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Swiss Info

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 09:05:00 GMT
AstraZeneca forced to give 10,000 doses of flu spray away
The pharma firm has decided to give the disputed doses to Switzerland for free, following a spat with regulators about pricing. The nasal spray, used to vaccinate children and youths against flu, was the source of tensions between British-Swedish As...

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 08:26:00 GMT
Dip in political fervour reported among Swiss youth
While a preoccupation with climate change remains, young people in Switzerland are becoming less keen to place their hopes in big street protests, a survey has found. Data from the gfs.bern research institute published on Wednesday show that in 2022...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 17:13:00 GMT
Clearing of old weapons stockpile to cost CHF2.59 billion
The government has approved funding of CHF2.59 billion ($2.74 billion) for a large-scale clearing of an old ammunition depot in the Bernese Alps. The money for the clean-up operation will now head to parliament to be debated by the two chambers, the...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 16:19:00 GMT
Acquittal of embattled Geneva politician overturned by federal court
According to Switzerland’s highest court, Pierre Maudet acted improperly in accepting an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi during his time as cantonal minister in Geneva. It’s the overturning of an overturning: after Maudet was found guilty by...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 15:00:00 GMT
Government firms up plans in case of gas outage
In case of a shortage, households and businesses which heat with piped gas would be asked to lower temperatures to 20°C, the government has said. The contingency scenario agreed by ministers is a slightly modified version of a four-stage plan annou...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 13:36:00 GMT
Switzerland to curb immigration from Croatia in 2023
The government has decided to curtail numbers arriving from the Balkan state by invoking a ‘safeguard clause’ for 2023. The decision comes less than a year after Croatians were granted unrestricted access to the Swiss labour market for the first...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 11:15:00 GMT
Limited number of drugs account for a fifth of all costs
A lack of transparency around the pricing of many top-selling Swiss drugs is also a problem, said an umbrella group of health insurers on Wednesday. The Curafutura association said that around a fifth of all medicine costs – some CHF8 million ($8....

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:59:00 GMT
Global goods inspector SGS to shed 1,500 jobs
The world’s largest goods inspection and testing group SGS will shed 1,500 jobs worldwide in a cost saving drive. The Geneva-based company said on Wednesday that inflation and the Ukraine war are having a negative effect on its business. “The c...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:17:00 GMT
Mosque in state-subsidised centre ‘performed illegal forced marriages’
A Swiss mosque, housed in a religious centre that receives state grants, has been accused of playing a role in forcing women into marriages against their will. Swiss public broadcaster SRF uncovered evidence of forced marriages at a mosque in the Ho...

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 07:18:00 GMT
Poland missile strike cause for concern: Swiss President
Swiss President Ignazio Cassis says he is “concerned” by the latest Russian bombardment of Ukraine and news that a missile exploded in Poland, killing two people. Russia extended its barrage against towns and energy facilities in Ukraine on Mond...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:08:00 GMT
Zurich film festivals focus on women and Arabic culture
Two film festivals in Zurich are shining the spotlight on women’s documentary filmmaking and Arab culture: the Women in Film Festival and the Arab Film Festival Zurich. The third edition of the Women in Film Festival (WIFF), which runs from Novemb...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 15:03:00 GMT
Swiss pharma giants fall in access to medicine ranking
Both Roche and Novartis have slipped in a ranking of the top 20 pharma companies’ efforts to expand access to medicines in poor countries. Novartis dropped from second place (2020 result) to fourth in the 2022 Access to Medicine Index published on...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 13:46:10 GMT
Swiss petitions demand sanctions against Iran
Some 25,000 Swiss have called on the government to impose sanctions against the Iranian government. The organisation Free Iran Switzerland submitted two petitions to the federal chancellery in Bern on Tuesday as a sign of solidarity with the Iranian ...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 12:54:05 GMT
Most serious accidents occur at home
Some 1,700 people die each year in a fall in Switzerland and over 15,000 are seriously injured – more than in road traffic and sports combined. This is the result of the first safety barometer on home and leisure accidents, published on Tuesday by...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 11:15:50 GMT
Nestlé shamed as third-largest plastic polluter
Greenpeace is once again calling on the big corporations to get rid of plastic. The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestlé have been the biggest plastic polluters in the world for five years in a row, it said. As in previous years Swiss food multina...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 10:46:00 GMT
Switzerland urged to change rape consent law
The Council of Europe has expressed concern that Switzerland’s legal system does not adequately protect women from violence and rape. The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 10:32:12 GMT
Switzerland and Turkey sign agreement on cultural property
Interior Minister Alain Berset and the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, have signed a bilateral agreement on the international transfer of cultural property. The agreement is intended to preserve both countries' cultural he...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 09:52:43 GMT
Swiss coin from 1741 auctioned for CHF854,000
A Swiss coin from 1741 has been auctioned in Geneva for CHF854,000 ($908,000). There are only three known examples of the coin in the world. It is the most important Swiss coin ever minted, said the Numismatica Genevensis society, which specialises ...

