Swiss Info
Mon, 15 Feb 2021 17:01:00 GMTSwiss sociologist and artist Urs Jaeggi dies
Swiss sociologist and artist Urs Jaeggi died in Berlin on Saturday at the age of 89, his family announced on Monday. With his book Macht und Herrschaft in der BRD (Power and Rule in West Germany), which sold more than 400,000 copies, Jaeggi was cons...
Mon, 15 Feb 2021 14:58:00 GMTPressure builds on Swiss government over Covid lockdown
The Swiss government is facing a difficult balancing act between lifting lockdown measures and preventing a third wave of infections. On Monday Health Minister Alain Berset was criticised in the press for reportedly ignoring warnings of a second wav...
Mon, 15 Feb 2021 13:50:43 GMTVictims to testify in Swiss war crimes trial of Liberian rebel commander
The trial in Switzerland of a Liberian rebel commander facing allegations of rape, executions and cannibalism has resumed, with Liberian victims set to begin testifying this week in a landmark case under Swiss law. Alieu Kosiah, 45, a former command...
Mon, 15 Feb 2021 11:48:43 GMTArmy moves to retain women who have served abroad
Swiss women who have been deployed in peace-building operations abroad without having completed recruit school should be able to join the militia army directly. The army has launched a project to this end. Eleven of the 28 women participating in the...
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 16:19:00 GMTReport shows slump in foreign investment in Swiss real estate
The share of foreign investment in Swiss commercial real estate fell from 15% before 2011 to 5% between 2017 and 2019, according to new research. The issue of foreigners buying cheap Swiss property during the Covid-19 pandemic is being discussed in B...
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:03:00 GMTSurvey: Swiss cities will continue to exert strong pulling power
The vast majority of Swiss residents live in towns and cities. Over the next 20 years urban areas will continue to attract a growing number of new arrivals, many of whom will want to own their own property, a new survey shows. Some 85% of Swiss resi...
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 10:39:00 GMTCalls grow louder to ease Swiss Covid-19 restrictions
Cantonal ministers and business associations are putting mounting pressure on the Federal Council to ease pandemic restrictions. The federal government is due to meet on Wednesday to decide on the next steps. Calls are getting louder for the governm...
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:07:00 GMTSwiss foreign minister concludes visit to North and West Africa
Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has ended his week-long tour of North and West Africa with vists to Senegal and Gambia, where talks focused on economic development, climate change, human rights and water security. Following his visit to Algeria and ...
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 12:44:00 GMTDoctors raise doubts about Swiss Covid-19 vaccination timetable
Senior cantonal doctors have expressed doubts about the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccination timetable. They say the goal of vaccinating anyone who wants to by early summer could be delayed to ‘late autumn’. Federal officials have reassur...
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 11:12:00 GMTDecline in ozone-harming CFCs resumes after scientists raise alarm
New international studies suggest that China has successfully cut production of ozone-harming chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) chemicals. Two years ago, scientists observed a mysterious and sharp up-tick in the levels of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) emis...
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 17:32:00 GMTCourt: Criminal investigation into Bondo landslide must continue
The public prosecutor for canton Graubünden in eastern Switzerland must continue the criminal investigation into the major landslide in Bondo in 2017. The victims’ relatives have been successful in their appeal to the Swiss Federal Court. Eight h...
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 11:59:16 GMTEthics commission rejects compulsory vaccinations
A general vaccination obligation in Switzerland would interfere “disproportionately with fundamental rights”, according to the National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (NCE). The commission also advised against mandatory vaccination for...
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 11:41:00 GMTSwiss health minister hints at some relaxing of pandemic measures
Alain Berset has called for the public to be patient during the coronavirus pandemic over the semi-lockdown. The health minister has, however, said that the government may consider loosening some of the measures. Calls have been mounting for the gov...
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 09:25:00 GMTCredit Suisse settles US litigation with $600 million payout
Swiss bank Credit Suisse has paid out $600 million (CHF534 million) to settle a legal dispute in the United States relating to the sale of mortgage backed financial products. Switzerland’s second largest bank said it was satisfied with the settlem...
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 18:21:00 GMTJailed Chinese lawyer receives prestigious human rights award
The Geneva-based Martin Ennals Foundation announced Yu Wensheng as the winner of its annual global prize for human rights defenders in an online ceremony on Thursday evening. Yu, 54, was put behind bars in 2018 after spending ten years working on se...
