Swiss Info
Wed, 12 May 2021 08:40:00 GMTSwitzerland launches fight to find missing people
Switzerland has launched a global alliance on missing persons to the raise the profile of the issue. Hundreds of thousands of people are missing around the world due to conflicts or disasters. The group, which was announced on Tuesday, has already ...
Wed, 12 May 2021 07:21:00 GMTInternational rail travel to and from Switzerland resumes
Rail travel between Switzerland and neighbouring countries is resuming by the end of May. After a break in services due to the coronavirus pandemic, Swiss Federal Railways is restoring international connections to France and Italy, as well as night t...
Tue, 11 May 2021 17:29:00 GMTSwitzerland urged to pay reparations for illegal adoptions from Sri Lanka
The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) has called on Switzerland to conduct an impartial investigation into past illegal adoptions from Sri Lanka and pay reparations to victims. In its review of Switzerland’s record on enforced disappe...
Tue, 11 May 2021 17:12:00 GMTEU ministers keep pressure up on Swiss framework deal
In Brussels on Tuesday, European Union foreign ministers discussed, among other issues, the future of the Swiss-EU framework deal. After the meeting, EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic reiterated that the EU was ready to continue negotiatin...
Tue, 11 May 2021 15:47:00 GMTMost of Swiss far from militant when it comes to 5G
A survey on the ongoing rollout of 5G in Switzerland found the population fairly evenly divided on the issue, with those holding extreme positions in the minority. Some 13% of the 7,000 respondents polled were “strongly opposed” to 5G, while 11%...
Tue, 11 May 2021 13:40:00 GMTSwiss army drone crash due to design flaw
An Israeli investigation into last year’s crash of a drone ordered by the Swiss army has found that the cause was a structural design flaw which has since been fixed. The Hermes 900 HFE unmanned aircraft crashed during a test flight last August in...
Tue, 11 May 2021 11:04:00 GMTSwiss farmers enticed by poultry as dairy share declines
The trend of fewer but larger farms continues in Switzerland with the biggest growth in the poultry sector, according to latest statistics. The number of farms across the country fell by 1.3% to 49,363 in 2020, while the total area of farmland staye...
Tue, 11 May 2021 09:17:15 GMTSwiss government launches bug bounty scheme for ethical hackers
Over a two-week period hackers will be invited to identify vulnerabilities in government IT systems, receiving a financial reward for any bugs they find. The pilot project, which began on Monday, will target two government IT systems: The Federal ...
Tue, 11 May 2021 07:36:11 GMTSwiss documentary wins top prize at Toronto Hot Docs festival
Ostrov – Lost Island has won best international feature documentary at North America’s largest documentary film festival. It thus automatically earns a place at the 2022 Oscars. Filmmakers Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop will receive $10,000 ...
Mon, 10 May 2021 22:00:00 GMTSwitzerland has overshot its 2021 resource limit, study says
By May 11, Swiss residents had already consumed their theoretical annual “quota” of renewable natural resources. This is according to the Global Footprint Network, an ecological think-tank based in the US, which calculates the dates at which nat...
Mon, 10 May 2021 15:21:00 GMTForeign ministry appeals for calm in Jerusalem
Switzerland has added its voice to growing international calls for an end to violence in Jerusalem, following a week of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police. The foreign ministry said on Sunday it was concerned about the escalation of vio...
Mon, 10 May 2021 12:50:00 GMTSwiss institution lands European ‘Museum Oscar’
The Stapferhaus in Lenzburg, a town just west of Zurich, was handed the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award for 2020 during an online event, after last year’s awards were postponed due to the pandemic. The museum was lauded by the Europe...
Mon, 10 May 2021 10:05:00 GMTSwiss police use guns less often but with deadlier force
Police forces in Switzerland used their firearms a total of 12 times in 2020 – three times less than in the previous year – but caused comparatively more fatalities. Three people died following police use of force. That’s up from one fatality ...
Mon, 10 May 2021 08:18:00 GMT‘Swiss in the World’ museum to shut its doors
The Foundation for the History of the Swiss in the World, which has operated a museum near Geneva since 1978, has fallen victim to Covid-19, according to the foundation’s director. Ronald Asmar told the Tribune de Genève newspaper on Monday that ...
Sun, 9 May 2021 16:01:00 GMTSwiss border guards convicted over Syrian woman’s stillbirth
Switzerland has convicted three more border guards over the miscarriage of a Syrian woman who was sent back to Italy in the summer of 2014. Judges ruled they should have shown moral courage and called an ambulance against the wishes of their superior...
