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Swiss Info

Tue, 9 Feb 2021 09:28:35 GMT
Swiss 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 18:02:00 GMT
Swiss foreign minister tours North and West Africa
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has held talks with his Algerian counterpart, Sabri Boukadoum, on a week-long visit to North and western Africa. The discussion in Algiers on Sunday focused on migration and plans to boost economic relations, ac...

Mon, 8 Feb 2021 13:53:22 GMT
Egypt yet to receive CHF400 million in frozen Mubarak era loot
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 GMT
Swiss 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 GMT
Switzerland 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...

Sun, 7 Feb 2021 15:32:00 GMT
Ex-Swiss President admits country paid hostage ransoms
Former Swiss minister and president Moritz Leuenberger has said in an interview that “if a hostage has been released, a payment has probably been made”. Leuenberger made the “taboo-breaking” admission in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag ...

Sun, 7 Feb 2021 12:35:00 GMT
EU ambassador: framework deal will not be reopened
The EU has no intention of re-opening parts of the framework agreement it has been negotiating with Switzerland for years, the bloc’s ambassador in Bern has told the SonntagsBlick newspaper. Petros Mavromichalis said that as far as the European Un...

Sat, 6 Feb 2021 16:10:00 GMT
Swiss skies turn orange as sand arrives from Africa
Sand particles from the Sahara appeared in Swiss skies on Saturday afternoon, bathing parts of the country in a soft milky-yellow light. According to SRF Meteo, the weather service of the national broadcaster, the particles originated in regions of ...

Sat, 6 Feb 2021 13:06:00 GMT
Ex-EU boss laments lack of progress on Swiss framework deal
Jean-Claude Juncker says that Switzerland – like the United Kingdom – underestimated the cohesion of EU member states in talks aimed at defining bilateral relations. Luxembourger Juncker, who headed the European Commission from 2014 to 2019, als...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 17:46:00 GMT
Libya: Swiss welcome nomination of new interim government
Switzerland has welcomed the selection of a new unified transitional authority for Libya. The body has been tasked with paving the way for Libyan elections later this year. “This is a major step forward toward reconciliation and lasting peace,” ...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 15:58:00 GMT
Swiss court ruling gives protection to sex workers
A top Swiss court has confirmed a fraud conviction for a client of a prostitute who left without paying. This is being hailed as a significant change in case law for sex workers, who have gained the protection of the criminal justice system. The man...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 15:11:00 GMT
Top science body to boost women’s representation
The Swiss National Science Foundation is introducing quotas for women on its evaluation committees. This is to raise the visibility of women in research and take their perspectives better into account for research policy decisions. The decision come...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 14:28:12 GMT
First bird flu case spotted in Switzerland this winter 
The bird flu virus has been detected in a seagull in the northeastern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, near the German border, Swiss authorities say. This is the first case in Switzerland this winter. Measures were already taken on January 25 this y...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 12:58:00 GMT
Special Swiss coin to mark 50 years of women’s suffrage
This year marks 50 years since women gained the right to vote in Switzerland. The event is to be commemorated with a special gold coin. “February 7, 2021 is the 50th anniversary of the introduction of women’s right to vote on a nationwide level....

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 11:43:37 GMT
Alpine resorts offer mass Covid tests to stem new outbreaks 
The western Swiss canton of Vaud has become the latest to launch mass Covid-19 testing, with a pilot scheme in its three biggest ski resorts. Starting on Friday, the canton is offering free, voluntary testing in the run-up to a week of school holid...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 10:58:00 GMT
Swiss to boost ‘laptop’ diplomat network
Switzerland is to send more diplomatic staff abroad after the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the need for more personnel on the ground, Swiss public television SRF reported. The first year of the pandemic has shown that there were too few staff in...

Fri, 5 Feb 2021 10:04:29 GMT
Pandemic brings more threats against Swiss politicians  
Hate speech and insults are on the rise in Switzerland, especially towards politicians, reports national broadcaster RTS. The federal police received more than 1,200 reports of threats or insults against government members and federal parliamentari...