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 09:22:00 GMT
Sanctioned Swiss ‘supported Russian military supply chain’
Several Swiss nationals and companies have been sanctioned by the United States for allegedly being part of a “transnational network procuring technology that supports the Russian military-industrial complex”. The sanctions, announced by Washing...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 14:24:34 GMT
Giacometti museum and school to be built in Paris
The Giacometti Museum & School will be created in Paris in 2026, bringing together the largest collection in the world of works by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). Located in the former Invalides train station and the basement of the esp...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 13:11:18 GMT
Crime enforcement measures remain stable
Last year 11,315 penalties and punitive measures were enforced in Switzerland. Of these, 86% concerned men and 43% involved Swiss nationals. In 2020, the figure had declined by more than a fifth to 10,945, according to statistics on the execution of...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:27:38 GMT
Switzerland plummets down international climate rating
Switzerland has fallen seven places to 22nd in the annual Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which noted that Swiss voters last year rejected the CO2 law for regulating emissions. “Switzerland is no longer among the CCPI high performers and ...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 10:32:31 GMT
Swiss celebrate historic victory at Billie Jean King Cup
Switzerland have won the biggest prize in women’s team tennis for the first time after Belinda Bencic completed a near-perfect tournament by beating Australia’s Alja Tomljanovic in straight sets in the final of the Billie Jean King Cup. The win ...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 10:15:00 GMT
More than 1,000 wolf attacks expected this year
The number of deadly attacks on livestock by wolves has risen sharply in Switzerland in recent years and is expected to surpass 1,000 this year, says a Swiss wildlife group. The number of attacks on livestock in Switzerland, home to an estimated 200...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 08:59:00 GMT
Roche’s Alzheimer drug fails in long-awaited trial
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche says its Alzheimer's drug candidate could not clearly be shown to slow dementia progression in two drug trials. Roche said in a statement on Monday that the studies known as Graduate 1 and 2 did not reach the mai...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 08:11:00 GMT
Youth parliament demands fairer naturalisation process
A more equitable naturalisation process and better information on organ donations were two key demands of the Youth Session of the Swiss parliament, which ended on Sunday. Around 200 young people, aged 17 on average, took part in the four-day Youth ...

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 16:17:00 GMT
Swiss health office and pharma firm at odds over flu spray
The Swiss health authorities and the manufacturer AstraZeneca are at loggerheads over a nasal spray to vaccinate children and adolescents against influenza. The British-Swedish manufacturer told the Swiss Keystone-SDA agency that it had been asked b...

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 14:20:00 GMT
Leading economist mildly upbeat about Swiss growth prospects
Economic researcher Jan-Egbert Sturm expects the Swiss economy to stagnate in the next few months. The director of the Swiss Economic Institute (KOF) at Federal Institute ETH Zurich, said Switzerland had been been quite resilient in the current econ...

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 13:53:00 GMT
Restrictive Swiss immigration rules caused more victims
Historical research shows that the number of children of migrant workers who had to live in hiding in Switzerland between 1949 and 1975 is much higher than previous estimated. Up to 50,000 children – about four times more than assumed - lived in i...

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 10:55:00 GMT
Swiss president makes case for multilateralism
The Swiss president, Ignazio Cassis, has called for strengthening multilateral policies and described Geneva as the "capital of global governance". Speaking at an international conference in Paris on Saturday, Cassis said alliances of multiple count...



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