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Swiss Info

Sun, 5 Dec 2021 10:00:00 GMT
Stricter Covid rules remain a possibility in Switzerland
A Swiss health official says stricter nationwide rules could be in the cards if epidemiological dynamics do not improve. But mandatory vaccination and restrictions on individuals who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 are considered, for now, ...

Sat, 4 Dec 2021 15:24:00 GMT
Swiss trade union demands shorter work week
Switzerland’s largest trade union issued a statement on Saturday demanding a “massive reduction” of working hours with full wage compensation for lower and income earners. “Nowhere in Europe do people work as hard as in Switzerland. At prese...

Sat, 4 Dec 2021 12:26:00 GMT
SWISS shuns Hong Kong over strict crew quarantine rules
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) announced that it is suspending its flights from Zurich to Hong Kong temporarily. This is due to the tightening of quarantine regulations for crew members" on arrival to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Four fli...

Sat, 4 Dec 2021 09:45:00 GMT
US says Switzerland no longer manipulates its currency
The United States government confirmed on Friday that Switzerland is no longer considered a currency manipulator, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported As in April, the US Treasury Department determined there was "insufficient evidence" to designat...

Fri, 3 Dec 2021 17:17:00 GMT
UN body concerned at rise of racist hate speech in Switzerland
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has flagged up a rise in racist hate speech over social media channels in Switzerland. A country review of Switzerland also highlighted concerns about “the persistence...

Fri, 3 Dec 2021 16:15:00 GMT
Switzerland eyes tax data exchange with dozen more countries
Switzerland plans to expand the network of countries with which it automatically exchanges financial information to include another 12 states. The government said on Friday that it proposes to conclude deals with Ecuador, Georgia, Jamaica, Jordan, K...

Fri, 3 Dec 2021 12:54:00 GMT
Air transport leaders slam Swiss Omicron travel restrictions
Zurich airport and Swiss International Air Lines have both criticised the government's decision to impose travel restrictions to combat the spread of the Omicron Covid variant. Last week, the government banned direct flights to southern Africa and i...

Fri, 3 Dec 2021 12:05:00 GMT
Electronic tagging for domestic abuse offenders deemed effective
The Swiss government has given its approval for domestic violence offenders to be fitted with electronic wrist or ankle devices that monitor their movements. The government said such a measure, along with other uses of electronic devices that have a...

Fri, 3 Dec 2021 08:54:00 GMT
Entire Swiss school quarantined over two cases of Omicron variant
Around 2,000 people, including 1,600 children at the International School of Geneva, will have to quarantine for ten days. Two confirmed cases of the Omicron variant were detected at the La Châtaigneraie campus of the International School of Geneva...

Thu, 2 Dec 2021 17:51:00 GMT
Three Swiss laureats in global ‘tourism village’ awards
Three Swiss towns have been named as part of a crop of “Best Tourism Villages” announced by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). “No other country had as much success” in the awards, the Swiss authorities announced, rather ...

Thu, 2 Dec 2021 15:09:00 GMT
Parliamentarians call on government to bear cost of Covid tests
A majority in parliament has voted in favour of re-introducing free Covid tests, less than two months after the government decided to make people pay. The government scrapped free testing for asymptomatic people in October, saying the cost to the st...

Thu, 2 Dec 2021 12:12:00 GMT
Swiss banks implicated in trading cartel investigation
The European Commission has ended an investigation of five banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse, who colluded in a foreign exchange spot trading cartel. The total fines announced on Thursday came to €344 million (CHF359 million), with British ba...

Thu, 2 Dec 2021 09:30:00 GMT
Facebook removes hundreds of accounts linked to fake Swiss biologist
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has dismantled a social media operation, orchestrated from China, which used an account of a fictitious Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards to fuel tensions with the United States. On July 24, an account posing...

Wed, 1 Dec 2021 17:26:00 GMT
WHO assembly in Geneva plans global pandemic pact
The 194 member nations of the World Health Organisation (WHO), including Switzerland, have pledged to open talks on a new global convention to better deal with future pandemics. The WHO announced the plans at the end of a special three-day session i...

Wed, 1 Dec 2021 15:15:00 GMT
Study reports confusion about ‘journalistically-packaged advertising’
Over a third of readers of online articles are unable to distinguish between actual journalism and advertising which is made to look like journalism, a Swiss study has found. “Depending on the platform in question and how the article was labelled,...

