Swiss Info
Sun, 16 May 2021 08:53:26 GMTOver 100 vaccinated Swiss residents contract Covid-19
Of the 1.2 million fully vaccinated people in Switzerland, 129 contracted Covid-19 after their second dose. On Sunday, the NZZ am Sonntag highlighted the risk of getting infected even after being completely vaccinated against Covid-19. According to ...
Sat, 15 May 2021 15:57:00 GMTPro-Palestine rally in Geneva draws 300 supporters
Around 300 people gathered in Geneva on Saturday to show support for the Palestinian people, as clashes between the Israeli army and Hamas intensify. The rally was organised by the group Collectif Urgence Palestine. The demonstrators denounced the I...
Sat, 15 May 2021 09:22:18 GMTGovernment against military tax waiver for Vatican’s Swiss Guard
An initiative to exempt the Swiss Guard from paying a penalty for not completing their mandatory military service in Switzerland does not have support from the government. On Thursday, the governing Federal Council decided not to exempt the Swiss G...
Fri, 14 May 2021 16:13:47 GMTSwiss Life pays $77.4 million to placate US tax authorities
Switzerland's largest insurance company Swiss Life has agreed to pay CHF70 million ($77.4 million) and enter a deferred prosecution agreement in the United States to resolve accusations it conspired to help wealthy Americans to avoid taxes. The co...
Fri, 14 May 2021 14:50:39 GMTSwiss torture expert slams Colombia police violence
The United Nations special rapporteur against torture, Nils Melzer from Zurich, has condemned the "violent repression" of demonstrations in Colombia that has killed dozens of people. Speaking in Geneva on Friday, he called for an independent investig...
Fri, 14 May 2021 13:49:36 GMTGerman billionaire declared dead after Swiss Alps disappearance
A German court on Friday officially declared billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub dead, more than three years after the head of retail group Tengelmann went missing in the Swiss Alps. Haub, who was 58, was training for a ski mountaineering race when he vani...
Fri, 14 May 2021 13:37:27 GMTCredit Suisse climate activists found guilty of coercion
Nine climate activists who blocked Credit Suisse’s Zurich headquarters in July 2019 have been given a suspended fine. Zurich District Court found all nine guilty of coercion and eight guilty of trespassing. The court sided with the prosecutor in ...
Fri, 14 May 2021 13:05:31 GMTSwiss scientists discover coronavirus’s ‘Achilles heel’
Researchers at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich have discovered an important weak point of Covid-19: if a key process for the production of its proteins is disrupted, viral replication in infected cells can be significantly reduced. This ...
Fri, 14 May 2021 08:37:39 GMTCovid-19: More than 40,000 catering jobs lost in 2020
More than 40,000 people in the Swiss hospitality and catering industry lost their jobs last year owing to closures triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Restaurants that rely on business tourism were hit particularly hard. What’s more, the Swiss Sta...
Thu, 13 May 2021 15:15:00 GMTFacebook-backed digital currency project to leave Switzerland
The Facebook-backed digital currency project formerly known as Libra, says it is shifting operations from Switzerland to the US. Now called Diem, it has withdrawn its Swiss licence application. Geneva-based Diem said it planned to launch a cryptocur...
Thu, 13 May 2021 12:20:00 GMTSwiss call for end to violence in Middle East
Switzerland’s foreign minister has called for the violence in the Middle East to stop immediately and has offered his condolences to the families of the victims. Ignazio Cassis’s comments, made on Twitter, come amid days of violence between the ...
Thu, 13 May 2021 10:16:00 GMTSwiss among first Everest fatalities of the season
A Swiss and an American have died on Mount Everest in the season's first casualties on the world's highest mountain, expedition organisers said on Thursday, as the Nepali region struggles with an escalating Covid-19 outbreak. Both climbers died of e...
Wed, 12 May 2021 16:51:00 GMTNew character system to recognise Eastern European names
In 2024, Swiss administrations will start using a new IT system that will recognise special characters from, for example, Eastern European languages. The current character encoding system allows for western European signs like the Spanish ñ, Danish...
Wed, 12 May 2021 15:25:00 GMTSwitzerland seeks return to normality with eased Covid rules
Switzerland plans to allow larger gatherings, re-open wellness centers and let restaurants serve food indoors as the country gets a better grip on the coronavirus pandemic. “We want to enable a return to normality – and restaurant interiors are ...
Wed, 12 May 2021 15:11:00 GMTIce age climate was cooler than expected
The average global temperature during the last ice age was some 8°C cooler than today – several degrees colder than previously thought, according to scientific research with Swiss participation published on Wednesday. The last ice age, when much ...
Wed, 12 May 2021 12:53:00 GMTSwitzerland intelligence chief steps down after Crypto affair
The Swiss government decided on Wednesday to accept the mutually-agreed departure of its top intelligence officer, who was criticised for his handling of last year’s Crypto affair. The mandate of Jean-Philippe Guadin, head of the Federal Intellig...
Wed, 12 May 2021 10:19:56 GMTItalian mafia milks Swiss Covid funds for expansion
The Italian mafia has found ways to expand and steal millions from Switzerland during the coronavirus pandemic, public broadcaster RTS reported on Wednesday. “We can see that the money allocated to companies as Covid loans very quickly goes abroa...
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 ...