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Swiss Info

Fri, 8 Jul 2022 08:18:00 GMT
Court throws out Blatter and Platini corruption charges
A Swiss court has acquitted former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA head Michel Platini of charges of corruption and fraud. Judges at the Federal Criminal Court said on Friday they found no proof of wrongdoing in relation to a 2011 payment of CHF2...

Thu, 7 Jul 2022 15:10:45 GMT
Ukraine: Justice minister wants rapid assessment of S permit
The implementation and value of protection status S, a permit that has been granted to people fleeing the war in Ukraine, must be evaluated quickly, says Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter. Speaking to the media on Thursday, Keller-Sutter sa...

Thu, 7 Jul 2022 12:40:45 GMT
Top football clubs received double Covid aid money
Several professional football clubs in Switzerland were reportedly compensated twice for Covid-related losses and received around CHF10 million ($10.3 million) too much. Nine clubs from the Super League and the Challenge League – the two highest S...

Thu, 7 Jul 2022 10:32:16 GMT
Immigration only partially alleviates lack of skilled workers
The Swiss economy has recovered well from the Covid-19 crisis, but despite the free movement of people agreement with the EU, some sectors are struggling to recruit qualified staff, says a government report. The unemployment rate in spring 2022 retu...

Thu, 7 Jul 2022 09:06:00 GMT
Gas industry head warns winter supplies could be tight
The president of the Swissgas industry platform says Switzerland is not aware of how fragile the situation is and that “it would not take much” to lead to a winter shortage. André Dosé told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper on Thursday...

Wed, 6 Jul 2022 12:56:00 GMT
US film stars to shine on Swiss film festival of Locarno
An action thriller with Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock is to kick off this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Bullet Train by David Leitch is one of 17 films to be screened on Locarno’s 8,000-seat open air Piazza Grande arena in the southern Swiss town...

Wed, 6 Jul 2022 10:45:00 GMT
Swiss abortion rate remained unchanged in 2021
New statistics from Switzerland show the abortion rate remained stable – and comparatively low – in 2021. Longer term, the average age of those terminating pregnancies is rising. A total of 10,869 abortions were recorded in the country in 2021, ...

Tue, 5 Jul 2022 15:19:00 GMT
Health experts recommend booster jab against Covid
The Swiss health authorities have called on people over the age of 80 to update their vaccination against the Covid-19 virus. A government advisory commission and the Federal Office of Public Health issued a recommendation also urging people with a ...

Tue, 5 Jul 2022 09:49:09 GMT
Fedpol chief calls for better cooperation to fight Mafia
The Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) says a lack of information and awareness from civilian authorities slows down the fight against the Italian crime syndicates in Switzerland. Fedpol director Nicoletta della Valle said it is key that labour inspe...

Tue, 5 Jul 2022 08:28:01 GMT
Having a ball: two Swiss-based mathematicians win top award
For the first time the Fields Award, the “Nobel prize of mathematics”, has been given to two researchers in Switzerland for insights into sphere-packing and phase-transition theory. Maryna Viazovska from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology...

Tue, 5 Jul 2022 07:33:04 GMT
Swiss to double aid to Ukraine
Switzerland will double its aid to Ukraine to CHF100 million ($104 million) by the end of 2023, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Swiss city of Lugano. He also freed up CHF15 million to support the c...

Mon, 4 Jul 2022 15:39:00 GMT
Large Hadron Collider primed to hit record energy levels
Ten years after it discovered the Higgs boson, the world’s biggest particle accelerator is poised to smash together protons at record energy levels at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, as scientists resume their search for clues to ...

Mon, 4 Jul 2022 13:23:00 GMT
Swiss conference focuses on Ukraine ‘reform, resilience and recovery’
An international conference on reconstructing post-war Ukraine has opened in the Swiss city of Lugano with the intention of creating a charter for recovery. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis called on delegates to agree on a “Lugano Declaratio...

Mon, 4 Jul 2022 12:05:00 GMT
Inflation ‘back with a vengeance’ in Switzerland
The price of household goods for Swiss consumers rose 3.4% in June compared to the same month last year, led by the surging cost of fuel and heating oil. “Inflation, which has de facto been absent for more than a decade, is back with a vengeance,...

Mon, 4 Jul 2022 08:09:07 GMT
Swiss diplomat: ‘If you want to hurt Russia, you have to be prepared to suffer’
Yves Rossier, the former Swiss ambassador to Moscow, squarely blames Russia for the war in Ukraine, but he says the West and Ukraine made mistakes in the run-up to the war. “The blame for the war lies solely with Russia, that’s clear,” Rossier...

