Swiss Info
Tue, 28 Dec 2021 09:53:00 GMTJanssen Covid-19 booster shot approved in Switzerland
Medicines regulator Swissmedic has approved the booster of the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. “The second dose of the vaccine can be administered, at the earliest, two months after the first dose,” wrote Swissmedic in a statement o...
Tue, 28 Dec 2021 09:09:00 GMTMajority of Swiss in favour of e-voting but want uniform service
E-voting has the support of 84% of the population, according to a survey of Swiss residents by consultancy firm Deloitte. The coronavirus pandemic is increasingly seen as a catalyst for digitalisation, Deloitte wrote in a survey on Tuesday. A clear ...
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 13:52:00 GMTSwiss regulator approves Roche-Regeneron Covid-19 drug
The Swiss medicines agency, Swissmedic, has given the green light to the monoclonal antibody cocktail Ronapreve developed by Roche and Regeneron for use in the treatment and prevention of Covid-19. Ronapreve, a combination of two monoclonal antibodi...
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 10:40:00 GMTWatchmaking workforce remains stable despite pandemic
The annual census of the Swiss watch industry labour force found that partial unemployment helped the industry weather the pandemic over the last year. The number of employees in the industry remained stable in 2021 while the share of high skilled st...
Sun, 26 Dec 2021 13:28:47 GMTRussian President looks to hold security talks with US in Geneva
Vladimir Putin said the US and Russia have agreed to meet in January in Geneva for security talks that are expected to include Ukraine. In statements aired on Russian state television on Sunday, President Putin said that he would consider a range of...
Sun, 26 Dec 2021 11:34:01 GMTRoche at-home Covid tests receive US FDA nod
Swiss biopharma firm Roche has been granted emergency approval by US authorities to sell its at-home rapid Covid-19 test starting in January. On Friday, Basel-based Roche announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted Emergency Use A...
Sun, 26 Dec 2021 09:49:27 GMTSWISS plans to cancel 2,900 flights over winter
Amid travel worries and heightened entry requirements, SWISS has said it expects to cut back on about 8% of flights over the winter period. In an article in the German-language media SonntagsBlick, and confirmed to SWI swissinfo.ch by email, SWISS I...
Sat, 25 Dec 2021 13:22:00 GMTSpengler Cup tournament called off again due to Covid
The traditional international ice-hockey tournament in the Swiss resort of Davos has been cancelled at short notice. The organisers said on Saturday that most players of the host team Davos had tested positive for Covid-19 and as a result, the canto...
Sat, 25 Dec 2021 12:00:00 GMTLeading Swiss composer Wyttenbach dies
The renowned Swiss composer, pianist and conductor, Jürg Wyttenbach, has died at the age of 86. He passed away earlier this week, his family confirmed on Friday. Wyttenbach is considered a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans contemporary cla...
Sat, 25 Dec 2021 11:00:00 GMTCovid virus ‘takes no break’ over Christmas warn Swiss ministers
President Guy Parmelin has called for solidarity during the festive season as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in Switzerland. In a Christmas message, the outgoing president called on people to respect the health precautions – t...
Fri, 24 Dec 2021 15:54:22 GMTSwiss airports see 50% fewer passengers than pre-pandemic
Amid flight cancellations and coronavirus related travel restrictions, Swiss airports are expecting half the number of passengers over the holidays than before the pandemic. This is still more traffic than in 2020. Flight hubs of Geneva, Zurich and ...
Fri, 24 Dec 2021 08:59:59 GMTFirst Swiss to lead a UN peace operation takes up post in Middle East
Swiss army general Patrick Gauchat has taken command of the UN operation set up to monitor the ceasefire in the Middle East. This is the first time a Swiss leads a UN peacekeeping operation. In October, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announc...
Thu, 23 Dec 2021 16:29:00 GMTThousands of fake Covid-19 certificates uncovered in Switzerland
Criminal proceedings have been launched in Switzerland following the discovery of around 8,000 fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates that were issued in the eastern canton of St Gallen. Police believe the forged documents were handed out by people ...
Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:05:00 GMTFirst Swiss prison sentence dished out for blowing up ATMs
A man has been jailed for 74 months for blowing up an ATM - the first such sentence handed out in Switzerland amid a growing trend of cash machine robberies. The 31-year-old Romanian was extradited from Austria to Switzerland after police found his ...
Thu, 23 Dec 2021 11:54:00 GMTSwiss court confiscates funds linked to Uzbek ex-president’s daughter
The Federal Criminal Court has ordered the confiscation of over $293 million (around CHF270 million) belonging to a shell company linked to Gulnara Karimova. The company, called Takilant, of which Karimova (daughter of the former president of Uzbek...
Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:45:00 GMTCredit Suisse sacks managers over Greensill scandal
The Credit Suisse bank has fired the managers overseeing a multi-billion-dollar fund strategy linked to the now-defunct Greensill Capital. Switzerland’s second largest bank was forced to freeze and wind down a $10 billion (CHF9.2 billion) fund ran...
Wed, 22 Dec 2021 11:24:00 GMTSwiss court confirms extradition of German ‘cum-ex’ fraud suspect
A Swiss court has allowed the extradition to Germany of Hanno Berger, a German banker accused of playing a key role in a years-long tax fraud. The scandal, known as "cum-ex," is Germany's biggest post-war fraud involving a share-trading scheme that ...
Wed, 22 Dec 2021 10:46:18 GMTMiriam Cahn plans to pull works from Zurich Art Museum over Bührle Collection
Internationally renowned Swiss artist Miriam Cahn says she wants to remove all her works on display at the Zurich Art Museum in response to the outcry over the Bührle collection. Paintings in the collection are suspected of being linked to art loote...
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:22:00 GMTSWISS reviews job cuts among flight staff
Swiss International Air Lines has offered to re-employ more than half of the 550 flying personnel it had sacked earlier this year. The company confirmed that it sent offers to more than 330 cabin crew members to work for the Swiss flag carrier, whic...
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:53:00 GMTSwiss health officials sound alarm over Omicron transmissions
Health officials have warned of an imminent wave of Covid infections with the contagious Omicron variant in Switzerland over the next few weeks. Patrick Mathys of the Federal Office of Public Health told a news conference on Tuesday that the Omicron...
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:44:00 GMTUS charge extradited Russian businessman with hacking, insider trading
The Russian businessman extradited from Switzerland to the United States and four other Russians have been charged with carrying out a $82-million (CHF75 million) insider trading scheme using data stolen during hacks of US computer networks. US fede...
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 09:53:00 GMTSWI swissinfo.ch joins DG7 international public media network
From 2022, SWI swissinfo.ch, the international unit of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), will become a member of the DG7 group of international public service media. The network aims to improve cooperation between publicly funded news organis...
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 18:13:00 GMTZurich court backs pupil exclusions for refusing Covid-19 tests
Pupils can be excluded from school if they refuse to test for Covid-19, a Zurich court has ruled. The legal challenge to exclusions, brought by the father of a school pupil, failed on appeal as the court ruled that the requirement to test was reason...
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 17:04:00 GMTUBS bank appeals French tax evasion fine a second time
Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, says it will once again appeal a fine handed out by a French court for tax evasion offences. On December 13, a Paris appeal court confirmed a previous ruling that UBS was criminally guilty of assisting French tax e...
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 12:42:00 GMTOmicron forces WEF to postpone flagship event again
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted plans to hold the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) main annual meeting in Davos for a second year in a row. On Monday, WEF said it would defer the gathering of influential global business and political head...
Mon, 20 Dec 2021 09:15:00 GMTIsrael bans travel to Switzerland over Omicron concerns
Israel added Switzerland and the United States to its "no-fly" list on Monday over concerns about the spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant. From Tuesday December 21 at 10pm, Israelis will need special permission to fly to Switzerland, the United S...
Sun, 19 Dec 2021 10:47:15 GMTOne in two Swiss in favour of lockdown for unvaccinated
In a survey of 1,000 Swiss residents, half of the respondents approved of movement restrictions for people not vaccinated against Covid-19. Older residents are even more wary of the unvaccinated. According to the survey, published on Sunday by the ...
Sun, 19 Dec 2021 09:44:49 GMTSwiss extradite Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin to the US
Klyushin, who is accused by the United States of commercial espionage, was handed over to the American police on Saturday and put on a flight to the US from Zurich. The news of his extradition was confirmed by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice on ...
Sat, 18 Dec 2021 16:06:38 GMTProtesters rally in Bern against new round of pandemic measures
An estimated 300 opponents of the recently announced Covid-19 restrictions took part in a rally in the Swiss capital Bern on Saturday. The demonstration was announced on social media as a response to tighter restrictions on gatherings announced by ...
Sat, 18 Dec 2021 14:37:21 GMTRecord participation at Geneva Christmas lake swim
Over 3,000 swimmers are expected to take a cold plunge for the 82nd edition of the Christmas Cup in Lake Geneva. Some 1,500 intrepid swimmers took to the waters on Saturday, with similar numbers anticipated on Sunday. The water temperature was aroun...