human Rights Council earlier this year, have so far focused on four regions — Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

GENEVA (AP) — FIFA came under pressure Wednesday from several European soccer federations who want their captains to wear an armband with a rainbow heart design during World Cup games in Qatar to campaign against discrimination.

France and Germany, the last two World Cup champions, were among eight of the 13 European soccer teams going to Qatar who joined the “OneLove” campaign, which started in the Netherlands. The Dutch team plays Qatar in Group A on Nov. 29.

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss officials on Monday formally signed a procurement contract to acquire three dozen F-35 fighter jets from the United States as part of a planned refurbishment of Switzerland’s air force that has run afoul of critics of the big defense purchase, the government said.

The head of Switzerland’s armaments service and F-35A program director inked the procurement deal that is to cost just over 6 billion Swiss francs (dollars) for the planes that will be delivered between 2027 and 2030.