Sun, 3 Jul 2022 14:10:00 GMT
Swiss foreign ministry allegedly attacked by computer hackers
The Swiss authorities have dismissed reports about cyberattacks from Russia against the Swiss foreign ministry. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it had no knowledge of targeted cyberattacks against Swiss government units or critical in...

Sun, 3 Jul 2022 11:00:00 GMT
Swiss conference to highlight decentralised and democratic Ukraine
The participants of the international conference in Switzerland on the reconstruction of Ukraine have reportedly agreed the principles of reforms. The NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reported that the planned final declaration of the Ukraine Recovery Confe...

Sun, 3 Jul 2022 09:28:00 GMT
Swiss minister pushes for renewable energy to replace gas imports
Energy Minister Simonetta Sommaruga has warned of possible shortages of natural gas in Switzerland during the winter months. She said the government prepared made plans to prevent energy blackouts due to a drop in Russian gas imports in the context ...

Sat, 2 Jul 2022 09:55:54 GMT
Swiss officials backed Nestlé over Mexico’s food warning labels
The food giant had urged Swiss officials to lobby against junk food warning labels mooted by the Mexican government in 2019. Emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Swiss public broadcaster RTS indicate that Nestlé had contacted t...

Fri, 1 Jul 2022 13:52:00 GMT
Newly married same-sex couples risk losing out on fast-track citizenship
Same-sex couples have been advised to think carefully about how they achieve marital status if they want to apply for facilitated Swiss citizenship. Several couples have welcomed a change to the Swiss law to allow same-sex marriages by tying the kno...

Fri, 1 Jul 2022 12:20:00 GMT
Sulzer counts cost of withdrawing from Russia
Pulling out of Russia and Poland will cost Swiss industrial company Sulzer at least CHF125 million ($130 million) in depreciation costs, the group has announced. The sum will be booked in the company’s half year results, which will be published on...

Fri, 1 Jul 2022 09:35:40 GMT
Biotech firm Lonza to invest CHF500 million in new Swiss plant
Swiss biotech company Lonza has announced plans to build a large-scale plant that will focus on crucial stages of vaccine production. The Basel-based multinational, which supplies the pharma industry, expects the CHF500 million ($522 million) facil...

Fri, 1 Jul 2022 09:33:00 GMT
Swiss branch of Sberbank allowed to pay creditors
The Swiss financial regulator has partially lifted restrictions on the Swiss branch of Russia’s Sberbank so it can pay off non-sanctioned creditors. The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) introduced protective measures for Sberbank Swi...

Fri, 1 Jul 2022 08:36:00 GMT
Switzerland signs off CHF1.3bn EU payment
Swiss State Secretary Livia Leu and the Secretary-General of the European Commission, Ilze Juhansone, have signed a memorandum of understanding for Switzerland to pay a so-called cohesion contribution of CHF1.3 billion ($1.36 billion) to Brussels. C...

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 17:30:00 GMT
Zelensky unlikely to personally attend Lugano conference on Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is highly unlikely to personally attend a conference in the Swiss city of Lugano next week that will discuss ways to rebuild the war-shattered country. Instead, Zelensky will probably address international dign...

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 14:48:00 GMT
Swiss government accused of lacking will to protect groundwater
The Swiss authorities have been censured for failing to implement measures that are designed to protect the country’s groundwater. The parliamentary Audit Committee of the House of representatives said on Thursday that only CHF8 million ($8.4 mill...

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 11:18:00 GMT
Foreign currencies going off Swiss central bank menu
Switzerland’s central bank is buying lower volumes of foreign currencies to support the franc as it balances the needs of exporters with the rising cost of goods. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) shelled out CHF5.7 billion ($5.9 billion) in the forei...

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 07:58:32 GMT
Bern bikers sent to prison for violent brawl
A trial into a violent clash between the Hells Angels and Bandidos biker gangs outside the Swiss capital in 2019 has resulted in prison sentences of varying lengths. One of the main defendants was given eight years for premeditated attempted murder. ...

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 07:10:29 GMT
Cartel fined for fixing price of Volkswagens
A group of Volkswagen dealers in southern Switzerland has been fined CHF44 million ($46 million) by the Federal Competition Commission (Comco). The seven cartel members, including car importer AMAG, had fixed the prices of new Volkswagen cars for yea...

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 15:00:46 GMT
Credit Suisse scraps negative interest charges for private clients
Switzerland’s second largest bank, Credit Suisse, has announced it will no longer pass on negative interest charges to private clients from July 1. On June 16, the Swiss National Bank surprised the markets by raising its benchmark interest rate by...



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