Wed, 1 Dec 2021 12:54:00 GMT
Parliament shoots down idea to double EU cohesion payment
Politicians have rejected a committee idea to raise Switzerland’s “cohesion payment” to the European Union from CHF1 billion to CHF 2 billion ($1.1 billion to $2.2 billion). The plan was proposed by the foreign affairs committee in the House o...

Wed, 1 Dec 2021 09:25:25 GMT
Zurich drops to fourth in ranking of most expensive cities
Soaring inflation, supply chain disruptions and high oil prices have shuffled this year’s ranking of the most expensive cities compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Zurich drops from first to fourth, as Tel Aviv takes the top spot. Geneva, ...

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 13:45:49 GMT
Swiss launch platform to report racist speech online
Switzerland has a new platform for reporting racist hate speech on the Internet, the Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) has announced. The new reporting platform “simplifies the reporting of racist hate speech on the Internet”, the FCR said...

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:10:28 GMT
Residents with migration background twice as likely to be unemployed
Last year 2,766,000 people – 38% of Switzerland’s permanent resident population aged 15 and over – had a migration background, 0.3 percentage points more than in 2019. Whereas 7% of these people were unemployed in 2020, regardless of generatio...

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:09:26 GMT
Underground cargo project gets parliamentary go-ahead
The Swiss parliament has given a final green light to a futuristic underground cargo project that aims to transport freight normally carried by road on a 500-kilometre network of underground tunnels. The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted in ...

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 09:23:02 GMT
Swiss hotels hit by wave of cancellations
Measures to deal with the latest Covid-19 variant are already having a negative impact on hotel bookings in Switzerland, according to umbrella association Hotelleriesuisse. There are also fears that the entire Ski World Cup will have to be cancelled....

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 15:55:00 GMT
Omicron could “change course of pandemic”
Swiss health officials have warned that the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, could pose a worrying new health risk as the pandemic continues into next year. Although data on the variant, which has a greater number of mutations than normal, is still th...

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 14:17:00 GMT
Kapwani Kiwanga wins Zurich Art Prize
French-Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga has been awarded the 15th Zurich Art Prize for her work that depicts social topics, such as the route to independence for African countries. “The Zurich Art Prize jury was particularly enthusiastic about Kapw...

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 13:28:00 GMT
Omicron forces student winter games to cancel
The new variant Covid-19 virus, called Omicron, has forced the cancellation of a student winter games event, just 12 days before it was due to begin in Switzerland. The Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade, the largest winter sports event next to the Win...

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 06:40:54 GMT
First suspected case of Omicron variant detected in Switzerland
The first probable case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Switzerland, the government said late on Sunday, as the country tightened its entry restrictions to check its spread. The case relates to a person who returned to Switze...

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 17:54:00 GMT
Reform of election system for Swiss top judges thrown out
Voters have rejected a proposal for the supreme court judges to be elected by lot rather than by the Swiss parliament. The people’s initiative only won about 31.9% of the vote on Sunday according to official results. None of the country's 26 canto...

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 15:37:00 GMT
Zurich voters approve ban on oil and gas heaters
Zurich has become the latest canton in Switzerland to ban oil and gas heating systems. Official figures show nearly 63% of voters on Sunday endorsing a law approved by parliament to replace fossil fuels in heating systems with alternative energy sou...

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 14:36:00 GMT
Recall option risks to shorten career of Geneva politicians
Voters in Geneva have won the right to recall elected members of their cantonal government, an option rarely used in Switzerland. The constitutional amendment was approved by 92% of voters on Sunday, according to official results. Under the new reg...

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 16:03:00 GMT
Passengers on SWISS flight from South Africa to be contacted
The Swiss health authorities have urged passengers who arrived at Zurich airport on a flight from South Africa to get tested for Covid. The Federal Office of Public Health said it will send text messages to all passengers who landed at Zurich airpor...

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 11:56:00 GMT
Plane fault cancels Swiss foreign minister’s trip to China
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has been forced to cancel a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in China following a technical fault on his government jet. Cassis was forced to divert to Moscow en route to the eastern Zhejiand province of Chi...



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