Swiss Info
Fri, 18 Nov 2022 09:28:00 GMTUkraine confirms former top prosecutor as new ambassador in Bern
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree confirming his country’s selection of Iryna Venediktova as the new ambassador to Switzerland. A document on the president’s website, reported by the state news agency Ukrinform on Thursd...
Fri, 18 Nov 2022 08:21:00 GMTSwiss arrest Ukrainian hacker wanted by the FBI
A Ukrainian cybercriminal who the US authorities have been chasing for a decade has been arrested in Switzerland. Vyacheslav Penchukov was arrested in October while he was visiting his wife near Lake Geneva, the Krebs on Security website first repor...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 18:00:00 GMTTheatre director Milo Rau wins Swiss culture prize
The St Gallen Cultural Foundation has awarded a special prize to Milo Rau, the Swiss theatre director, writer and filmmaker, for his lifetime’s work. On Thursday, he received the “Great Culture Prize”, which is awarded every three years by the...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:26:00 GMTSwitzerland and UK sign trade conformity agreement
Switzerland and the United Kingdom have signed a deal on the mutual recognition of conformity assessments. It means that for certain business sectors, product testing by a British conformity body is no longer required for exports from Switzerland to ...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:14:00 GMTSwiss detect first cases of bird flu this winter
The virus has been detected in a grey heron and a peacock in canton Zurich, Swiss authorities say. The infected birds were located at Seuzach in canton Zurich. These are the first cases in Switzerland this winter, the authorities said on Thursday i...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 14:02:00 GMTPrices of Alpine chalets soar
The average price of a holiday home in the Swiss and French Alps rose by almost 6% over the past year as hybrid working and a desire to be closer to nature boosted demand, a ski property index reveals. Anyone who bought a chalet in the Swiss or Fren...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 10:56:00 GMTCOP27 is a ‘very difficult’ climate summit, says Swiss minister
As the Friday deadline for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt looms, many contentious issues reportedly remain unresolved. Switzerland’s environment minister says there is still time to take effective climate measures. “It is a very difficult cli...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 09:05:00 GMTAstraZeneca forced to give away 10,000 doses of flu spray
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 GMTDip 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 GMTClearing 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 GMTAcquittal 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 GMTGovernment 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 GMTSwitzerland 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 GMTLimited 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 GMTGlobal 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 GMTMosque 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 GMTPoland 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 GMTZurich 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 GMTSwiss 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 GMTSwiss 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 GMTMost 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 GMTNestlé 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 GMTSwitzerland 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 GMTSwitzerland 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 GMTSwiss 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 GMTSanctioned 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 GMTGiacometti 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 GMTCrime 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 GMTSwitzerland 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 GMTSwiss 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 ...