Thu, 4 Feb 2021 16:45:17 GMT
Protecting livestock from predators costs Swiss taxpayers millions
The federal government spends CHF4 million (around $4.4 million) a year to minimise the damage caused by predators like wolves and lynx. Of this amount some three million Swiss francs are being invested in the protection of herds and flocks, the gov...

Thu, 4 Feb 2021 14:04:47 GMT
Fewer foreigners arrive in Switzerland during pandemic year
While the overall number of foreigners in the country increased in 2020, the number of new arrivals fell. The coronavirus crisis has had an impact on annual immigration figures, according to figures released by the State Secretariat for Migration (...

Thu, 4 Feb 2021 13:03:49 GMT
Teachers’ association wants nationwide Covid testing in Swiss schools
The Swiss Teachers’ Association is demanding coronavirus tests be extended to schools across the whole of Switzerland. The federal government has rejected the idea, saying cantons have sovereignty regarding education. Cantons Basel Country, Zug an...

Thu, 4 Feb 2021 11:07:00 GMT
Switzerland to return $266 million in illegal commissions to Taiwan
The money, worth CHF240 million, is part of illicit kickbacks on the sale of six French-made Lafayette warships to Taiwan in 1991. The decision of the Taiwanese Supreme Court at the end of 2019 confirming the illegal origin of the funds held in Swi...

Thu, 4 Feb 2021 09:06:08 GMT
Charity collects huge donations for Swiss Covid victims
The humanitarian charity Swiss Solidarity collected more than CHF43 million ($47.7 million) in donations last year for victims of the coronavirus pandemic in Switzerland. This is the largest amount since the CHF50 million collected after a devastatin...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 19:00:00 GMT
Marmosets analyse ‘chats’ to find useful partners
Marmosets perceive interactions with fellow marmosets as contextualised conversations, according to Zurich researchers writing in the journal Science Advances. The small monkeys also draw conclusions from this, for example when choosing cooperative p...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 16:10:22 GMT
WEF forced to postpone Singapore meeting to August
The World Economic Forum’s special annual meeting – exceptionally being held in Singapore this year – has been pushed back by three months. The WEF conference will now convene from August 17-20. The coronavirus pandemic forced WEF to relocate ...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 16:03:00 GMT
Government rules out early end to Covid restrictions
Interior Minister Alain Berset says Switzerland is unlikely to ease its anti-Covid restrictions before the end of February amid fears of new strains of the virus. He also said it was not realistic to expect that the measures, in place since mid-Janu...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 11:30:53 GMT
UN migration pact to be scrutinised by parliament
The Swiss government has agreed to grant parliament a say on a controversial United Nations migration pact. “Assent to the Global Compact for Migration is in Switzerland’s interest,” said a statement published on Wednesday. Initially the gove...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 11:08:37 GMT
Swiss shares can be traded again in the UK
The Swiss finance ministry has removed Britain from a list of countries requiring authorisation for its securities trading platforms. This decision follows the recognition of the equivalence of Swiss stock exchange regulations by the British parliam...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 10:15:41 GMT
Swiss pleasure cruiser turned into vaccine ‘shot ship’ for lakeside towns
An 89-year-old passenger ship, out of commission owing to the coronavirus pandemic, has been re-purposed as a Covid-19 vaccination centre for thousands of residents from towns on Lake Constance. The 500-passenger MS Thurgau normally carries tourists...

Wed, 3 Feb 2021 08:18:00 GMT
Swiss call for release of Russian opposition leader Navalny
Switzerland has joined international protests following a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny by a court in Russia on Tuesday. “We call on Russia to uphold its international obligations and principles of the rul...

Tue, 2 Feb 2021 15:39:00 GMT
Chinese pharma firm to acquire Swiss production facility
American pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb is selling one of its Swiss medicine production facilities to the Chinese company WuXi STA. The Couvet factory in western Switzerland employs 100 staff manufacturing medicines in capsule and tablet f...



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