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Swiss Info

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 15:15:34 GMT
Novartis to cut 1,400 jobs in Switzerland
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is laying off more than one in ten employees in Switzerland over the next three years – 1,400 of 11,600 jobs will go. It also plans to cut 8,000 of 108,000 jobs worldwide. On Tuesday the Basel-based company in...

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 13:50:16 GMT
Swiss court upholds ban on foreign online betting operators
The Federal Court has upheld a ban on accessing foreign online gambling sites, dashing the hopes of three betting outfits to tap the Swiss market. The court said in a statement on Tuesday that the “domain name system” ban was proportionate. Gami...

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 11:24:47 GMT
‘Hidden’ costs of transport total CHF14 billion
Negative costs on third parties caused by transport in Switzerland amounted to CHF14 billion ($14.7 billion) in 2019. The damage mainly affects the environment and climate, but also health. The Federal Office for Spatial Development said in a report...

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 10:37:24 GMT
Swiss sprinter banned for four years for steroid use
Swiss sprinter Alex Wilson was banned for four years on Tuesday after an anti-doping tribunal judged he intentionally used an anabolic steroid. The case flared up at the Tokyo Olympics last July when judges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS...

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 10:10:29 GMT
More young people convicted for violent crimes, fewer for drugs
The number of juvenile convictions for violating the Criminal Code increased in Switzerland last year. While convictions for traffic offences have risen, the number for drug offences has fallen sharply. A total of 20,902 convictions – 7.5% more th...

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 09:13:00 GMT
Opioid abuse on the rise in Switzerland
Cases of opioid poisoning have almost tripled in Switzerland over the past 20 years, although the full extent of the situation is unclear. The number of opioid-related calls made to Tox Info Suisse, the national poisoning hotline, increased by 177% ...

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 15:25:00 GMT
Gambling pastor imprisoned for begging fraud
A Swiss pastor who fraudulently begged parishioners for money to fuel his gambling habit has been handed a three-year suspended jail sentence and must serve six months behind bars. The former clergyman conned CHF3.3 million ($3.4 million) out of his...

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 14:37:00 GMT
Credit Suisse convicted for money laundering offences
Swiss bank Credit Suisse has been fined CHF2 million ($2 million) for allowing cocaine dealers to launder money through its vaults. The verdict marks the first time a home-grown major Swiss bank has been convicted of such offences in the criminal cou...

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 10:24:00 GMT
Swiss research funding drops due to Horizon Europe freeze
Switzerland’s exclusion from the Horizon Europe research scheme is having a sizeable impact on the overall level of funding of Swiss science projects, new statistics show. According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the federal authorities ...

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 08:01:00 GMT
PET-like plastic developed from biomass waste
Scientists in Switzerland and Austria have created a new PET-like recyclable plastic that can be easily made from the non-edible parts of plants. The promising tough, heat-resistant plastic could be used for food packaging. Researchers from the Fede...

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 15:31:00 GMT
SWISS plans more flight cancellations into autumn
Additional cancellations of SWISS flights are “unavoidable” because of staff shortages, a company spokesperson told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday. Scheduled flights between August and October would be affected by the latest announcement...

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 13:58:00 GMT
US and Switzerland working on pharma agreement, says US ambassador
In the absence of a free trade deal, the United States and Switzerland are focusing on specific sectoral agreements, Scott Miller told the SonntagsBlick newspaper. Hopes for a free trade deal between the two countries have waxed and waned over the y...

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 10:36:00 GMT
Traders with Swiss links continue to buy and sell Russian oil
Around 20 traders have reportedly increased their shipments of Russian oil since the war in Ukraine broke out. A third of these players have strong connections to Geneva, according to the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche. While the major Swiss-based comm...

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 16:42:00 GMT
Bern scientists develop promising hydrogel treatment for melanoma
Applied directly to the area where a tumour is located, a hydrogel developed by researchers at the University of Bern activates the body’s own defence system against melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer. The chances of survival among melano...

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 13:29:00 GMT
‘We must continue to build neutrality,’ says Swiss President
With debates at home and abroad raging about the country’s neutrality, President Ignazio Cassis has defended the concept. To him, being neutral means cooperating with other states while following Swiss principles. Adopting European Union sanctions...

