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Swiss Info

Sun, 29 May 2022 13:40:38 GMT
Ukraine war hits supplies of food packaging material
Switzerland is considering emergency stockpiling of plastic packaging as the Ukraine war brings a world shortage of packaging material, reports the NZZ am Sonntag. Up to now the government has only stockpiled plastic to be able to produce disinfecta...

Sun, 29 May 2022 12:41:18 GMT
Swiss supermarket products for children have too much sugar
The overwhelming majority of products with packaging designed to appeal to children contain too much sugar, salt or fat, report Le Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung newspapers. This is according to a survey conducted around Easter by the consumer o...

Sun, 29 May 2022 10:53:46 GMT
China stalling on trade talks with Switzerland, say papers
Switzerland wants to update its 2014 free trade agreement with China, but Beijing refuses to talk, owing to criticism of its human rights record, report the NZZ am Sonntag and SonntagsBlick newspapers. Bern wants to reduce customs duties for more Sw...

Sat, 28 May 2022 16:50:14 GMT
This Swiss spring was one of the warmest on record
Spring 2022 in Switzerland was one of the warmest on record, with temperatures from March to May around 2.5 degrees above normal, public television weather service SRF Meteo said on Saturday. Only 2007 and 2011 were warmer, since records began in 18...

Sat, 28 May 2022 15:04:47 GMT
Human rights chief ends China visit, saying it was not a probe
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet ended a controversial six-day visit to China on Saturday, saying she had held frank talks with Beijing and that it was “not an investigation”. Bachelet, the top official of the UN’s Genev...

Sat, 28 May 2022 09:26:39 GMT
Switzerland to boost support for International Criminal Court
The Swiss government is to send two more experts to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, after it opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine, reports Swiss public broadcaster RTS. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan opened an ...

Fri, 27 May 2022 16:20:00 GMT
Swiss mountain ice fall claims French and Spanish victims
Two people have been killed, and nine injured, after a mountaineering group was struck by chunks of ice cascading from a summit in western Switzerland. Police said that a French citizen, aged 40, and a Spaniard, 65, were killed on the Grand Combin m...

Fri, 27 May 2022 15:41:53 GMT
WHO resolution denounces Ukraine invasion by Russia
Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday adopted a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its military attacks on healthcare facilities. Out of the 183 members with a right to vote, 88 supported the resolut...

Fri, 27 May 2022 12:50:00 GMT
Initiative against F-35A fighter jets gathers enough support
Opponents of Switzerland’s purchase of F-35A fighter jets from the United States say they have enough signatures to force a vote on whether the right type of aircraft is being bought. Left-wing political groups behind the “Stop F-35” initiativ...

Fri, 27 May 2022 11:42:00 GMT
Concerns for Javanese governor’s son missing in Swiss river
The Indonesian embassy to Bern is appealing for help to find an official's missing son, last seen swimming in the River Aare. Emmeril Mumtadz, 23, was reporting missing to canton Bern police on Thursday, sparking a search that is ongoing. He is the ...

Fri, 27 May 2022 07:26:14 GMT
Swiss to destroy more than 620,000 doses of expired Covid vaccine
Around 620,000 doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine stored in Switzerland have expired. Of these, 200,000 are in cantonal refrigerators and 420,500 are being held by the army. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) confirmed a report by Swiss p...

Thu, 26 May 2022 14:59:00 GMT
WEF gathering wraps with no major security incident
The first meeting of the World Economic Forum to take place in springtime ended on Thursday in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos the way it began – with talk about the war in Ukraine. In a speech, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russia had alrea...

Thu, 26 May 2022 10:51:00 GMT
End 'beauty cult' to cut food waste, says WWF
About 40% of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). In Switzerland, 330kg of food per person goes in the bin every year, according to the Swiss arm of the environmental charity. The 40% of uneaten f...

Wed, 25 May 2022 16:05:00 GMT
Swiss move to confiscate assets of ally of ex-Ukrainian leader
The Swiss government is looking to seize over CHF100 million ($104 million) in assets from an associate of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich. The “administrative confiscation proceedings” concern assets of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and his...

Wed, 25 May 2022 13:43:00 GMT
Swiss draw up targets for UN Security Council term
If Switzerland is successfully voted onto the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term, the government wants to focus its diplomatic efforts on peace and climate change. On Wednesday the executive published a list of four priorities if Sw...

