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Swiss Info

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 09:44:00 GMT
‘Soul of a Beast’ breaks film prize nomination record
Soul of a Beast by Lorenz Merz has been nominated in a record eight categories for the Swiss Film Prize 2022. Other contenders for trophies were announced at the 57th Solothurn Film Festival on Monday night. Merz’s film was nominated for the Golde...

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 18:06:00 GMT
Environmental activists spared jail after quarry squat
A Swiss court has ignored prosecution demands to jail seven environmental activists who were accused of trespass and assaulting police during a demonstration at a quarry. They were instead found guilty of lesser offences and fined. They were among d...

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 14:57:00 GMT
Conditions ripe for Swiss company takeovers and mergers
Rock bottom interest rates and excess cash sloshing around Swiss companies saw a three-fold increase in the value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), rising to CHF170 billion ($186 billion) last year. The corporate shopping spree was led by the pharm...

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 14:08:00 GMT
Hacker finds data security weak spot in Swiss railway system
An anonymous hacker gained access to the personal data of thousands of passengers who bought tickets from Swiss Federal Railways. The embarrassing IT security weak spot in the Swisscard system, which has since been fixed, was reported to the Rundsch...

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:26:31 GMT
Swiss Olympic sets target of 15 medals in Beijing
A total of 168 athletes will represent Switzerland at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing next month. Of these, 26 have already won an Olympic medal, while 93 are taking part in their first Games. The goal of Swiss Olympic is to equal the 15 medals ...

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 10:26:05 GMT
Swiss army circulated millions of substandard masks
Some surplus masks sold cheap by the Swiss army pharmacy to homes, schools and cantons performed “significantly worse” in tests than a reference mask, according to a report in Swiss newspapers. It is no secret that the Swiss army is sitting on m...

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 12:11:00 GMT
Health experts observe marked increase in suicidal thoughts among youngsters
The number of attempted suicides by adolescents in Bern and Zurich increased sharply last year, according to the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. Experts are calling for a national register to better understand the scale of the phenomenon across the countr...

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 10:50:00 GMT
Swiss universities warn of ‘serious consequences’ of Horizon Europe exclusion
Representatives of Swiss universities and businesses have issued a joint resolution urging the government to ensure Switzerland fully participates in the European Union’s flagship Horizon Europe research funding scheme by the end of 2022. “We ar...

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 15:45:00 GMT
Covid-19 protesters rally in Bern
Over 2,000 opponents of Swiss Covid-19 restrictions took part in a demonstration in the Swiss capital Bern on Saturday afternoon. Protesters at the unofficial rally marched from Bern station to parliament square in the city centre, under the eyes o...

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 10:28:00 GMT
Swiss health minister ponders end of Covid-19 certificate
Switzerland’s health minister, Alain Berset, says the use of the Covid-19 certificate could soon be over, as the Alpine country appears to be “on the right track” regarding its virus response. “The [Covid-19] certificate period seems to be a...

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:45:00 GMT
‘Threatening’ Swiss wolf shot without permit
A game warden in Switzerland has shot dead a wolf without prior permission because the animal appeared to be stalking people. The wolf was being monitored in the southeastern canton of Graubünden after its behaviour gave rise to concerns, reports S...

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 14:58:00 GMT
May date planned for postponed WEF meeting
The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) showcase annual meeting has been rescheduled to May 22-26, to be held at its traditional venue of Davos. The Covid-19 pandemic has played havoc with the gathering of global executives, political and civil society h...

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 14:33:00 GMT
Switzerland backs mRNA vaccine for booster jabs
The Swiss authorities are advising teenagers in the 12 to 15-year-old age group to take a mRNA booster jab. The Pfizer/Biontech vaccine is also recommended as a booster for adults who received initial doses of the Janssen viral vector vaccine. The F...

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 11:14:00 GMT
Switzerland to lift Omicron travel ban on southern African countries
Travellers from seven southern African states will once again be allowed to enter Switzerland from January 24, following a temporary ban to limit the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant. The State Secretariat for Migration tweeted on Friday that ...

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 09:46:30 GMT
Minister accuses Swiss media of Covid scaremongering
Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has blamed lopsided coverage of the pandemic for the continuation of Covid-19 restrictions. Maurer was critical of the media's handling of the pandemic in an interview published in the Aargauer Zeitung newspaper on Frid...