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 10:30:00 GMT
Swiss messenger app fined under Russian anti-terror law
A Moscow court has fined the messenger service Threema €14,200 (CHF14,363) for refusing to share user data with Russian authorities under a domestic anti-terror law. "The Russian authority Roskomnadzor apparently launched an investigation in March...

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 09:55:00 GMT
Spanish reporter nabs top prize at Bern's True Story Award
Journalists based in Mexico, Germany and the United States won prizes at this year’s edition of the True Story Award, given in the Swiss capital on Friday night. They were selected from a pool of more than 1,100 stories submitted for awards worth a...

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 15:51:00 GMT
Swiss court finds ex-FIFA executive took bribes
Former FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke has been handed an 11-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of accepting bribes and forging documents in connection with World Cup football broadcasting deals. Valcke had been cleared ...

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 14:22:00 GMT
Mussolini’s Swiss doctorate allowed to live on
An honorary doctorate awarded to former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini will not be withdrawn by the University of Lausanne (UNIL) despite demands to wipe it from the records. In 1937, Mussolini was awarded the doctorate “for having conceived an...

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 11:29:00 GMT
Power rationing possible, warns Swiss electricity company boss
The head of one of Switzerland’s largest electricity suppliers has warned of an impending power crunch this winter, raising the spectre of rationing. Russia has reduced gas supplies to Europe in retaliation for embargoes imposed for its invasion o...

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 10:05:38 GMT
Swiss and UK research chiefs urge EC president to depoliticise science
The heads of Switzerland’s Federal Institutes of Technology have signed an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, asking for help in unblocking access to Horizon Europe research projects. The open letter was se...

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 08:16:10 GMT
One in ten Swiss offenders held in non-prison facilities
In Switzerland 9.1% of convicts have been placed in a private facility, such as a psychiatric clinic, residential home or special care facility. Not all offenders in Switzerland serve their sentences in prison. At the end of March 2022, of the 6,945...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 15:13:00 GMT
Switzerland details revenue split for global corporate tax rate
Switzerland will implement from 2024 the minimum tax rate for large multinational firms under a global tax deal. The federal government will get a quarter and regional and local authorities three-quarters of revenue, it said on Thursday, outlining ho...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:07:11 GMT
Geneva and Zurich climb ‘world’s most liveable cities’ ranking
The Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva are the world’s third and sixth best cities to live in, respectively, according to an annual report from The Economist. Zurich moved up to third place – shared with Calgary, Canada – from seventh in the la...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 12:02:00 GMT
German police foil bomb attack in ‘major Swiss city’
German authorities say they have prevented a bomb attack in Switzerland after arresting two Swiss men suspected of recently trying to buy explosives in Stuttgart in southern Germany. On June 20, German special forces arrested two Swiss men, aged 24 ...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 10:24:00 GMT
Swiss fear Ukraine war could escalate
Four months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Swiss residents continue to fear an escalation in the ongoing fighting, according to a new survey. Most of the 2,422 people who participated in a Link survey published on Thursday expressed ongoing c...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 09:51:00 GMT
Swiss rail police to be equipped with body cameras
The Swiss Federal Railways has decided to issue security personnel on trains with bodycams due to increasing reports of passenger violence. The Swiss public broadcaster, SRF, on Thursday reported that body cams would be issued to rail police nationw...

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 08:06:05 GMT
Toblerone will no longer be exclusively Swiss made
The triangular chocolate bar will also be manufactured in Slovakia from the end of 2023. Toblerone’s parent company, confectionery giant Mondelez International, confirmed the Slovakian outsourcing plan on Wednesday, according to Swiss public radio...

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 13:58:00 GMT
Switzerland to ease exchange of Ukrainian currency in line with EU
Refugees with a special legal status will be able to exchange a limited amount of Ukranian banknotes for Swiss francs. The Swiss government on Wednesday announced that adults with a protection S status may exchange one amount of up to 10,000 hryvnia...

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 13:05:00 GMT
Alpine rail tunnel and suburban train services to get boost
The government has presented plans for an upgrade of the country’s railway network, including an additional Alpine tunnel in western Switzerland. An additional CHF720 million ($745 million) - and a total of CH25 billion - have been set aside to up...



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