Wed, 25 May 2022 10:33:00 GMT
Worst winter in a decade for Swiss bee colonies
Over a fifth of bee colonies in Switzerland did not survive the winter of 2021-2022, the national umbrella organisation for beekeepers reported on Wednesday. The 1,384 beekeepers surveyed by apisuisse reported total colony losses of 21.4% over the w...

Wed, 25 May 2022 09:07:00 GMT
Second case of monkeypox reported in Switzerland
The number of confirmed cases of the monkeypox virus in Switzerland has risen to two. The second case was detected in a person in Geneva, who was contaminated during a trip abroad. The infected person is currently in isolation and “his general con...

Wed, 25 May 2022 07:51:00 GMT
Finance minister rules out state support to cope with inflation
Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has spoken out against government support for consumers affected by higher energy prices. “Petrol prices are affordable in wealthy Switzerland,” he told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Wednesday. The governmen...

Tue, 24 May 2022 13:57:00 GMT
Parliamentary body critical of Swiss pandemic preparedness
The Swiss government’s reaction to the arrival of Covid-19 in spring 2020 was too passive, a parliamentary audit committee has said. But it concluded that the handling of the first pandemic wave was generally “satisfactory”. “The government ...

Tue, 24 May 2022 07:33:48 GMT
Russian diplomat in Switzerland resigns over invasion of Ukraine
A Russian diplomat at the country’s permanent mission at the United Nations in Geneva has said he is leaving his post because of his disagreement with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. He hopes the Swiss government will help him. “I went to the mi...

Mon, 23 May 2022 10:38:00 GMT
WEF: Ukraine president calls for sanctions and reconstruction offers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for “maximum” sanctions against Russia in a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. He also urged “all countries” to come forward with offers for reconstruction in Ukraine. In a vi...

Mon, 23 May 2022 07:55:00 GMT
Switzerland and Germany seek to conclude gas solidarity deal
Swiss and German ministers have agreed to negotiate a solidarity agreement to help each other with gas supply issues in an emergency. The announcement was made on the side lines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting taking place in Davos. “We ...

Sun, 22 May 2022 17:23:00 GMT
Swiss open World Health Assembly with conflict healthcare plea
Switzerland’s Health Minister Alain Berset has opened the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva with a call for healthcare access to be guaranteed in conflicts, as the war in Ukraine unfolds. The WHA is the top decision-making body of the wor...

Sun, 22 May 2022 12:35:00 GMT
Monkeypox medication not authorised in Switzerland
The antiviral drug tecovirimat and the latest generation smallpox vaccine – which both help against monkeypox and are authorised in the European Union – are not available in Switzerland, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper has reported. The news comes ...

Sun, 22 May 2022 10:28:00 GMT
More hot days ahead, warns weather expert
A top meteorologist has told the SonntagsZeitung that new summer heat records are “very likely” in Switzerland. This might cost the country hundreds of millions of Swiss francs in productivity in the long-run, the newspapers warns. “The chance...

Sat, 21 May 2022 15:29:00 GMT
Swiss confirm first case of monkeypox
Switzerland has detected its first case of monkeypox in canton Bern, health officials said on Saturday evening. The case has been confirmed by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in a tweet. "Currently, an accumulation of monkeypox infection...

Sat, 21 May 2022 14:14:00 GMT
Swiss elected chair of top European research universities group
University of Geneva Rector Yves Flückiger has been elected chair of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). The move comes at a time of uncertainty over Switzerland's future in the European research funding programme Horizon Europe. "...

Sat, 21 May 2022 11:29:00 GMT
Dolphins use coral ‘clinics’ for skincare
Dolphins are rubbing up against certain types of coral to help alleviate skin conditions, research by a Swiss and German team suggests. The findings, published in the iScience journal this week, have shown that these corals have medicinal properties...

Fri, 20 May 2022 15:18:00 GMT
Swiss households braced for 20% electricity price hike
Electricity prices are expected to leap by as much as 20% for many Swiss households and businesses this year, according to a survey of power providers. The ongoing war in Ukraine is expected to heap further pressure on costs, said the Swiss Associat...

Fri, 20 May 2022 14:29:00 GMT
Refugee ‘crypto millionaire’ faces Swiss money laundering probe
Swiss prosecutors have launched a money laundering investigation against a refugee who claims to have made millions from cryptocurrency trading. Dadvan Yousuf, 22, generated media headlines last year with his rags-to-riches story since fleeing to Sw...



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