Switzerland

Switzerland will observe a national day of mourning today for the 40 people, many of them teenagers, killed when fire tore through the Le Constellation bar during New Year’s celebrations in the ski resort of Crans-Montana. A minute of silence is set for 2 p.m. local time, to be followed by church bells ringing across the Alpine nation. The government called the silence a “testament to the shared grief felt by the entire nation with all the families and friends directly affected.” The ceremony will be livestreamed on large…

Crans-Montana bar fire kills ‘tens,’ injures about 100 during New Year’s Eve party, Swiss officials say A fast-moving fire tore through Le Constellation, a crowded bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, shortly after 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, leaving “tens” of people presumed dead and about 100 injured, most of them seriously, authorities said. Swiss police declined to provide a precise death toll, while Italy’s foreign ministry said information it received from Swiss police indicated about 40 deaths. Officials…

In a nail-biting finish to their UEFA Nations League qualifiers, a fresh-faced Spanish team clinched a thrilling 3-2 victory over Switzerland, all thanks to an injury-time penalty orchestrated by none other than substitute Bryan Zaragoza.When Zaragoza calmly delivered the ball to the net, it topped off a match filled with twists and turns that had spectators on the edge of their seats. The Spanish emergence showcased coach Luis de la Fuente's willingness to experiment, as he fielded debutants Aitor Paredes, Samu, and Pablo…

Clentélex is a 23-year-old Ivorian who has overcome obstacles. He grew up in a poor neighborhood of Abidjan. Unlike many of his contemporaries drawn to violence and crime, Clentélex used comedy as his weapon of choice. He won his native country's top comedy prize, an award that allowed him to perform at the prestigious Montreux Comedy Festival in Switzerland. Noémie Mayaudon and Jean-Charles Guichard tell us her incredible story in this documentary.

A Swiss court on Friday sentenced a West African rebel to 20 years in prison for rape, murder and cannibalism, which he committed during Liberia's civil war. The case was also Switzerland's first war crimes tribunal in a civil court. It involved 46-year-old Alieu Kosiah who went under the nom de guerre "bluff boy" in the rebel faction United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) who fought against former President Charles Taylor's army in the 1990s. Kosiah faced 25 charges including one…

Switzerland's foreign ministry said on Friday that a Swiss woman held hostage in Mali had been killed by an Islamist group. The ministry said it had been informed by French authorities that the hostages had been "killed by kidnappers from the Islamist terrorist organization Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam Muslimeen about a month…