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 15:40:00 GMTSwiss army admits shortcomings in facing Covid challenge
The Armed Forces Pharmacy acknowledged mistakes in the process of securing medical supplies, including protective face masks, to combat the spread of the coronavirus last spring. The pandemic presented a major logistical challenge that the organisat...
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:44:21 GMTCovid changes Swiss holiday and transport habits
A third of Swiss people chose not to travel on holiday last year as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world, according to automobile association Touring Club Switzerland (TCS). Of those people who continued to commute to work, a greater proportio...
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 11:24:00 GMTSwiss spent record amount on food in 2020
Consumers spent 11.3% more on food and beverages in brick-and-mortar shops last year than they did in 2019, helping the food retail trade to pull in a record turnover of nearly CHF30 billion ($33.7 billion). In total, the average household spent CHF...
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 10:54:00 GMTSwiss carnival enthusiasts mourn second lost season
The traditional starting date of the Swiss carnival season is being mourned rather than celebrated this year as a result of the coronavirus. The pandemic has put paid to the traditional cultural and social event for a second successive season. In Lu...
Wed, 10 Feb 2021 14:47:00 GMTRenewed calls for release of Swiss citizen in Belarus
A human rights group has reiterated a call for the release of a Swiss-Belarus dual national convicted for taking part in anti-government protests in the capital Minsk last year. The organisation Libereco, a German-Swiss NGO, said it sent a letter to...
Wed, 10 Feb 2021 13:24:00 GMTNGOs warn of inequalities in developing countries due to Covid
People in developing countries have less to eat and saw their income drop as result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey by an alliance of NGOs from Switzerland and other European countries found. More than 40% of respondents from developing countries...
Wed, 10 Feb 2021 11:20:00 GMTSwitzerland provides aid to drought-hit Madagascar
The money will go towards providing food, water and sanitation as the south of the country faces a humanitarian crisis due to poor rainfall. Of the CHF1 million ($1.1 million) in aid provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC...
Wed, 10 Feb 2021 10:09:30 GMTAddictions on the rise during the pandemic
The current Covid pandemic in Switzerland has increased the risk of addiction, according to a new report. People who are prone to substance abuse or gambling, as well as those who are under pressure at the workplace or in their families, are particu...
Tue, 9 Feb 2021 17:35:00 GMTSwiss foreign minister tours North and West Africa
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis held talks with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad and Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum in Algiers at the start of a week-long visit to North and West Africa. The discussions in Algiers from Sunday to Tues...
Tue, 9 Feb 2021 15:09:00 GMTMore effort needed to fight new variants, says Covid-19 taskforce
With the number of new contagious Covid-19 variants spreading, Switzerland must step up rather than reduce efforts to combat the virus, the head of the government’s Covid-19 taskforce has declared. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) report...
Tue, 9 Feb 2021 11:36:00 GMTFormer Swiss minister regrets fuss about hostage ransom comments
Former Swiss minister Moritz Leuenberger triggered outrage on Sunday when he said that “if a hostage has been released, a payment has probably been made”. He has now rowed back on his comments, blaming clumsy wording by a newspaper, which he neve...
Tue, 9 Feb 2021 09:28:35 GMTSwiss note many parallels between Covid-19 and Spanish flu
Implementing lockdown rules too late, then lifting them too soon or simply ignoring them: patterns in how the authorities and the population dealt with Spanish flu 100 years ago bear striking similarities to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Swi...
Mon, 8 Feb 2021 13:53:22 GMTSwitzerland continues to freeze CHF400 million linked to Mubarak's entourage
Ten years after the fall of the Egyptian president, Husni Mubarak, around CHF400 million (around $443 million) remains seized in Switzerland. Proceedings for criminal association and money laundering are still pending against five people, includin...
Mon, 8 Feb 2021 13:52:28 GMTSwiss gymnastics federation called out for ‘problematic culture’
The world governing body for the sport of gymnastics has blamed the power structure and culture for alleged abuses in Switzerland’s gymnastics federation. “There is a problematic culture which has established itself over the decades,” says Mic...
Mon, 8 Feb 2021 08:48:49 GMTSwitzerland experiences highest unemployment rate in a decade
The unemployment rate in Switzerland rose again in January, reaching 3.7% - the highest level since April 2010. The impact of the coronavirus crisis continues to be felt on the Swiss economy. At the end of January, 169,753 people were registered as...