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Swiss Info

Mon, 10 May 2021 08:18:00 GMT
‘Swiss in the World’ museum to shut its doors
The Foundation for the History of the Swiss in the World, which has operated a museum near Geneva since 1978, has fallen victim to Covid-19, according to the foundation’s director. Ronald Asmar told the Tribune de Genève newspaper on Monday that ...

Sun, 9 May 2021 16:01:00 GMT
Swiss border guards convicted over Syrian woman’s stillbirth
Switzerland has convicted three more border guards over the miscarriage of a Syrian woman who was sent back to Italy in the summer of 2014. Judges ruled they should have shown moral courage and called an ambulance against the wishes of their superior...

Sun, 9 May 2021 15:30:02 GMT
Half the staff of Zurich nursing homes snub COVID jabs
Only 52% of the staff in nursing homes in the canton of Zurich have been vaccinated, even though the pandemic took a heavy toll on elder care homes. In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag, the co-leader of the canton’s vaccination campaign, Gabri...

Sun, 9 May 2021 11:56:51 GMT
Covid task force chief 'positively surprised' by health situation
The chances of easing coronavirus restrictions in Switzerland are improving, according to the president of the Swiss Covid task force. But the business community is losing patience. In an interview published Sunday in the German-language weekly NZZ ...

Sun, 9 May 2021 10:13:51 GMT
Poll finds most Swiss back framework deal with EU
While most Swiss ministers are convinced that an overarching agreement with the European Union would not stand a chance if put to a vote, a new poll suggests a strong majority would support it. The survey conducted by the research institute gfs.bern...

Sat, 8 May 2021 18:36:15 GMT
Climate activists block roads in Switzerland
Climate activists aligned with the Extinction Rebellion (XR) environmental movement created traffic disruptions on Saturday across Switzerland. "I am terrified by the state's inaction in the ecological disaster," said a student in the Plainpalais di...

Sat, 8 May 2021 13:12:24 GMT
3D detectors measure social distancing to help fight Covid-19 
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have repurposed an algorithm they initially developed for self-driving cars to help people observe social distancing rules. “When Switzerland went into lockdown last year, we...

Sat, 8 May 2021 10:46:25 GMT
Swiss warm up to Covid-19 vaccine
Vaccine hesitancy is subsiding in Switzerland where a poll found that almost three-quarters of the population are now willing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The vast majority of Swiss people (73%) wants to get inoculated, according to su...

Sat, 8 May 2021 09:36:04 GMT
No ‘status quo’ without Swiss-EU framework deal, EU envoy warns
Without a framework agreement there is no possible status quo in relations between Switzerland and the European Union, according to the bloc’s envoy in Bern. EU Ambassador Petros Mavromichalis warns there will be no new deals on access to the EU s...

Fri, 7 May 2021 15:53:51 GMT
Indian foreign minister: ‘Covid exposed fissures and weaknesses like a stress test’
Speaking at the St Gallen Symposium in Switzerland, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has shared the Indian viewpoint on the pandemic and the consequences for international relations. “Nothing can prepare you for this kind of a surg...

Fri, 7 May 2021 14:24:00 GMT
Swiss euthanasia doctor acquitted of murder for a second time
A doctor who helped a mentally ill woman take her life has once more been cleared of intentional homicide. A Swiss appeals court in canton Basel rejected attempts by prosecutors to overturn a 2019 verdict that had cleared the doctor of murder. The c...

Fri, 7 May 2021 12:33:00 GMT
More than a million Swiss fully vaccinated against Covid-19
The number of people in Switzerland who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 has topped the one million mark, the authorities said on Friday. A total of 1,007,469 people have had two vaccine doses, corresponding to 11.7% of the population of ...

Fri, 7 May 2021 12:19:42 GMT
Curtains go up in Swiss cinemas but profits remain down
More than two weeks after re-opening, Swiss cinema owners have mixed feelings: the public seems keen to return to theatres, but attendance is four to six times lower than usual because of the 50-person audience limit. Although some cinemas re-opened...

Fri, 7 May 2021 10:55:41 GMT
Swiss to develop Covid-19 certificate by end of June
A system for issuing a forgery-proof Covid-19 certificate on request will be available by the end of June to anyone in Switzerland who has been vaccinated, has recovered from or has recently tested negative for coronavirus. The Federal Office of Pub...

Fri, 7 May 2021 09:24:00 GMT
Expanded Swiss research campus to concentrate on sustainable energy
Two of Switzerland’s leading federal science and technology research institutes have started construction work on the major expansion of their campus near Zurich. Bulldozers are due to start work this month at the research campus of the Swiss Fede...