Sun, 9 May 2021 15:30:02 GMTHalf the staff of Zurich nursing homes snub COVID jabs
Only 52% of the staff in nursing homes in the canton of Zurich have been vaccinated, even though the pandemic took a heavy toll on elder care homes. In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag, the co-leader of the canton’s vaccination campaign, Gabri...
Sun, 9 May 2021 11:56:51 GMTCovid taskforce chief 'positively surprised' by health situation
The chances of easing coronavirus restrictions in Switzerland are improving, according to the president of the Swiss Covid taskforce. But the business community is losing patience. In an interview published Sunday in the German-language weekly NZZ a...
Sun, 9 May 2021 10:13:51 GMTPoll finds most Swiss back framework deal with EU
While most Swiss ministers are convinced that an overarching agreement with the European Union would not stand a chance if put to a vote, a new poll suggests a strong majority would support it. The survey conducted by the research institute gfs.bern...
Sat, 8 May 2021 18:36:15 GMTClimate activists block roads in Switzerland
Climate activists aligned with the Extinction Rebellion (XR) environmental movement created traffic disruptions on Saturday across Switzerland. "I am terrified by the state's inaction in the ecological disaster," said a student in the Plainpalais di...
Sat, 8 May 2021 13:12:24 GMT3D detectors measure social distancing to help fight Covid-19
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have repurposed an algorithm they initially developed for self-driving cars to help people observe social distancing rules. “When Switzerland went into lockdown last year, we...
Sat, 8 May 2021 10:46:25 GMTSwiss warm up to Covid-19 vaccine
Vaccine hesitancy is subsiding in Switzerland where a poll found that almost three-quarters of the population are now willing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The vast majority of Swiss people (73%) wants to get inoculated, according to su...
Sat, 8 May 2021 09:36:04 GMTNo ‘status quo’ without Swiss-EU framework deal, EU envoy warns
Without a framework agreement there is no possible status quo in relations between Switzerland and the European Union, according to the bloc’s envoy in Bern. EU Ambassador Petros Mavromichalis warns there will be no new deals on access to the EU s...
Fri, 7 May 2021 15:53:51 GMTIndian foreign minister: ‘Covid exposed fissures and weaknesses like a stress test’
Speaking at the St Gallen Symposium in Switzerland, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has shared the Indian viewpoint on the pandemic and the consequences for international relations. “Nothing can prepare you for this kind of a surg...
Fri, 7 May 2021 14:24:00 GMTSwiss euthanasia doctor acquitted of murder for a second time
A doctor who helped a mentally ill woman take her life has once more been cleared of intentional homicide. A Swiss appeals court in canton Basel rejected attempts by prosecutors to overturn a 2019 verdict that had cleared the doctor of murder. The c...
Fri, 7 May 2021 12:33:00 GMTMore than a million Swiss fully vaccinated against Covid-19
The number of people in Switzerland who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 has topped the one million mark, the authorities said on Friday. A total of 1,007,469 people have had two vaccine doses, corresponding to 11.7% of the population of ...
Fri, 7 May 2021 12:19:42 GMTCurtains go up in Swiss cinemas but profits remain down
More than two weeks after re-opening, Swiss cinema owners have mixed feelings: the public seems keen to return to theatres, but attendance is four to six times lower than usual because of the 50-person audience limit. Although some cinemas re-opened...
Fri, 7 May 2021 10:55:41 GMTSwiss to develop Covid-19 certificate by end of June
A system for issuing a forgery-proof Covid-19 certificate on request will be available by the end of June to anyone in Switzerland who has been vaccinated, has recovered from or has recently tested negative for coronavirus. The Federal Office of Pub...
Fri, 7 May 2021 09:24:00 GMTExpanded Swiss research campus to concentrate on sustainable energy
Two of Switzerland’s leading federal science and technology research institutes have started construction work on the major expansion of their campus near Zurich. Bulldozers are due to start work this month at the research campus of the Swiss Fede...
Fri, 7 May 2021 09:04:00 GMTSwitzerland shifts focus to tracking Indian Covid-19 variant
Swiss laboratories are no longer trying to detect the British mutation of Covid-19 but are developing new tests to pinpoint a newer Indian variant in the country. The British variant is now the most widespread strain of the virus in Switzerland, mak...
Thu, 6 May 2021 16:52:00 GMTSwiss not swayed by US vaccine waiver announcement
Switzerland has reacted cautiously to the US decision to back a suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines, saying a waiver is not the best way to achieve better global supply. On Wednesday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the US would su...