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:05:00 GMT
Germany wants Switzerland to resume talks with EU
Swiss President Ignazio Cassis says stable relations with the European Union are important for bilateral ties with its neighbouring countries. Cassis made the statement in Berlin following the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as Ch...

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 16:35:00 GMT
Organ donations, Frontex and ‘Netflix levy’ set for public votes
Voters in Switzerland are likely to have the final say in May on organ donations, the European border agency and a levy on video streaming companies. Separate committees on Thursday handed in the signatures collected over the past 100 days to force ...

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 14:02:00 GMT
OECD report highlights challenges facing Swiss labour market
Switzerland should expand labour market participation to maintain high living standards, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In a report published on Thursday, the international body recommended Switzerlan...

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 11:56:00 GMT
Swiss firms rank low in European ‘Gender Diversity Index’
The proportion of women in leading positions at major European companies rose slightly last year but progress is slow, according to a new study that compares 19 countries. Switzerland was ranked near the bottom of the 2021 “Gender Diversity Index...

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 08:23:00 GMT
Hack of Red Cross exposes data on over 500,000 vulnerable people
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been the victim of a “sophisticated cyber-attack”. Servers hosting the personal and confidential data of more than 515,000 extremely vulnerable people have been compromised. Th...

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 17:02:00 GMT
Swiss archeologists dig up youngest Roman amphitheatre
Experts have found the remains of another ancient Roman amphitheatre in northern Switzerland. The ruins – an oval shaped wall of 50 metres in length and 40 metres width – dates back to the 4th century and were discovered during construction work...

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 15:35:31 GMT
Swiss anti-Covid curbs to remain at least until end of February
The Swiss government has decided to extend until the end of next month existing anti-Covid restrictions and it plans to keep other curbs on public life until March. The mandatory work-from-home rule as well as the coronavirus quarantine, imposed in ...

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 10:42:00 GMT
Make us pay more tax, 'Patriotic Millionaires' tell WEF
A group of over 100 members of the global super-rich have called on governments to rewrite tax laws to make taxation fairer to help tackle the gulf between rich and poor. They made the call on the occasion of the World Economic Forum’s virtual WEF ...

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 08:42:00 GMT
Probe opened into alleged flaws in Swiss online organ donor register
The Swiss data protection officer has opened an investigation into the Swisstransplant foundation after allegations of major security flaws in its online donor register. The foundation claims it is “absolutely safe”. According to a news report b...

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 17:18:00 GMT
Pandemic drives Swiss Post parcel deliveries
The state-owned Swiss Post processed a record number of parcels last year, but the downward letter mail continued. Parcel deliveries increased by 9.6% to 202 million in 2021, according to the state-owned company. “This rise is due to the boom in ...

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 15:21:00 GMT
Fewer serious Covid cases in Switzerland than expected
Health experts say they are cautiously optimistic as the number of new Covid infections in Switzerland appears to stagnate. However, they say the real number of infections might be three times higher than officially confirmed due to undetected or no...

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 11:06:53 GMT
Cyberattacks tops list of Swiss firms’ worries for 2022
Ransomware demands, interruption of business and market fluctuations are the top risks Swiss companies expect to face in 2022, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer. In Switzerland, cyberattacks (rank 1 with 61%) and business interruption (rank 2 ...

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 09:22:43 GMT
Swiss cantons want quicker phase-out of Covid curbs
The majority of Switzerland’s 26 cantons want existing restrictions to be eased by the end of February instead of a month later as proposed by the government. The cantons were generally in agreement with the measures to combat the coronavirus tha...

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 15:44:00 GMT
Swiss Solidarity raises over CHF8 million for children in need
The humanitarian charity Swiss Solidarity has raised CHF8 million ($8.75 million) as part of a fundraising effort for children in need, both at home and abroad. The amount collected had doubled since a special solidarity day was launched on December...

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 12:57:00 GMT
WEF: China's Xi warns against 'Cold War mentality’, pushes cooperation
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater world cooperation against Covid-19 in his opening speech at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), held online this year rather than at the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. He also call...



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