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By Tania Page in Business on January 27th, 2010

The World Economic Forum has opened in Davos, Switzerland. The five-day conference will see 2,500 people meeting to discuss a range of issues including global economic recovery, unemployment and the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

By Stephen Cole in Europe on January 25th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Davos is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. Yes, for the World Economic Forum and its founder Klaus Schwab, life could really begin at 40.

But don't expect any fireworks or cake in this normally serene Swiss mountaintop town as 2,500 decision-making delegates start to arrive not to celebrate but to try and "decision-make".

That's not  to say there won't be parties, but to attend any of the cocktail events, dinner-parties, champagne receptions, or  Havana cigar nights you have to have a private invitation.

And the number of invites you receive over the five days is decided by how useful the corporate event organisers think you might be.

However, all the parties take place after the business of the day and that covers a very wide spectrum of subjects ranging from how to save the global banking system to finding a cure for prostate cancer.

By Omar Chatriwala in Americas on January 13th, 2010
Photo by Carel Pedre via Twitter

At 21:53GMT on Tuesday, the Caribbean nation of Haiti was hit by its strongest earthquake in more than 200 years, causing what is being described as "a catastrophe of major proportions".

Heavy casualties are feared after numerous buildings were levelled by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

This blog post, previously named "Haiti Earthquake: Latest updates", followed events in the immediate aftermath of quake.

Update | Latest blog posts:

By David Chater in Europe on December 26th, 2009
Photo from AFP

The Battle of the Minarets is spreading across the borders of Switzerland and spilling into France where it’s starting to shine an uncomfortable spotlight on the country’s real attitude towards its six million Muslims.

Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, is a champion of his country’s Republican values, forged in the Age of Reason and Enlightenment. He was quick to declare that he was shocked and scandalized by the result of the Swiss referendum last month which backed a ban on the building of minarets.

But one of the men who shares the same cabinet table as him, the Industry Minister, Christian Estrosi has a radically different attitude.

He  also happens to be the Mayor of Nice - a minaret-free zone - and he’s vowed to keep it that way.

By Alan Fisher in Europe on November 29th, 2009
Photo by EPA

The opinion polls made the wrong call. Switzerland was widely expected to vote against a proposal to ban minarets - the federal government was against it, and was the business community. Companies warned of an international backlash if the proposed ban was approved.

So when Swiss television released the first exit polls suggesting that a majority of people supported the ban, there was an audible gasp from the locals watching it with us. No one could quite believe it. 

On Friday, the right wing People's Party, the group behind the controversial proposal, told me they didn't believe the opinion polls and were convinced they would win support for a ban. "It's closer than you think", they said. And they were right.

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