Switzerland

15 October 2019; AFP: Switzerland's glaciers have lost a tenth of their volume in the past five years alone -- a melting rate unmatched during observations stretching back more than a century, a study showed Tuesday.

Measurements on 20 Swiss glaciers have shown that melt rates this year have reached "record levels", according to the annual study on the state of the glaciers, published by the Cryospheric Commission at the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

GENEVA, Oct 15 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Hector Constant denounced the impacts of the illegal economic, financial, and commercial blockade imposed by the United States on the South American nation.

Constant said that illegal economic measures prevent Venezuela’s development.”It affects the country’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development objectives of the U.N. Agenda 2023,” he added.

GENEVA, Oct 15 (NNN-TELESUR) — Cuban Ambassador Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Pedro Luis Pedroso denounced at a meeting of Heads of Delegations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) the effort of the United States to hinder the commercial relations with the island.

GENEVA, Oct 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States fell to second place behind Singapore in the World Economic Forum’s flagship Global Competitiveness Report, with the slippage linked in part to President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

The WEF, organisers of the glitzy annual gathering of business and political elite in Davos, have released an annual competitiveness report since 1979 that assesses which economies are well placed to see productivity and long-term growth.

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (NNN-ANADOLU) — Swiss authorities on Monday shared the first details with India about financial accounts of its residents in Swiss banks under a new automatic exchange of information framework between the two countries, Anadolu Agency reported, quoting media reports.

GENEVA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevedo underlined the importance of cotton to many developing countries at the launch of the first World Cotton Day in Geneva on Monday, hoping to "bring together the cotton, trade and development communities to foster greater value addition and value capture in developing countries."

GENEVA, Oct 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Following the seizure of 25 supercars from Equatorial Guinea’s vice president as part of a Swiss money-laundering probe, an auction held by Bonhams fetched nearly $27 million (27 million Swiss francs).

Geneva prosecutors said in February that they had closed an inquiry into Teodoro Nguema Obiang for money laundering and misappropriation of public assets with an arrangement to sell the cars to fund social programmes in the west African state.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has sent messages to Iran’s president through the leaders of other countries, an Iranian government spokesman said on Monday, at a time of heightened tensions between the regional rivals.

“Messages from the Saudis were presented to (Iran’s President) Hassan Rouhani from the leaders of some countries,” spokesman Ali Rabiei said, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency. “If Saudi Arabia is really pursuing a change of behavior, Iran welcomes that,” he added

Rabiei did not give any information on what the messages contained.

GENEVA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a resolution submitted by China and other countries at its ongoing 42nd session to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

27 Sep 2019; MEMO: The UN Human Rights Council yesterday voted in favour of extending an investigation into war crimes committed in Yemen.