Fri, 7 May 2021 09:04:00 GMT
Switzerland shifts focus to tracking Indian Covid-19 variant
Swiss laboratories are no longer trying to detect the British mutation of Covid-19 but are developing new tests to pinpoint a newer Indian variant in the country. The British variant is now the most widespread strain of the virus in Switzerland, mak...

Thu, 6 May 2021 16:52:00 GMT
Swiss not swayed by US vaccine waiver announcement
Switzerland has reacted cautiously to the US decision to back a suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines, saying a waiver is not the best way to achieve better global supply. On Wednesday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the US would su...

Thu, 6 May 2021 14:39:19 GMT
Switzerland sends oxygen and body bags to India
Switzerland is helping India confront its brutal second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 13 tonnes of supplies. A cargo plane took off from Zurich on Thursday bound for New Delhi carrying 600 oxygen concentrators and 50 respirators for ...

Thu, 6 May 2021 14:16:14 GMT
Parmelin visits the Vatican for Swiss Guard swearing in 
Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin met Pope Francis in the Vatican on Thursday, in a visit that also included the swearing-in of 34 new Swiss Guards. “This morning I had the honour of speaking to Pope Francis,” Parmelin tweeted in the early...

Thu, 6 May 2021 13:31:41 GMT
Olympic athletes to get free shots from Pfizer and BioNTech 
The Swiss-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) says vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech will donate doses to inoculate athletes and officials gearing up for the Tokyo Olympics. The doses will be delivered this month so that Olympic delega...

Thu, 6 May 2021 13:27:00 GMT
Zurich ban on political gatherings deemed unconstitutional
A Zurich court has ruled that a cantonal ban on public demonstrations of more than 15 people – which was in place until last month as part of Covid-19 measures – was unconstitutional. Judges at the Zurich administrative court said that the limit...

Thu, 6 May 2021 10:33:51 GMT
Swiss far-right personality fined over anti-Semitic remarks 
A former leader of the far-right Swiss Nationalist Party PNOS (Partei National Orientierter Schweizer), Tobias Steiger, made a speech in 2018 blaming Jews for World War I and II. On Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office in Basel sentenced Ste...

Thu, 6 May 2021 09:40:00 GMT
SWISS to lay off up to 780 staff and reduce fleet
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is cutting hundreds of jobs and downsizing its fleets as the company struggles to weather the disruption of Covid-19. Up to 780 employees – including pilots, cabin crew, ground crew, and technicians – could ...

Thu, 6 May 2021 08:56:28 GMT
Research identifies best mask use strategy for health, environment  
Researchers in Switzerland have investigated different strategies to mitigate the negative environmental impact of mask use by the general population. They have concluded that the “wait and reuse” or “weekday strategy”, which involves keepin...

Wed, 5 May 2021 15:46:00 GMT
Report finds over 4,000 attacks against health workers since 2016
Violence against health workers and facilities continues unabated with over 4,000 incidents reported in conflict zones over the past five years, a new Swiss-UK funded report reveals. On May 3, 2016, the United Nations Security Council adopted a reso...

Wed, 5 May 2021 14:31:00 GMT
Optimism returns as Covid-19 numbers fall in Switzerland
The recent drop in new Covid-19 cases in Switzerland and the accelerating vaccination programme are extremely encouraging, according to a top federal health official. “We have good reasons to be optimistic,” Patrick Mathys, head of crisis manage...

Wed, 5 May 2021 13:48:00 GMT
Survey highlights staff shortages in Swiss nursing homes
Nursing homes in Switzerland increasingly struggle to recruit enough skilled personnel and health workers say they have reached their limits in terms of the provision of quality healthcare. A new survey of healthcare staff at 118 nursing homes acros...

Wed, 5 May 2021 10:58:00 GMT
Switzerland launches probe into suspected asylum centre violence
An independent investigation has been opened into allegations of violence at several federal asylum centres in Switzerland. Former federal judge Niklaus Oberholzer has been chosen to lead the investigation after criminal complaints were filed, the S...

Wed, 5 May 2021 10:28:00 GMT
Swiss court removes federal prosecutor from Infantino case
Switzerland’s special prosecutor Stefan Keller, who was investigating FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s undocumented meetings with Switzerland’s former attorney general, has been withdrawn from the case. The Federal Criminal Court has approved...

Tue, 4 May 2021 15:26:00 GMT
Climate activists accused of blocking Credit Suisse bank in Zurich
Eight environmental activists have been charged with blocking the entrance of a Credit Suisse bank in Zurich in 2019. The Zurich public prosecutor’s office has accused them of coercion and trespassing. On July 8, 2019, the eight defendants – six...



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